text:
Talk:Vidkun Quisling

Plans for the article
Hey all. I just thought I'd make a note that this article is one of my WP:Wikicup targets for this year. I have, in my possession, the Dahl biography (English translation), which I am first going to go through meticulously to expand the article to a decent length. The next stage will be to layer another other books I can get hold of. After that, I will finish off with what I can glean from Google-Books sources, before putting it through a GA.

That much is certain. In later rounds, when I have more time, it would also be nice to get the article to featured status. But that's a little way off. In the meantime and beyond, any help with the article - if only copyediting and flagging up dubious/misleading sentences - would be much appreciated. Regards, - Jarry1250 [Who? Discuss.] 17:20, 15 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Good stuff. Quisling is on my long-term to-do list. I have the Hewin biography so can help there. --Roisterer (talk) 23:32, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Excellent, I'm sure there will be differences in interpretation and material. I've made a start and, after a week hiatus from tomorrow onwards, I expect to finish off by mid-to-late March. - Jarry1250 [Who? Discuss.] 17:13, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

 * Nice expansion, Jarry! I have a few Norwegian-language biographies of Quisling and other Norwegian Nazis at home, so I could help out with a bit of expansion. Best, Eisfbnore  talk 07:53, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

 * Excellent, that should help with the slight over-reliance on the (nonetheless good) Dahl biography. :) Regards, - Jarry1250 [Who? Discuss.] 22:15, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Category:Defectors
To where did he defect? When? is it mentioned in the article (I searched for the word defect)? Geschichte (talk) 12:25, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Didn't notice that category. AFAIK he cannot be said to have defected in any way, so I'm going to go ahead and remove the category. Good spot, thanks. - Jarry1250 [Weasel? Discuss.] 20:28, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Showdown
The article says: "trying to avoid Norwegian deaths in the showdown that was about to occur between German and Allied forces in Norway". This makes it sound like a major showdown did occur, which it didn't. There were fatalities spread out over the last couple of months, but not in the form of a showdown. The transition of power was not particularly violent; Allied forces did not intervene in a large scale to proliferate a war situation. (An exception, of course, to all this is the liberation of Northern Norway). So, can the sentence be renamed, i suggest something like "showdown that some/many/most believed was about to occur" Geschichte (talk) 19:06, 31 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I would prefer "trying to avoid Norwegian deaths in any showdown that might occur between German and Allied forces in Norway" or alternatively "he believed was about to occur". I haven't checked, but I think that both those could be reasonably sourced. What do you think? - Jarry1250 [Weasel? Discuss.] 21:11, 31 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I think the latter is better. I don't think Quisling was preoccupied with avoiding Norwegian deaths in any thinkable case, for an example of a mini-showdown turned fatal see Leif Tronstad. Geschichte (talk) 12:46, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Prosecutor
The article says: "The prosecutor called for the death penalty". Can you confirm that the prosecutor was Annæus Schjødt, and if it is, can we insert the name: "The prosecutor Annæus Schjødt called for the death penalty". Geschichte (talk) 10:38, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Indeed it is (Dahl, 1998). I shall leave you to update the article -- I always fear editing FAs :) - Jarry1250 [Weasel? Discuss.] 11:13, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Dahl 1999, right? Geschichte (talk) 20:58, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Why does Ukraine appear everywhere?
Paris, Ukraine and Norway - that's the title of a sub-chapter, which does not however mention Ukraine. Ukraine, a state that did not exist at the referenced time, appears in a number of other locations at oddest junctures. What is this about? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.196.81.181 (talk) 08:11, 17 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree. Very odd header indeed. Changed to "Eastern Europe". Regards.-- GoP T C N 10:30, 17 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I should also point out that the Ukrainian SSR being part of the USSR did not stop it being a state (or at least a place you could visit). That said, I agree in the final form of the article is not in the section of which it was part of the title, therefore the change is a good one. - Jarry1250 [Deliberation needed] 11:12, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

Kolstad's Cabinet and Hundseid's Cabinet "Agrarian government"
The election result of Bondepartiet "(Farmers' Party)" in the parliamentary election of 1930 and 1933, was 15.9% and 13.9%. Therefore we probably should use the names of two cabinets, as listed in List of Norwegian governments—Kolstad's Cabinet and Hundseid's Cabinet—instead of the term "Agrarian governments". --Vistamesa (talk) 13:36, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

quote box vs rquote

The above dispute change is inappropriate. rquote and a form of cquote intended for use with pull quotes, which these are not. The cquote/doc has long reflected this by rquote's seem to be missing that and will be updated. This was discussed at: Templates for discussion/Log/2011 September 18 which didn't delete these poor templates but did highlight that they are often inappropriately used.

Point being that these should not be used much in article space as they are for *repeating* quotations that appear in the main prose. The usages in this article are not repeats. See especially the definition of what pull quotes are. Br'er Rabbit (talk) 19:15, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

I've tweaked rquote/doc per the MOS. Note that it has already been calling out that it is "rarely appropriate in articles". Despite this, there are currently almost 1500 usages count in articles. Wilful wiki ;) Br'er Rabbit (talk) 19:35, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

 * At the end of the day, you're making a point about the visual appearance of a handful of quoteboxes, so yeah, knock yourself out I guess. - Jarry1250 [Deliberation needed] 19:31, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

 * Yes, it's about appropriate appearance. I also made other fixes such as the use of proper list structures in the infobox using plainlist, which actually generate list markup. This has gained wide acceptance in the last year or so.
 * My attempt to fix this was which is why I've brought this here. Br'er Rabbit (talk) 19:40, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Homosexuality
One of the authors of the 1995 book The Pink Swastika, Scott Lively, in a lecture states that Vidkun Quisling was a homosexual. Since I haven't heard that claim put forward before, I figured it would be appropriate to mention this here pending corroborating or elaborating information. Although it isn't clear what Lively's source for the claim is, it might be the book Germany's National Vice, written by Samuel Igra, and published in London in 1945. __meco (talk) 13:17, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

 * That claim is nonsense, a lie and non-credible. That book and its authors are not a realiable source, and the book is condemned as homophobic, as were both the Nazis (who killed 100.000 gays in the concentration camps and the only gay member was Ernst Rohm) and Quisling (read the book Quisling by Hans Fredrik Dahl). Faunas (talk) 20:50, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

