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K. M. Peyton

Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton (2 August 1929 – 19 December 2023), who wrote primarily as K. M. Peyton, was a British author of fiction for children and young adults in the 1960s and 1970s.

Peyton wrote more than fifty novels in the including the Ruth Hollis series, the Pennington series, and the Flambards series, the latter about the Russell family which spanned the period before and after the First World War. For the Flambards series, Peyton won both the 1969 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association and the 1970 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, judged by a panel of British children's writers. In 1979, the Flambards trilogy was adapted by Yorkshire Television as a 13-part TV series, Flambards, starring Christine McKenna as the heroine Christina Parsons.

Personal life and education
Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton was born on 2 August 1929 in Birmingham, England. Peyton began writing when she was nine-years-old and was first published when she was fifteen. Peyton has stated that she "never decided to become a writer...[she] just was one." Growing up in London, she could not own a horse, and instead developed an obsession with them—all her early books are about young girls who have ponies. In 1950, Peyton published her first novel Sabre, the Horse from the Sea, illustrated by British artist Lionel Edwards.

Later, she attended Kingston Art School, and then Manchester Art School. It was there that she met another student, Mike Peyton, an ex-serviceman who had been a military artist and prisoner of war. He shared her love of walking in the Pennines. They married in 1950, and travelled around Europe. When they returned to Britain, Peyton completed a Teaching Diploma and taught for three years at Northampton High School.

Career
As a secondary school teacher, Peyton started writing young boys' adventure stories and sold them as serials to The Scout, a magazine owned by The Scout Association. These stories were later published in full-length. During this time, she began writing under the name K.M. Peyton—the 'M' represented her husband Mike who helped create the plots of her stories. Peyton soon left her teaching career, in pursuit of becoming a full-time writer.

After the birth of two her daughters, Peyton started writing fiction novels and returned to the topic of her "first love"—ponies, horses and equestrianism. These ideas are explored in the two book series: Flambards and Ruth Hollis. Later in life, Peyton became involved in horse racing and used her own personal experiences of owning horses as further inspiration for her writing.

In association with the Oxford University Press, Peyton's novels were illustrated by artist Victor G. Ambrus in the late 1960s. Peyton was an artist herself and self-illustrated a few of her own novels as well. During the 1970s, her best-selling series Flambards was published in multiple languages, such as Italian, German, Finnish, and Swedish.

Writers who cite K.M. Peyton as an influence include Linda Newbery, whose young adult novel The Damage Done (2001, Scholastic) is dedicated "to Kathleen Peyton, who made me want to try."

Death
Peyton died on December 19, 2023, at the age of 94. Peyton had two daughters, Hilary and Veronica.

Honours and awards
Peyton won the Guardian Prize for the Flambards trilogy, and won the Carnegie Medal for its second book. She was also a commended runner-up for the Carnegie Medal six times in eight years during the 1960s—one of the books was the first Flambards book, another was the third Flambards book in competition with the Medal-winning second. The others were Windfall (1962), The Maplin Bird (1964), The Plan for Birdmarsh (1965), and Thunder in the Sky (1966).

Peyton was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to children's literature.

Adaptations
The Flambards trilogy was adapted by Yorkshire Television in 1978. The TV miniseries, Flambards, starring Christine McKenna as the heroine Christina Parsons, comprised 13 episodes. The miniseries was broadcast in the UK in 1979, and eventually the US in 1980.

Peyton's The Right-Hand Man (1977), a historical novel featuring an English stagecoach driver, was adapted into a feature film. In 1985, it was shot in Australia and was later released in 1987.

A Pattern of Roses (1972) was adapted in 1983 as a TV film, introducing Helena Bonham Carter in her first screen role.

Who, Sir? Me, Sir? (1985) was adapted as a BBC TV series.

Works
The bibliography of Peyton's "pony books only" by Jane Badger Books includes all nineteen series books and many "other books" (‡) listed here.

Flambards Series (1967–1981)
Peyton's extension of the trilogy followed its television adaptation and reversed the original ending.
 * Flambards (Oxford, 1967), illustrated by Victor Ambrus
 * The Edge of the Cloud (Oxford, 1969), ill. Ambrus
 * Flambards in Summer (Oxford, 1969), ill. Ambrus
 * Flambards Divided (1981)

Ruth Hollis Series (1968–1979)
The Pennington series continues the story of Ruth Hollis in 1971.
 * Fly-by-Night (1968), self-illustrated
 * The Team (1975), self-ill.

Pennington Series (1970–1979)

 * Pennington's Seventeenth Summer (1970), later as Pennington's Last Term, self-ill.
 * The Beethoven Medal (1971), a.k.a. If I Ever Marry, self-ill.
 * Pennington's Heir (1973), self-ill.
 * Marion's Angels (1979)

Jonathan Meredith Series (1977–1984)

 * Prove Yourself a Hero (1977)
 * A Midsummer Night's Death (1978)
 * The Last Ditch (1984), also published as Free Rein

See also the Ruth Hollis series: Jonathan Meredith is a minor character in The Team.

Swallow Series (1995–1997)

 * The Swallow Tale (1995)
 * Swallow Summer (1996)
 * Swallow the Star (1997)

Minna Series (2007–2009)
Set in Roman Britain.
 * Minna's Quest (2007)
 * No Turning Back (2008)
 * Far From Home (2009)

Other books

 * Grey Star, the Story of a Racehorse — at age nine, unpublished §
 * Sabre: The Horse from the Sea (A & C Black, 1948) ‡, as Kathleen Herald, illus. Lionel Edwards
 * The Mandrake: A Pony (Black, 1949) ‡, as Kathleen Herald, ill. Edwards
 * Crab the Roan (Black, 1953) ‡, as Kathleen Herald, ill. Peter Biegel

 * North to Adventure (1959)
 * Stormcock Meets Trouble (1961)
 * The Hard Way Home (1962)
 * Windfall (1962), ill. Victor Ambrus; US title, Sea Fever
 * Brownsea Silver (1964)
 * The Maplin Bird (1964), ill. Ambrus
 * The Plan for Birdsmarsh (1965), ill. Ambrus
 * Thunder in the Sky (1966), ill. Ambrus
 * A Pattern of Roses (1972), self-ill. ‡
 * The Right-Hand Man (1977) ‡, ill. Ambrus
 * Marion's Angels (1979), later as Falling Angels, ill. Robert Mickelwright
 * Dear Fred (1981) ‡ — based on Fred Archer
 * Going Home (1982)
 * Who, Sir? Me, Sir? (1983) ‡
 * The Last Ditch (1984) ‡
 * Froggett's Revenge (1985)
 * The Sound of Distant Cheering (1986) ‡
 * Downhill All the Way (1988)
 * Plain Jack (1988) ‡
 * Darkling (1989) ‡
 * Skylark (1989)
 * No Roses Round the Door (1990) ‡
 * Poor Badger (1990) ‡
 * The Boy Who Wasn't There (1992)
 * Late to Smile (1992) ‡
 * Apple Won't Jump (1992)
 * The Wild Boy and Queen Moon (1993) ‡
 * Snowfall (1994)
 * Mr Brown (1995)
 * Unquiet Spirits (1997)
 * The Pony That Went to Sea (1997) ‡
 * Windy Webley (1997) ‡, ill. Nick Price – picture book
 * Danger Offshore (1998)
 * Firehead (1998)
 * The Paradise Pony (1999) ‡
 * The Scruffy Pony (1999) ‡
 * Blind Beauty (1999) ‡
 * The Pied Piper (1999)
 * Horses (2000) ‡ – nonfiction
 * Stealaway (2001) ‡
 * Pony in the Dark (2001) ‡
 * Small Gains (2003) ‡
 * My Alice (2004)
 * Greater Gains (2005) ‡
 * Blue Skies and Gunfire (2006)
 * Paradise House (2011) ‡
 * All That Glitters (2014) ‡

§ By age fifteen, Kathleen Herald had written "about ten more" novels that publishers rejected with "very nice letters".