 * There were certainly gay Nazis besides Rohm. It was a well-known phenomenon in the SA, something Himmler got all butthurt about.  Otherwise you're correct.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.209.13.119 (talk) 18:47, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Religious and philosophical views
A noticeable omission in this section of the article. "During the first week of October he wrote...''Universistic Aphorisms". In which year?Cloptonson (talk) 20:42, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Intended deletion of duplicated quotation
I notice a lengthy quotation concluding he would be seen "as another Saint Olav" repeated more than once. I have decided, to help space, to leave only the copy which is adjacent the section of this article that is chronologically closest to the date of the quotation.Cloptonson (talk) 20:46, 7 January 2013 (UTC) The undeleted quotation remains in the section "Arrest, trial, legacy".Clopson (talk) 20:56, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Confused
"Quisling acceded to a German request to halt the resistance of the Bolærne fortress". What does this mean? Quisling was working with the Germans, if it was up to him there would have been no resistance. He neither authorized Bolærne to resist, nor had the power or authority to stop it. Then the "conclusion" that "As a result of actions such as these, it was claimed at the time that Quisling's seizure of power in a puppet government had been part of the German plan all along" does not follow. Of course Quisling supported Germany, and wanted to stop Norwegian resistance. That does not mean that his coup had been planned all along.Royalcourtier (talk) 20:53, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Is this truly a Featured Article?
This is clearly a well-written, & well-sourced article, yet I have a serious problem with it, in that it omits an important detail. What Vidkun Quisling is best known for is being a fascist collaborator & the most infamous traitor of World War II -- if not all time. Any general history of World War II would make those statements about him. However, this article oddly skips around his reputation. Although the article admits to his participation in the German military occupation, & to his involvement in some of the less savory activities of the German occupation, they are presented in a manner that mitigates his notoriety. Items such as the "ice front", & the extent of his involvement in deportation of Norwegian Jews ("There is evidence to suggest that Quisling honestly believed the official line throughout 1943 and 1944, that they were awaiting repatriation to a new Jewish homeland") are buried in details about other parts of his life, such as his intellectual pursuits. This lack of focus would lead someone who is not familiar with Quisling's reputation to think that he might not be a villain. If it weren't for my experience with writing Wikipedia articles -- I know that in writing an article it's easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees -- I'd suspect this was a white-washing of Quisling. The problem is not that this article needs to assert without qualification that he was a collaborator & a traitor, but that it doesn't even touch the fact that a large number of people believe Quisling were those things, & the reasoning for that belief. Although the article states that he is frequently written about, there is little sign of disagreement about assertions or facts about Quisling. There are no details about the charges made against him at his trial, for example. According to The People's Almanac, his mansion "Villa Grande" was lavishly furnished, including paintings taken from the national museum, & he was so paranoid that he was escorted everywhere by 150 bodyguards & every scrap of food he ate sampled first by someone else -- details which clash with the person this article describes. So is The People's Almanac repeating deceptive propaganda created about Quisling in the 1940s, or do they reflect the real man? I feel that I have rambled a bit here but to repeat my point, Quisling has a nasty reputation -- almost as bad as Hitler's -- & this article says as little about that reputation as possible. (I suspect finding material that meets Wikipedia's standards about his reputation can be challenging.) And a lot more could be written about that reputation, whether it was deserved, or manufactured in part or whole by Allied sources. And needs to be written for this to be truly considered a Feature Article. -- llywrch (talk) 06:17, 28 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, in the lead you do have "...found guilty of charges including embezzlement, murder and high treason ... The word quisling has since become a synonym for traitor" and references to participating the final solution; while I accept that a reputation section might be useful (and I think there was one for a long time) the difficulty with trying to discuss reputation is that you really want a metareview. In any case I have added an extra clause to the lead. Not sure what else (in concrete terms) might help the article? Apart from rewriting it based on a more critical account of his life? - Jarry1250 [Vacation needed] 21:01, 7 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Answering myself, perhaps a historiography section? - Jarry1250 [Vacation needed] 21:02, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

"Quasi-Christian" tenets
The intro mentions that he formulated a philosophy involving, among others, "quasi-Christian" tenets, but no citation is given and the article only mentions that he rejected basic Christianity. A citation should be added if one exists, and then a fact like this mentioned in the intro should be expanded upon in the article proper.Snarfblaat (talk) 02:28, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

Use of the title Prime Minister
There is a disconnect between the Norwegian version of this article and the English one in that this one uses the term Prime Minister and in the Norwegian one uses Minster President (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister-president#Norway), while there may be semantics in regards to that they both describe the same function, there is an important historical and moral issue, in so much that he never used the Norwegian term for Prime Minister "Statsminister" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statsminister) and instead was titled Minister President, which means he is not recognized as a "Statsminister" in Norway, both since he was convicted for treason and also in that his regime is not given official sanction by the King. What I am driving at is that in the English version of this article one can be given the impression he was legally a Prime Minister of Norway, something he never was, that he was it de facto does not mean he should be given a that distinction, after all this is an encyclopedia based on facts and sometimes the facts are in the details, and in my mind it is an important distinction. Also since the government in exile lead by Prime Minister Johan Nygaardsvold, was still working and also empowered by Parliament "Stortinget" to act in its stead, one can make the argument that the info box on Qusiling is misleading in so much that Nygaardsvold was never succeeded by Quisling nor did Nygaardsvold succeed Quisling after the war, as Norwegian Prime minister. If I may bring your attention to the English version article on Nygaardsvold (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Nygaardsvold), it does not list Quisling as a Prime minister and only shows Nygaardsvold as sole Prime Minister throughout the war period. If nothing else, we should endeavor to make Wikipedia internally consistent and not have articles contradict each other. I would like to ask the editors of this article to consider correcting this oversight and ammend the article as needed. 0331marine (talk) 06:36, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

 * As of 04/28/2024, Quisling is still listed in the info box as if he had legitimately served as prime minister of Norway in between two terms when Johan Nygaardsvold held that office. 0331marine makes what seems like a valid point that the legitimate Norwegian government remained intact under King Haakon in exile and that Nygaardsvold's term as legitimate PM of Norway was continuous.
 * Can we fix this? Whatever Quisling was, he was not a legitimate prime minister of Norway. Pascalulu88 (talk) 23:27, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Vidkun Quisling


text:
Theodor Zwinger

Theodor Zwinger the Elder (2 August 1533 – 10 March 1588) was a Swiss physician and Renaissance humanist scholar. He made significant contributions to the emerging genres of reference and travel literature. He was the first distinguished representative of a prominent Basel academic family.

Life and work
Zwinger was the son of Leonhard Zwinger, a furrier who had become a citizen of Basel in 1526. His mother was Christina Herbster, the sister of Johannes Oporinus (Herbster) the famed humanist printer. After Zwinger's father's death, Christina married the noted humanist Conrad Lycosthenes (Wolffhart).

Zwinger studied at the Universities of Basel, Lyon, and Paris before taking a doctorate in medicine at the University of Padua with Bassiano Landi, the successor of Johannes Baptista Montanus. In Paris he studied with the iconoclastic philosopher Petrus Ramus. He joined the faculty of the University of Basel as a member of the consilium facultatis medicae from 1559. At Basel he held successively chairs in Greek (1565), Ethics (1571), and finally theoretical medicine (1580). While originally hostile to Paracelsus, in his later career he took an interest in Paracelsian medical theory for which he experienced some hostility. He associated with Paracelsians such as Thomas Moffet, Petrus Severinus and Claude Aubery.