‡ Jane Badger Books lists these titles among Peyton's "pony books only" – as well as all nineteen series books listed above.

title: K. M. Peyton


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Talk:Ménière's disease

Spelling
I have noted the spelling difference between Ménière’s disease and the name, Prosper Menière. French Wikipedia spells his name the same way that refers to the disease as la Maladie de Menière. So it is consistent. I am sure if it were a typo, it would have been fixed long ago. so I suspect the “incorrect“ spelling is entrenched in English language medicine. If someone can confirm this, it’s worth a footnote at least. If someone happens to be familiar with the history, an explanation would interest me, for one. Is it a hypercorrection?

Humphrey Tribble (talk) 04:03, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

 * I'll shed no light here, since I went to the French Wikipedia as well, but I noted there that the elder Meniere (I don't know how to render accents here) is spelled with only an "accent grave" on the second "e", whereas his son and continuator of his work is spelled with an additional "accent aigu" on the first "e". Hence the American spelling of the disease matches the patronymic of the son rather than the father's, if they were spelled correctly on the French page. But why would the son's name have a changed spelling, if true? 2601:640:8001:4FD0:FC4D:F960:D33:C52E (talk) 22:49, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I too cannot be definitive, but think that French Wikipedia's spelling should be followed when describing a French physician and the syndrome named after him. The replacement of 'e' by 'é' being so common in English mentions may be accounted for by a preference for emphasizing the first syllable like 'ay' over pronouncing it as a (French) schwa. Bernardboase (talk) 06:57, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Ménière's disease


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Prosper Menière

Prosper Menière (18 June 1799 – 7 February 1862) was a French medical doctor who first identified that the inner ear could be the source of a condition combining vertigo, hearing loss and tinnitus, which is now known as Ménière's disease.

Biography
Menière was born in Angers, France. During his education he excelled at humanities and classics. He completed his medical studies at Hôtel-Dieu de Paris in 1826, and earned his M.D. in 1828. He then assisted Guillaume Dupuytren.

Menière was originally set to be an assistant professor in faculty, but political tensions disturbed his professorship and he was sent to control the spread of cholera. He received a legion of honor for his work, but never gained professorship. After securing the position of physician-in-chief at the Institute for deaf-mutes, he focused on the diseases of the ear.

Menière's studies at the deaf-mute institute helped formulate his paper, On a particular kind of hearing loss resulting from lesions of the inner ear which ultimately led to the recognition of Ménière's disease.

There is debate as to how Menière's name is spelled. Prosper himself was known to write his name as "Menière" while his son used the spelling "Ménière." Many people omit the accent marks.

title: Prosper Menière


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Tongue

The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for chewing and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by taste buds housed in numerous lingual papillae. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva and is richly supplied with nerves and blood vessels. The tongue also serves as a natural means of cleaning the teeth. A major function of the tongue is the enabling of speech in humans and vocalization in other animals.

The human tongue is divided into two parts, an oral part at the front and a pharyngeal part at the back. The left and right sides are also separated along most of its length by a vertical section of fibrous tissue (the lingual septum) that results in a groove, the median sulcus, on the tongue's surface.

There are two groups of muscles of the tongue. The four intrinsic muscles alter the shape of the tongue and are not attached to bone. The four paired extrinsic muscles change the position of the tongue and are anchored to bone.

Etymology
The word tongue derives from the Old English tunge, which comes from Proto-Germanic *tungōn. It has cognates in other Germanic languages—for example tonge in West Frisian, tong in Dutch and Afrikaans, Zunge in German, tunge in Danish and Norwegian, and tunga in Icelandic, Faroese and Swedish. The ue ending of the word seems to be a fourteenth-century attempt to show "proper pronunciation", but it is "neither etymological nor phonetic". Some used the spelling tunge and tonge as late as the sixteenth century.

Structure
The tongue is a muscular hydrostat that forms part of the floor of the oral cavity. The left and right sides of the tongue are separated by a vertical section of fibrous tissue known as the lingual septum. This division is along the length of the tongue save for the very back of the pharyngeal part and is visible as a groove called the median sulcus. The human tongue is divided into anterior and posterior parts by the terminal sulcus, which is a "V"-shaped groove. The apex of the terminal sulcus is marked by a blind foramen, the foramen cecum, which is a remnant of the median thyroid diverticulum in early embryonic development. The anterior oral part is the visible part situated at the front and makes up roughly two-thirds the length of the tongue. The posterior pharyngeal part is the part closest to the throat, roughly one-third of its length. These parts differ in terms of their embryological development and nerve supply.