Zwinger was the editor of the early encyclopedia Theatrum Humanae Vitae (editions 1565, 1571, 1586, 1604). The work is considered "perhaps the most comprehensive collection of knowledge to be compiled by a single individual in the early modern period." He was able to draw on the knowledge base of his stepfather Conrad Lycosthenes in compiling the Theatrum Humanae Vitae.

A Catholicized version of the Theatrum entitled the Magnum theatrum vitae humanae (1631) by Lawrence Beyerlinck was one of the largest printed commonplace books of the early modern era. These two works "may fairly be described as the early modern ancestors of the great dictionnaire raisonné of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the Encyclopédie of Diderot."

Personal life
He seemed to have a difficult to read handwriting and Casiodoro de Reyna once would have liked to travel from Frankfurt to Basel in order for Zwinger to read de Reyna his own letters. The house he resided in, is named Zwingerhouse in his memory. Zwinger's son, Jakob Zwinger, briefly served as his successor as editor of the Theatrum. His descendant Theodor Zwinger the Younger (1597–1654) was a prominent preacher and theology professor.

Works

 * Lycosthenes, Conrad; Zwinger, Theodor. Theatrum vitæ humanæ, Basel, 1565, 1571, 1586, 1596 et 1604, 5 vol. totalling 4376 pages (on line: the 1586 edition) — an early encyclopedia
 * Morum philosophia poetica ex Veterum utriusque linguæ poetarum thesauris cognoscendæ veritatis et exercendæ virtutis, Basel, 1575 : vol. 1 (books 1 to 4) ; vol. 2 (books 5 to 18) — [Poetical philosophy]
 * Methodus apodemica in eorum gratiam, qui cum fructu in quocunq[ue] tandem vitæ genere peregrinari cupiunt, Basel, 1577 — an early example of travel literature

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

title: Theodor Zwinger


text:
Bill of Rights 1689

The Bill of Rights 1689 (sometimes known as the Bill of Rights 1688) is an Act of the Parliament of England that set out certain basic civil rights and clarified who would be next to inherit the Crown. It remains a crucial statute in English constitutional law.

Largely based on the ideas of political theorist John Locke, the Bill sets out a constitutional requirement for the Crown to seek the consent of the people as represented in Parliament. As well as setting limits on the powers of the monarch, it established the rights of Parliament, including regular parliaments, free elections, and parliamentary privilege. It also listed individual rights, including the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and the right not to pay taxes levied without the approval of Parliament. Finally, it described and condemned several misdeeds of James II of England. The Bill of Rights received royal assent on 16 December 1689. It is a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William III and Mary II in February 1689, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England.

In the United Kingdom, the Bill is considered a basic document of the uncodified British constitution, along with Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. A separate but similar document, the Claim of Right Act 1689, applies in Scotland. The Bill was one of the models used to draft the United States Bill of Rights, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Along with the Act of Settlement 1701, it remains in effect within all Commonwealth realms, as amended by the Perth Agreement.

Background
During the 17th century, there was renewed interest in Magna Carta. The Parliament of England passed the Petition of Right in 1628 which established certain liberties for subjects. The English Civil War (1642–1651) was fought between the King and an oligarchic but elected Parliament, during which the notion of long-term political parties took form with the New Model Army Grandees and humble, leveller-influenced figures debating a new constitution in the Putney Debates of 1647. Parliament was largely cowed by the executive during the Protectorate (1653–1659) and most of the twenty-five years of Charles II's English Restoration from 1660. However, it, with the advantage of the growth in printed pamphlets and support of the City of London, was able to temper some of the executive excess, intrigue and largesse of the government, especially the Cabal ministry who signed a Secret Treaty of Dover that allied England to France in a prospective war against oft-allies the Dutch Republic. It had already passed the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, which strengthened the convention that forbade detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence.

Glorious Revolution
Objecting to the policies of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland), a group of English Parliamentarians invited the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange) to overthrow the King. William's successful invasion with a Dutch fleet and army led to James fleeing to France. In December 1688, peers of the realm appointed William as provisional governor. It was widely acknowledged that such action was constitutional, if the monarch were incapacitated, and they summoned an assembly of many members of parliament. This assembly called for an English Convention Parliament to be elected, which convened on 22 January 1689.

Declaration of Right
The proposal to draw up a statement of rights and liberties and James's violation of them was first made on 29 January 1689 in the House of Commons, with members arguing that the House "cannot answer it to the nation or Prince of Orange till we declare what are the rights invaded" and that William "cannot take it ill if we make conditions to secure ourselves for the future" in order to "do justice to those who sent us hither". On 2 February a committee specially convened reported to the Commons 23 Heads of Grievances, which the Commons approved and added some of their own. However, on 4 February the Commons decided to instruct the committee to differentiate between "such of the general heads, as are introductory of new laws, from those that are declaratory of ancient rights". On 7 February the Commons approved this revised Declaration of Right, and on 8 February instructed the committee to put into a single text the Declaration (with the heads which were "introductory of new laws" removed), the resolution of 29 January and the Lords' proposal for a revised oath of allegiance. It passed the Commons without division.

On 13 February the clerk of the House of Lords read the Declaration of Right, and the Marquess of Halifax, in the name of all the estates of the realm, asked William and Mary to accept the throne. William replied for his wife and himself: "We thankfully accept what you have offered us". They then went in procession to the Great Gate at Whitehall. In a ceremony in the Banqueting House, Garter King of Arms proclaimed them King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, whereupon they adjourned to the Chapel Royal, with the Bishop of London preaching the sermon. They were crowned on 11 April, swearing an oath to uphold the laws made by Parliament. The Coronation Oath Act 1688 had provided a new coronation oath, whereby the monarchs were to "solemnly promise and swear to govern the people of this kingdom of England, and the dominions thereunto belonging, according to the statutes in parliament agreed on, and the laws and customs of the same". They were also to maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant Reformed faith established by law. This replaced an oath which had deferred more to the monarch. The previous oath required the monarch to rule based on "the laws and customs ... granted by the Kings of England".

The Act
The Declaration of Right was enacted in an Act of Parliament, the Bill of Rights 1689, which received royal assent in December 1689.

The Act asserted "certain ancient rights and liberties" by declaring that:
 * the pretended power of suspending the laws and dispensing with (i.e. ignoring) laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal;
 * the commission for ecclesiastical causes is illegal; levying taxes without grant of Parliament is illegal;
 * it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal;
 * keeping a standing army in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law;
 * Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;
 * election of members of Parliament ought to be free;
 * the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament;
 * excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted;
 * jurors in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders;
 * promises of fines and forfeitures before conviction are illegal and void;
 * for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently.

The Act declared James's flight from England following the Glorious Revolution to be an abdication of the throne. It listed twelve of James's policies by which James designed to "endeavour to subvert and extirpate the protestant religion, and the laws and liberties of this kingdom". These were:
 * by assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws and the execution of laws without consent of Parliament;
 * by prosecuting the Seven Bishops;
 * by establishing the court of commissioners for ecclesiastical causes;
 * by levying taxes for the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative as if the same was granted by Parliament;
 * by raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace without consent of Parliament;
 * by causing Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when papists were both armed and employed contrary to law;
 * by violating the freedom of election of members to serve in Parliament;
 * by prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for matters and causes cognizable only in Parliament, and by divers (diverse) other arbitrary and illegal courses;
 * by employing unqualified persons on juries in trials, and jurors in trials for high treason which were not freeholders;
 * by imposing excessive bail on persons committed in criminal cases against the laws made for the liberty of the subjects;
 * by imposing excessive fines and illegal and cruel punishments;
 * by making several grants and promises made of fines and forfeitures before any conviction or judgment against the persons upon whom the same were to be levied;

all of which were declared to be utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and statutes and freedom of the realm.

In a prelude to the Act of Settlement to come twelve years later, the Bill of Rights barred Roman Catholics from the throne of England as "it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince"; thus William III and Mary II were named as the successors of James II and that the throne would pass from them first to Mary's heirs, then to her sister, Princess Anne of Denmark and her heirs (and, thereafter, to any heirs of William by a later marriage).

Amendments and legacy
The Bill of Rights was later supplemented by the Act of Settlement 1701, which was agreed to by the Parliament of Scotland as part of the Treaty of Union. The Act of Settlement altered the line of succession to the throne laid out in the Bill of Rights. However, both the Bill of Rights and the Claim of Right contributed a great deal to the establishment of the concept of parliamentary sovereignty and the curtailment of the powers of the monarch. These have been held to have established the constitutional monarchy, and, along with the penal laws, settled much of the political and religious turmoil that had convulsed Scotland, England and Ireland in the 17th century.

The Act reinforced the Petition of Right and the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 by codifying certain rights and liberties. Described by William Blackstone as Fundamental Laws of England, the rights expressed in these Acts became associated with the idea of the rights of Englishmen. The Bill of Rights directly influenced the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which in turn influenced the Declaration of Independence.

Although not a comprehensive statement of civil and political liberties, the Bill of Rights stands as one of the landmark documents in the development of civil liberties in the United Kingdom and a model for later, more general, statements of rights; these include the United States Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights. For example, as with the Bill of Rights 1689, the US Constitution prohibits excessive bail and "cruel and unusual punishment"; in fact, the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution which imposes this prohibition is a near-verbatim reproduction of the corresponding article in the Bill of Rights 1689. Similarly, "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" is banned under Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Current legal status
The Bill of Rights remains in statute and continues to be cited in legal proceedings in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, particularly Article 9 on parliamentary freedom of speech. Following the Perth Agreement in 2011, legislation amending the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement 1701 came into effect across the Commonwealth realms on 26 March 2015 which changed the laws of succession to the British throne.

Australia
Australia does not have a formal Bill of Rights, although protections for human rights may be found in the Constitution and in legislation passed by the Commonwealth Parliament or State or Territory Parliaments.

The ninth article, regarding parliamentary freedom of speech, was inherited by Federal Parliament in 1901 under section 49 of the Australian Constitution. It was incorporated into the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 which "preserves the application of the traditional expression of this privilege, but spells out in some detail just what may be covered by the term 'proceedings in Parliament.

Canada
In Canada, the Bill of Rights remains in statute, although it has been largely superseded by domestic constitutional legislation. The ninth article on parliamentary freedom of speech remains in active use.

Ireland
The application of the Bill of Rights to the Kingdom of Ireland was uncertain. While the English Parliament sometimes passed acts relating to Ireland, the Irish Patriot Party regarded this as illegitimate, and others felt that English acts only extended to Ireland when explicitly stated to do so, which was not the case for the Bill of Rights. The Crown of Ireland Act 1542 meant the Bill's changes to the royal succession extended to Ireland. Bills modelled on the Bill of Rights were introduced in the Parliament of Ireland in 1695 and 1697 but not enacted. After the Acts of Union 1800, provisions relating to the rights of Parliament implicitly extended to Ireland, but provisions relating to the rights of the individual were a grey area. Some jurists regarded the bill not as positive law but as declaratory of the common law, and as such applicable to Ireland.

The Constitution of the Irish Free State, and the subsequent Constitution of Ireland, carry over laws in force in the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to the extent they were not repugnant to those constitutions. The Bill of Rights was not referred to in subsequent Irish legislation until the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, which retained it, changed its short title to "Bill of Rights 1688" and repealed most of section 1 (the preamble) as being religiously discriminatory, which included: all words down to "Upon which Letters Elections having been accordingly made"; Article 7, which allowed Protestants to bear arms; and all words from "And they doe Claime Demand and Insist".

The Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013 repealed Article 9 on "freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament" as part of a consolidation of the law on parliamentary privilege.

New Zealand
The Bill of Rights is part of the laws of New Zealand. The Act was invoked in the 1976 case of Fitzgerald v Muldoon and Others, which centred on the purporting of newly appointed Prime Minister Robert Muldoon that he would advise the Governor-General to abolish a superannuation scheme established by the New Zealand Superannuation Act 1974, without new legislation. Muldoon felt that the dissolution would be immediate and he would later introduce a bill in parliament to retroactively make the abolition legal. This claim was challenged in court and the Chief Justice declared that Muldoon's actions were illegal as they had violated Article 1 of the Bill of Rights, which provides "that the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority ... is illegal."

United Kingdom
The Bill of Rights applies in England and Wales; it was enacted in the Kingdom of England which at the time included Wales. Scotland has its own legislation, the Claim of Right Act 1689, passed before the Act of Union between England and Scotland. There are doubts as to whether, or to what extent, the Bill of Rights applies in Northern Ireland, reflecting earlier doubts as regards Ireland.

The requirement that jurors be freeholders in cases of high treason was abolished in England and Wales by the Juries Act 1825, and in Northern Ireland (to the extent it applied) by the Statute Law Revision Act 1950.

Natural justice, the right to a fair trial, is in constitutional law held to temper unfair exploitation of parliamentary privilege. On 21 July 1995 a libel case, Neil Hamilton, MP v The Guardian, collapsed as the High Court ruled that the Bill of Rights' total bar on bringing into question anything said or done in the House prevented The Guardian from obtaining a fair hearing. Hamilton could otherwise have carte blanche to allege any background or meaning to his words, and no contradicting direct evidence, inference, extra submission or cross-examination of his words could take place due to the tight strictures of the Bill of Rights. Equally, the House of Lords decided that, absent a 1996 statutory provision, the Bill of Rights' entrenched parliamentary privilege would have prevented a fair trial for Hamilton in the 2001 defamation action of Hamilton v Al-Fayed which went through the two tiers of appeal to like effect. That provision was section 13 of the Defamation Act 1996, which permits MPs to waive their parliamentary privilege and thus cite and have examined their own speeches if relevant to litigation.