The anterior tongue is, at its apex, thin and narrow. It is directed forward against the lingual surfaces of the lower incisor teeth. The posterior part is, at its root, directed backward, and connected with the hyoid bone by the hyoglossi and genioglossi muscles and the hyoglossal membrane, with the epiglottis by three glossoepiglottic folds of mucous membrane, with the soft palate by the glossopalatine arches, and with the pharynx by the superior pharyngeal constrictor muscle and the mucous membrane. It also forms the anterior wall of the oropharynx.

The average length of the human tongue from the oropharynx to the tip is 10 cm. The average weight of the human tongue from adult males is 99g and for adult females 79g.

In phonetics and phonology, a distinction is made between the tip of the tongue and the blade (the portion just behind the tip). Sounds made with the tongue tip are said to be apical, while those made with the tongue blade are said to be laminal.

Upper surface
The upper surface of the tongue is called the dorsum, and is divided by a groove into symmetrical halves by the median sulcus. The foramen cecum marks the end of this division (at about 2.5 cm from the root of the tongue) and the beginning of the terminal sulcus. The foramen cecum is also the point of attachment of the thyroglossal duct and is formed during the descent of the thyroid diverticulum in embryonic development.

The terminal sulcus is a shallow groove that runs forward as a shallow groove in a V shape from the foramen cecum, forwards and outwards to the margins (borders) of the tongue. The terminal sulcus divides the tongue into a posterior pharyngeal part and an anterior oral part. The pharyngeal part is supplied by the glossopharyngeal nerve and the oral part is supplied by the lingual nerve (a branch of the mandibular branch (V3) of the trigeminal nerve) for somatosensory perception and by the chorda tympani (a branch of the facial nerve) for taste perception.

Both parts of the tongue develop from different pharyngeal arches.

Undersurface
On the undersurface of the tongue is a fold of mucous membrane called the frenulum that tethers the tongue at the midline to the floor of the mouth. On either side of the frenulum are small prominences called sublingual caruncles that the major salivary submandibular glands drain into.

Muscles
The eight muscles of the human tongue are classified as either intrinsic or extrinsic. The four intrinsic muscles act to change the shape of the tongue, and are not attached to any bone. The four extrinsic muscles act to change the position of the tongue, and are anchored to bone.

Extrinsic
The four extrinsic muscles originate from bone and extend to the tongue. They are the genioglossus, the hyoglossus (often including the chondroglossus) the styloglossus, and the palatoglossus. Their main functions are altering the tongue's position allowing for protrusion, retraction, and side-to-side movement.

The genioglossus arises from the mandible and protrudes the tongue. It is also known as the tongue's "safety muscle" since it is the only muscle that propels the tongue forward.

The hyoglossus, arises from the hyoid bone and retracts and depresses the tongue. The chondroglossus is often included with this muscle.

The styloglossus arises from the styloid process of the temporal bone and draws the sides of the tongue up to create a trough for swallowing.

The palatoglossus arises from the palatine aponeurosis, and depresses the soft palate, moves the palatoglossal fold towards the midline, and elevates the back of the tongue during swallowing.

Intrinsic
Four paired intrinsic muscles of the tongue originate and insert within the tongue, running along its length. They are the superior longitudinal muscle, the inferior longitudinal muscle, the vertical muscle, and the transverse muscle. These muscles alter the shape of the tongue by lengthening and shortening it, curling and uncurling its apex and edges as in tongue rolling, and flattening and rounding its surface. This provides shape and helps facilitate speech, swallowing, and eating.

The superior longitudinal muscle runs along the upper surface of the tongue under the mucous membrane, and functions to shorten and curl the tongue upward. It originates near the epiglottis, at the hyoid bone, from the median fibrous septum.

The inferior longitudinal muscle lines the sides of the tongue, and is joined to the styloglossus muscle. It functions to shorten and curl the tongue downward.

The vertical muscle is located in the middle of the tongue, and joins the superior and inferior longitudinal muscles. It functions to flatten the tongue.

The transverse muscle divides the tongue at the middle, and is attached to the mucous membranes that run along the sides. It functions to lengthen and narrow the tongue.

Blood supply
The tongue receives its blood supply primarily from the lingual artery, a branch of the external carotid artery. The lingual veins drain into the internal jugular vein. The floor of the mouth also receives its blood supply from the lingual artery. There is also a secondary blood supply to the root of tongue from the tonsillar branch of the facial artery and the ascending pharyngeal artery.

An area in the neck sometimes called the Pirogov triangle is formed by the intermediate tendon of the digastric muscle, the posterior border of the mylohyoid muscle, and the hypoglossal nerve. The lingual artery is a good place to stop severe hemorrhage from the tongue.

Nerve supply
Innervation of the tongue consists of motor fibers, special sensory fibers for taste, and general sensory fibers for sensation.
 * Motor supply for all intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the tongue is supplied by efferent motor nerve fibers from the hypoglossal nerve (CN XII), with the exception of the palatoglossus, which is innervated by the vagus nerve (CN X).

Innervation of taste and sensation is different for the anterior and posterior part of the tongue because they are derived from different embryological structures (pharyngeal arch 1 and pharyngeal arches 3 and 4, respectively).
 * Anterior two-thirds of tongue (anterior to the vallate papillae):
 * Taste: chorda tympani branch of the facial nerve (CN VII) via special visceral afferent fibers
 * Sensation: lingual branch of the mandibular (V3) division of the trigeminal nerve (CN V) via general visceral afferent fibers
 * Posterior one third of tongue:
 * Taste and sensation: glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX) via a mixture of special and general visceral afferent fibers
 * Base of tongue
 * Taste and sensation: internal branch of the superior laryngeal nerve (itself a branch of the vagus nerve, CN X)

Lymphatic drainage
The tip of tongue drains to the submental nodes. The left and right halves of the anterior two-thirds of the tongue drains to submandibular lymph nodes, while the posterior one-third of the tongue drains to the jugulo-omohyoid nodes.

Microanatomy
The upper surface of the tongue is covered in masticatory mucosa, a type of oral mucosa, which is of keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. Embedded in this are numerous papillae, some of which house the taste buds and their taste receptors. The lingual papillae consist of filiform, fungiform, vallate and foliate papillae, and only the filiform papillae are not associated with any taste buds.

The tongue can divide itself in dorsal and ventral surface. The dorsal surface is a stratified squamous keratinized epithelium, which is characterized by numerous mucosal projections called papillae. The lingual papillae covers the dorsal side of the tongue towards the front of the terminal groove. The ventral surface is stratified squamous non-keratinized epithelium which is smooth.

Development
The tongue begins to develop in the fourth week of embryonic development from a median swelling – the median tongue bud (tuberculum impar) of the first pharyngeal arch.

In the fifth week a pair of lateral lingual swellings, one on the right side and one on the left, form on the first pharyngeal arch. These lingual swellings quickly expand and cover the median tongue bud. They form the anterior part of the tongue that makes up two-thirds of the length of the tongue, and continue to develop through prenatal development. The line of their fusion is marked by the median sulcus.

In the fourth week, a swelling appears from the second pharyngeal arch, in the midline, called the copula. During the fifth and sixth weeks, the copula is overgrown by a swelling from the third and fourth arches (mainly from the third arch) called the hypopharyngeal eminence, and this develops into the posterior part of the tongue (the other third and the posterior most part of the tongue is developed from the fourth pharyngeal arch). The hypopharyngeal eminence develops mainly by the growth of endoderm from the third pharyngeal arch. The boundary between the two parts of the tongue, the anterior from the first arch and the posterior from the third arch is marked by the terminal sulcus. The terminal sulcus is shaped like a V with the tip of the V situated posteriorly. At the tip of the terminal sulcus is the foramen cecum, which is the point of attachment of the thyroglossal duct where the embryonic thyroid begins to descend.