Following the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum in 2016, the Bill of Rights was cited by the Supreme Court in the Miller case, in which the court ruled that triggering EU exit must first be authorised by an act of Parliament, because doing so would abrogate rights secured by an Act of Parliament (namely, rights of EU citizens arising from the EU treaties given effect in UK law by the European Communities Act 1972, as amended). It was cited again by the Supreme Court in its 2019 ruling that the prorogation of parliament was unlawful. The Court disagreed with the Government's assertion that prorogation could not be questioned under the Bill of Rights 1689 as a "proceeding of Parliament"; it ruled the opposite assertion, that prorogation "cannot sensibly be described as a 'proceeding in Parliament, as it was imposed upon and not debatable by Parliament, and could bring "core or essential business of Parliament" to an end without debate.

Recognition
Two special designs of commemorative two pound coins were issued in the United Kingdom in 1989 to celebrate the tercentenary of the Glorious Revolution. One referred to the Bill of Rights and the other to the Claim of Right. Both depict the Royal Cypher of William and Mary and the mace of the House of Commons, one also shows a representation of the St Edward's Crown and the other the Crown of Scotland.

In May 2011, the Bill of Rights was inscribed in UNESCO's UK Memory of the World Register recognizing that:

"All the main principles of the Bill of Rights are still in force today, and the Bill of Rights continues to be cited in legal cases in the UK and in Commonwealth countries. It has a primary place in a wider national historical narrative of documents which established the rights of Parliament and set out universal civil liberties, starting with Magna Carta in 1215. It also has international significance, as it was a model for the US Bill of Rights 1789, and its influence can be seen in other documents which establish rights of human beings, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights."

As part of the Parliament in the Making programme, the Bill of Rights was on display at the Houses of Parliament in February 2015 and at the British Library from March to September 2015.

title: Bill of Rights 1689


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Talk:Juggler

This page is not about 'juggler', it's about 'juggling'. That's why I had it redirected to juggling. Is there a good reason to have this content at 'juggler'? -- user:Jheijmans.
 * There should be a seperate article about jugglers as a juggler is a person who does lots of different kinds of juggling. --Opspin 15:05, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Juggler


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Flax

Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, Linum usitatissimum, in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of the world's supply of flax.

Textiles made from flax are known in English as linen, and are traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, and table linen. Its oil is known as linseed oil. In addition to referring to the plant, the word "flax" may refer to the unspun fibers of the flax plant.

The plant species is known only as a cultivated plant and appears to have been domesticated just once from the wild species Linum bienne, called pale flax. The plants called "flax" in New Zealand are, by contrast, members of the genus Phormium.

Description

Several other species in the genus Linum are similar in appearance to L. usitatissimum, cultivated flax, including some that have similar blue flowers, and others with white, yellow, or red flowers. Some of these are perennial plants, unlike L. usitatissimum, which is an annual plant.

Cultivated flax plants grow to 1.2 m tall, with slender stems. The leaves are glaucous green, slender lanceolate, 20–40 mm long, and 3 mm broad.

The flowers are 15–25 mm in diameter with five petals, which can be colored white, blue, yellow, and red depending on the species. The fruit is a round, dry capsule 5–9 mm in diameter, containing several glossy brown seeds shaped like apple pips, 4–7 mm long.

History
The earliest evidence of humans using wild flax as a textile comes from the present-day Republic of Georgia, where spun, dyed, and knotted wild flax fibers found in Dzudzuana Cave date to the Upper Paleolithic, 30,000 years ago. Humans first domesticated flax in the Fertile Crescent region. Evidence exists of a domesticated oilseed flax with increased seed-size from Tell Ramad in Syria and flax fabric fragments from Çatalhöyük in Turkey by c. 9,000 years ago. Use of the crop steadily spread, reaching as far as Switzerland and Germany by 5,000 years ago. In China and India, domesticated flax was cultivated at least 5,000 years ago.

Flax was cultivated extensively in ancient Egypt, where the temple walls had paintings of flowering flax, and mummies were embalmed using linen. Egyptian priests wore only linen, as flax was considered a symbol of purity. Phoenicians traded Egyptian linen throughout the Mediterranean and the Romans used it for their sails. As the Roman Empire declined, so did flax production. But with laws designed to publicize the hygiene of linen textiles and the health of linseed oil, Charlemagne revived the crop in the eighth century CE. Eventually, Flanders became the major center of the European linen industry in the Middle Ages. In North America, colonists introduced flax, and it flourished there, but by the early 20th century, cheap cotton and rising farm wages had caused production of flax to become concentrated in northern Russia, which came to provide 90% of the world's output. Since then, flax has lost its importance as a commercial crop, due to the easy availability of more durable fibres.

Uses
Flax is grown for its seeds, which can be ground into a meal or turned into linseed oil, a product used as a nutritional supplement and as an ingredient in many wood-finishing products. Flax is also grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. Moreover, flax fibers are used to make linen. The specific epithet in its binomial name, usitatissimum, means "most useful".

Flax fibers taken from the stem of the plant are two to three times as strong as cotton fibers. Additionally, flax fibers are naturally smooth and straight. Europe and North America both depended on flax for plant-based cloth until the 19th century, when cotton overtook flax as the most common plant for making rag-based paper. Flax is grown on the Canadian prairies for linseed oil, which is used as a drying oil in paints and varnishes and in products such as linoleum and printing inks.

Linseed meal, the by-product of producing linseed oil from flax seeds, is used as livestock fodder.

Flax seeds
Flax seeds occur in brown and yellow (golden) varieties. Most types of these basic varieties have similar nutritional characteristics and equal numbers of short-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Yellow flax seeds, called solin (trade name "Linola"), have a similar oil profile to brown flax seeds and both are very high in omega-3s (alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), specifically). Flax seeds produce a vegetable oil known as flax seed oil or linseed oil, which is one of the oldest commercial oils. It is an edible oil obtained by expeller pressing and sometimes followed by solvent extraction. Solvent-processed flax seed oil has been used for many centuries as a drying oil in painting and varnishing.

Although brown flax seed varieties may be consumed as readily as the yellow ones, and have been for thousands of years, these varieties are more commonly used in paints, for fiber, and for cattle feed.

Culinary
A 100-gram portion of ground flax seed supplies about 2234 kJ of food energy, 41 g of fat, 28 g of fiber, and 20 g of protein. Whole flax seeds are chemically stable, but ground flax seed meal, because of oxidation, may go rancid when left exposed to air at room temperature in as little as a week. Refrigeration and storage in sealed containers will keep ground flax seed meal for a longer period before it turns rancid. Under conditions similar to those found in commercial bakeries, trained sensory panelists could not detect differences between bread made with freshly ground flax seed and bread made with flax seed that had been milled four months earlier and stored at room temperature. If packed immediately without exposure to air and light, milled flax seed is stable against excessive oxidation when stored for nine months at room temperature, and under warehouse conditions, for 20 months at ambient temperatures.

Three phenolic glucosides—secoisolariciresinol diglucoside, p-coumaric acid glucoside, and ferulic acid glucoside—are present in commercial breads containing flax seed.

Fodder
After crushing the seeds to extract linseed oil, the resultant linseed meal is a protein-rich feed for ruminants, rabbits, and fish. It is also often used as feed for swine and poultry, and has also been used in horse concentrate and dog food. The high omega-3 fatty acid (ALA) content of linseed meal "softens" milk, eggs, and meat, which means it causes a higher unsaturated fat content and thus lowers its storage time. The high omega-3 content also has a further disadvantage, because this fatty acid oxidises and goes rancid quickly, which shortens the storage time. Linola was developed in Australia and introduced in the 1990s with less omega-3, specifically to serve as fodder. Another disadvantage of the meal and seed is that it contains a vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) antagonist, and may require this vitamin be supplemented, especially in chickens, and furthermore linseeds contain 2–7% of mucilage (fibre), which may be beneficial in humans and cattle, but cannot be digested by non-ruminants and can be detrimental to young animals, unless possibly treated with enzymes.

Linseed meal is added to cattle feed as a protein supplement. It can only be added at low percentages due to the high fat content, which is unhealthy for ruminants. Compared to oilseed meal from crucifers it measures as having lower nutrient values, however, good results are obtained in cattle, perhaps due to the mucilage, which may aid in slowing digestion and thus allowing more time to absorb nutrients. One study found that feeding flax seeds may increase omega-3 content in beef, while another found no differences. It might also act as a substitute for tallow in increasing marbling. In the US, flax-based feed for ruminants is often somewhat more expensive than other feeds on a nutrient basis. Sheep feeding on low quality forage are able to eat a large amount of linseed meal, up to 40% in one test, with positive consequences. It has been fed as supplement to water buffaloes in India, and provided a better diet than forage alone, but not as good as when substituted with soy meal. It is considered an inferior protein supplement for swine because of its fibre, the vitamin antagonist, the high omega-3 content and its low lysine content, and can only be used in small amounts in the feed. Although it may increase the omega-3 content in eggs and meat, it is also an inferior and potentially toxic feed for poultry, although it can be used in small amounts. The meal is an adequate and traditional source of protein for rabbits at 8–10%. Its use in fish feeds is limited.

Raw, immature linseeds contain an amount of cyanogenic compounds and can be dangerous for monogastric animals, like horses and rabbits. Boiling removes the danger. This is not an issue in meal cake due to the processing temperature during oil extraction.

Flax straw left over from the harvesting of oilseed is not very nutritious; it is tough and indigestible, and is not recommended to use as ruminant fodder, although it may be used as bedding or baled as windbreaks.

Flax fibers

Flax fiber is extracted from the bast beneath the surface of the stem of the flax plant. Flax fiber is soft, lustrous, and flexible; bundles of fiber have the appearance of blonde hair, hence the description "flaxen" hair. It is stronger than cotton fiber, but less elastic.

The use of flax fibers dates back tens of millennia; linen, a refined textile made from flax fibers, was worn widely by Sumerian priests more than 4,000 years ago. Industrial-scale flax fiber processing existed in antiquity. A Bronze Age factory dedicated to flax processing was discovered in Euonymeia, Greece.

The best grades are used for fabrics such as damasks, lace, and sheeting. Coarser grades are used for the manufacturing of twine and rope, and historically, for canvas and webbing equipment. Flax fiber is a raw material used in the high-quality paper industry for the use of printed banknotes, laboratory paper (blotting and filter), rolling paper for cigarettes, and tea bags.

Flax mills for spinning flaxen yarn were invented by John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse of Darlington, England, in 1787. New methods of processing flax have led to renewed interest in the use of flax as an industrial fiber.

Nutrition
Flax seeds are 7% water, 18% protein, 29% carbohydrates, and 42% fat (table). In 100 g as a reference amount, flax seeds provide 534 kilocalories and contain high levels (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of protein, dietary fiber, several B vitamins, and dietary minerals. Flax seeds are especially rich in thiamine, magnesium, and phosphorus (DVs above 90%) (table).

As a percentage of total fat, flax seeds contain 54% omega-3 fatty acids (mostly ALA), 18% omega-9 fatty acids (oleic acid), and 6% omega-6 fatty acids (linoleic acid); the seeds contain 9% saturated fat, including 5% as palmitic acid. Flax seed oil contains 53% 18:3 omega-3 fatty acids (mostly ALA) and 13% 18:2 omega-6 fatty acids.

Health research
A meta-analysis showed that consumption of more than 30 g of flax-seed daily for more than 12 weeks reduced body weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference for persons with a BMI greater than 27. Another meta-analysis showed that consumption of flax seeds for more than 12 weeks produced small reductions in systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. A third showed that consuming flax seed or its derivatives may reduce total and LDL-cholesterol in the blood, with greater benefits in women and people with high cholesterol. A fourth showed a small reduction in c-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation) only in persons with a body mass index greater than 30.

Safety
Flax seed and its oil are generally recognized as safe for human consumption. Like many common foods, flax contains small amounts of cyanogenic glycoside, which is nontoxic when consumed in typical amounts. Typical concentrations (for example, 0.48% in a sample of defatted dehusked flax seed meal) can be removed by special processing.

Cultivation
The soils most suitable for flax, besides the alluvial kind, are deep loams containing a large proportion of organic matter. Flax is often found growing just above the waterline in cranberry bogs. Heavy clays are unsuitable, as are soils of a gravelly or dry sandy nature. Farming flax requires few fertilizers or pesticides. Within eight weeks of sowing, the plant can reach 10 – in height, reaching 70 – within 50 days.

Production
In 2022, world production of raw or retted flax was 875,995 tonnes, led by France with 75% of the total. One of the largest regions in France for flax production is Normandy with nearly one-third of the world's production.

Maturation
Flax is harvested for fiber production after about 100 days, or a month after the plants flower and two weeks after the seed capsules form. The bases of the plants begin to turn yellow. If the plants are still green, the seed will not be useful, and the fiber will be underdeveloped. The fiber degrades once the plants turn brown.

Flax grown for seed is allowed to mature until the seed capsules are yellow and just starting to split; it is then harvested in various ways. A combine harvester may either cut only the heads of the plants, or the whole plant. These are then dried to extract the seed. The amount of weeds in the straw affects its marketability, and this, coupled with market prices, determines whether the farmer chooses to harvest the flax straw. If the flax straw is not harvested, typically, it is burned, since the stalks are quite tough and decompose slowly (i.e., not in a single season). Formed into windrows from the harvesting process, the straw often clogs up tillage and planting equipment. Flax straw that is not of sufficient quality for fiber uses can be baled to build shelters for farm animals, or sold as biofuel, or removed from the field in the spring.

Two ways are used to harvest flax fiber, one involving mechanized equipment (combines), and a second method, more manual and targeting maximum fiber length.

Mechanical
Flax for fiber production is usually harvested by a specialized flax harvester. Usually built on the same machine base as a combine, but instead of the cutting head it has a flax puller. The flax plant is turned over and is gripped by rubber belts roughly 20–25 cm (8–10 inches) above ground, to avoid getting grasses and weeds in the flax. The rubber belts then pull the whole plant out of the ground with the roots so the whole length of the plant fiber can be used. The plants then pass over the machine and is placed on the field crosswise to the harvester's direction of travel. The plants are left in the field for field retting.

The mature plant can also be cut with mowing equipment, similar to hay harvesting, and raked into windrows. When dried sufficiently, a combine then harvests the seeds similar to wheat or oat harvesting.

Manual
The plant is pulled up with the roots (not cut), so as to increase the fiber length. After this, the flax is allowed to dry, the seeds are removed, and it is then retted. Dependent upon climatic conditions, characteristics of the sown flax and fields, the flax remains on the ground between two weeks and two months for retting. As a result of alternating rain and the sun, an enzymatic action degrades the pectins which bind fibers to the straw. The farmers turn over the straw during retting to evenly rett the stalks. When the straw is retted and sufficiently dry, it is rolled up. It is then stored by farmers before extracting the fibers.

Processing
Threshing is the process of removing the seeds from the rest of the plant. Separating the usable flax fibers from other components requires pulling the stems through a hackle and/or beating the plants to break them.

Flax processing is divided into two parts: the first part is generally done by the farmer, to bring the flax fiber into a fit state for general or common purposes. This can be performed by three machines: one for threshing out the seed, one for breaking and separating the straw (stem) from the fiber, and one for further separating the broken straw and matter from the fiber.

The second part of the process brings the flax into a state for the very finest purposes, such as lace, cambric, damask, and very fine linen. This second part is performed by a refining machine.

Preparation for spinning
Before the flax fibers can be spun into linen, they must be separated from the rest of the stalk. The first step in this process is retting, which is the process of rotting away the inner stalk, leaving the outer parts intact. At this point, straw, or coarse outer stem (cortex and epidermis), is still remaining. To remove this, the flax is "broken", the straw is broken up into small, short bits, while the actual fiber is left unharmed. Scutching scrapes the outer straw from the fiber. The stems are then pulled through "hackles", which act like combs to remove the straw and some shorter fibers out of the long fiber.

Retting flax
Several methods are used for retting flax. It can be retted in a pond, stream, field, or tank. When the retting is complete, the bundles of flax feel soft and slimy, and quite a few fibers are standing out from the stalks. When wrapped around a finger, the inner woody part springs away from the fibers. Pond retting is the fastest. It consists of placing the flax in a pool of water which will not evaporate. It generally takes place in a shallow pool which will warm up dramatically in the sun; the process may take from a few days to a few weeks. Pond-retted flax is traditionally considered of lower quality, possibly because the product can become dirty, and is easily over-retted, damaging the fiber. This form of retting also produces quite an odor. Stream retting is similar to pool retting, but the flax is submerged in bundles in a stream or river. This generally takes two or three weeks longer than pond retting, but the end product is less likely to be dirty, does not smell as bad, and because the water is cooler, is less likely to be over-retted. Both pond and stream retting were traditionally used less because they pollute the waters used for the process.

In field retting, the flax is laid out in a large field, and dew is allowed to collect on it. This process normally takes a month or more, but is generally considered to provide the highest quality flax fibers, and it produces the least pollution.

Retting can also be done in a plastic trash can or any type of water-tight container of wood, concrete, earthenware, or plastic. Metal containers will not work, as an acid is produced when retting, and it would corrode the metal. If the water temperature is kept at 80 F, the retting process under these conditions takes 4 or 5 days. If the water is any colder, it takes longer. Scum collects at the top, and an odor is given off the same as in pond retting. 'Enzymatic' retting of flax has been researched as a technique to engineer fibers with specific properties.

Dressing the flax
Dressing the flax is the process of removing the straw from the fibers. Dressing consists of three steps: breaking, scutching, and heckling. The breaking breaks up the straw. Some of the straw is scraped from the fibers in the scutching process, and finally, the fiber is pulled through heckles to remove the last bits of straw.

Breaking breaks up the straw into short segments.

Scutching removes some of the straw from the fiber.

Heckling is pulling the fiber through various sizes of heckling combs or heckles. A heckle is a bed of "nails"—sharp, long-tapered, tempered, polished steel pins driven into wooden blocks at regular spacing.

Genetically modified flax contamination
In September 2009, Canadian flax exports reportedly had been contaminated by a deregistered genetically modified cultivar called 'Triffid' that had food and feed safety approval in Canada and the U.S. Canadian growers and the Flax Council of Canada raised concerns about the marketability of this cultivar in Europe where a zero tolerance policy exists regarding unapproved genetically modified organisms. Consequently, Triffid was deregistered in 2010 and never grown commercially in Canada or the U.S. Triffid stores were destroyed, but future exports and further tests at the University of Saskatchewan proved that Triffid persisted in at least two Canadian flax varieties, possibly affecting future crops. Canadian flax seed cultivars were reconstituted with Triffid-free seed used to plant the 2014 crop. Laboratories are certified to test for the presence of Triffid at a level of one seed in 10,000.

Symbolic images
Flax is an emblem of Northern Ireland and displayed by the Northern Ireland Assembly. In a coronet, it appeared on the reverse of the British one-pound coin to represent Northern Ireland on coins minted in 1986, 1991, and 2014. Flax also represents Northern Ireland on the badge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and on various logos associated with it.

Common flax is the national flower of Belarus.

In early versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale, such as "Sun, Moon, and Talia" by Giambattista Basile, the princess pricks her finger, not on a spindle, but on a sliver of flax, which later is sucked out by her children conceived as she sleeps.

title: Flax


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Greyhound racing

Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of the greyhounds on a rail until the greyhounds cross the finish line. As with horse racing, greyhound races often allow the public to bet on the outcome.

In many countries, greyhound racing is purely amateur and solely for enjoyment. In other countries, particularly Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States, greyhound racing is similar to horse racing in that it is part of the gambling industry.

Animal rights and animal welfare groups have been critical of the welfare of greyhounds in the commercial racing industry for many years which has contributed to the reforms of the industries in recent years. A greyhound adoption movement spearheaded by kennel owners has arisen to assist retired racing dogs in finding homes as pets, with an estimated adoption rate of over 95% in the United States.

History
Modern greyhound racing has its origins in coursing. The first recorded attempt at racing greyhounds on a straight track was made beside the Welsh Harp reservoir, Hendon, England, in 1876, but this experiment did not develop. The industry emerged in its recognizable modern form, featuring circular or oval tracks, with the invention of the mechanical, or artificial, hare in 1912 by an American, Owen Patrick Smith. O.P. Smith had altruistic aims for the industry to stop the killing of the jack rabbits and see "greyhound racing as we see horse racing". In 1919, Smith opened the first professional dog-racing track with stands in Emeryville, California. The Emeryville arena was torn down in February 1920 to make way for the construction of a modern racetrack using the mechanical lure, described in the press as the "automatic rabbit." The first race at the new park was on Saturday, May 29, 1920.

The certificates system led the way to parimutuel betting, as quarry and on-course gambling, in the United States during the 1930s.

The oval track and mechanical hare were introduced to Britain, in 1926, by another American, Charles Munn, in association with Major Lyne-Dixson, a Canadian, who was a key figure in coursing. Finding other supporters proved rather difficult, however, and with the General Strike of 1926 looming, the two men scoured the country in an attempt to find others who would join them. Eventually they met Brigadier-General Critchley, who introduced them to Sir William Gentle. Between them they raised £22,000, and like the American 'International Greyhound Racing Association' (or the I.G.R.A.), they launched the Greyhound Racing Association, holding the first British meeting at Manchester's Belle Vue Stadium. The industry was successful in cities and towns throughout the UK – by the end of 1927, there were forty tracks operating.

Middle-class reformers were outraged, and the working-class delighted, with the emergence in the late-1920s of Greyhound racing as an entertaining new sport and betting opportunity. At first it seemed modern, glamorous, and American, but the middle class lost interest when working-class audiences took over. The working class appreciated the nearby urban locations of the tracks and the evening times of the meetings. Betting has always been a key ingredient of greyhound racing, both through on-course bookmakers and the totalisator, first introduced in 1930. Like horse racing, it is popular to bet on the greyhound races as a form of parimutuel betting.

Greyhound racing enjoyed its highest United Kingdom attendances just after the Second World War—for example, attendances during 1946 were estimated to be around 75 million based on an annual totalisator turnover of £196,431,430. The industry experienced a decline beginning in the early 1960s, after the 1960 UK Betting and Gaming Act permitted off-course cash betting. Sponsorship, limited television coverage, and the later abolition of on-course betting tax have partially offset this decline.

Today

Commercial greyhound racing is characterized by several criteria (varying depending on country) and can include legalized gambling, the existence of a regulatory structure, the physical presence of racetracks, whether the host state or subdivision shares in any gambling proceeds, fees charged by host locations, the use of professional racing kennels, the number of dogs participating in races, the existence of an official racing code, and membership in a greyhound racing federation or trade association.

In addition to the seven countries where commercial greyhound racing exists, in at least twenty-one countries dog racing occurs, but has not yet reached a commercial stage.

Medical care
The medical care of a racing greyhound is primarily the responsibility of the trainer while in training. All tracks in the United Kingdom have to have a veterinary surgeon and veterinary room facilities on site during racing. The greyhounds require microchipping, annual vaccinations against distemper, infectious canine hepatitis, parvovirus, leptospirosis, and a vaccination to minimize outbreaks of diseases such as kennel cough. All greyhounds in the UK must pass a pre-race veterinary inspection before being allowed to take part in that race.

The racing industry (in several countries) actively works to prevent the spread of doping cases. Attempts are being made to recover urine samples from all greyhounds in a race, not just the winners. Greyhounds from which samples cannot be obtained for a certain number of consecutive races are subject to being ruled off the track in some countries. Violators are subject to criminal penalties and loss of their racing licenses by state gaming commissions and a permanent ban from the National Greyhound Association. The trainer of the greyhound is at all times the "absolute insurer" of the condition of the animal. The trainer is responsible for any positive test regardless of how the banned substance has entered the greyhound's system.

A series of research papers have indicated that the greyhound racing industry played an important role in the rise of drug-resistant hookworms. Greyhound farms tended to treat greyhounds with dewormers even when the dogs did not have an active infection, thus enabling worms, which are constantly exposed to drugs, to develop immunity against the drugs among the surviving worms. The rise of drug-resistant hookworms poses a threat to pets and humans more generally.

Retirement
Generally, a greyhound's career will end between the ages of four and six – after the dog can no longer race, or possibly when it is no longer competitive. The best dogs are kept for breeding and there are industry-associated adoption groups and rescue groups that work to obtain retired racing greyhounds and place them as pets. In the United Kingdom, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) has introduced measures to locate where racing greyhounds reside after they have retired from racing and as from 2017 records have been available to the public.

Several organizations, such as British Greyhounds Retired Database, Greyhound Rescue West of England, Birmingham Greyhound Protection, GAGAH, Adopt-a-Greyhound and Greyhound Pets of America, and the Greyhound Trust try to ensure that as many of the dogs as possible are adopted. Some of these groups also advocate better treatment of the dogs while at the track and/or the end of racing for profit. In recent years the racing industry has made significant progress in establishing programs for the adoption of retired racers. In addition to actively cooperating with private adoption groups throughout the country, many race tracks have established their own adoption programs at various tracks.

Australia
Greyhounds Australasia was formed in 1937 (as the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Association) and consists of governing bodies in Australian states and New Zealand, which regulate greyhound welfare and living conditions.

Ireland
Greyhound racing is a popular industry in Ireland with the majority of tracks falling under the control of Rásaíocht Con Éireann (GRI) which is a commercial semi-state body and reports to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The vast majority of greyhounds racing in the UK are imported from Irish breeders (estimated 90%). In the greyhound industry Northern Irish tracks are considered to be in the category of Irish greyhound racing and the results are published by the IGB. They do not come under the control of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain.

Mexico
There is one greyhound racing track in Mexico, the Caliente Hipodrome in Tijuana, which opened in 1999.

New Zealand
Racing in New Zealand is governed by the New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) in accordance with the Racing Act 2003.

United Kingdom
Greyhound racing in Great Britain is regulated by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain and accredited by United Kingdom Accreditation Service.

United States

In the United States, greyhound racing is governed by state or local law, however, as of 2023 only two racetracks in West Virginia continue to operate. Greyhound care is regulated by the American Greyhound Council and the National Greyhound Association.

Other countries - former tracks
There was formerly at greyhound racing track in Vietnam at the Lam Son Stadium in Vung Tau, Vietnam  from 2000 to March 2023, but it has since closed. As of 2023, the company that owned the Lam Son track is building a new horse and greyhound race track in Lam Dong province.

There was also a greyhound track in Macau, China at the Canidrome which conducted greyhound racing for about 90 years, but discontinued racing in 2018.

title: Greyhound racing