Taste
Chemicals that stimulate taste receptor cells are known as tastants. Once a tastant is dissolved in saliva, it can make contact with the plasma membrane of the gustatory hairs, which are the sites of taste transduction.

The tongue is equipped with many taste buds on its dorsal surface, and each taste bud is equipped with taste receptor cells that can sense particular classes of tastes. Distinct types of taste receptor cells respectively detect substances that are sweet, bitter, salty, sour, spicy, or taste of umami. Umami receptor cells are the least understood and accordingly are the type most intensively under research. There is a common misconception that different sections of the tongue are exclusively responsible for different basic tastes. Although widely taught in schools in the form of the tongue map, this is incorrect; all taste sensations come from all regions of the tongue, although certain parts are more sensitive to certain tastes.

Mastication
The tongue is an important accessory organ in the digestive system. The tongue is used for crushing food against the hard palate, during mastication and manipulation of food for softening prior to swallowing. The epithelium on the tongue's upper, or dorsal surface is keratinised. Consequently, the tongue can grind against the hard palate without being itself damaged or irritated.

Speech
The tongue is one of the primary articulators in the production of speech, and this is facilitated by both the extrinsic muscles that move the tongue and the intrinsic muscles that change its shape. Specifically, different vowels are articulated by changing the tongue's height and retraction to alter the resonant properties of the vocal tract. These resonant properties amplify specific harmonic frequencies (formants) that are different for each vowel, while attenuating other harmonics. For example, [a] is produced with the tongue lowered and centered and [i] is produced with the tongue raised and fronted. Consonants are articulated by constricting airflow through the vocal tract, and many consonants feature a constriction between the tongue and some other part of the vocal tract. For example, alveolar consonants like [s] and [n] are articulated with the tongue against the alveolar ridge, while velar consonants like [k] and [g] are articulated with the tongue dorsum against the soft palate (velum). Tongue shape is also relevant to speech articulation, for example in retroflex consonants, where the tip of the tongue is curved backward.

Intimacy
The tongue plays a role in physical intimacy and sexuality. The tongue is part of the erogenous zone of the mouth and can be used in intimate contact, as in the French kiss and in oral sex.

Disease
A congenital disorder of the tongue is that of ankyloglossia also known as tongue-tie. The tongue is tied to the floor of the mouth by a very short and thickened frenulum and this affects speech, eating, and swallowing.

The tongue is prone to several pathologies including glossitis and other inflammations such as geographic tongue, and median rhomboid glossitis; burning mouth syndrome, oral hairy leukoplakia, oral candidiasis (thrush), black hairy tongue, bifid tongue (due to failure in fusion of two lingual swellings of first pharyngeal arch) and fissured tongue.

There are several types of oral cancer that mainly affect the tongue. Mostly these are squamous cell carcinomas.

Food debris, desquamated epithelial cells and bacteria often form a visible tongue coating. This coating has been identified as a major factor contributing to bad breath (halitosis), which can be managed by using a tongue cleaner.

Medication delivery
The sublingual region underneath the front of the tongue is an ideal location for the administration of certain medications into the body. The oral mucosa is very thin underneath the tongue, and is underlain by a plexus of veins. The sublingual route takes advantage of the highly vascular quality of the oral cavity, and allows for the speedy application of medication into the cardiovascular system, bypassing the gastrointestinal tract. This is the only convenient and efficacious route of administration (apart from Intravenous therapy) of nitroglycerin to a patient suffering chest pain from angina pectoris.

Other animals
The muscles of the tongue evolved in amphibians from occipital somites. Most amphibians show a proper tongue after their metamorphosis. As a consequence, most tetrapod animals—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals—have tongues (the frog family of pipids lack tongue). In mammals such as dogs and cats, the tongue is often used to clean the fur and body by licking. The tongues of these species have a very rough texture, which allows them to remove oils and parasites. Some dogs have a tendency to consistently lick a part of their foreleg, which can result in a skin condition known as a lick granuloma. A dog's tongue also acts as a heat regulator. As a dog increases its exercise the tongue will increase in size due to greater blood flow. The tongue hangs out of the dog's mouth and the moisture on the tongue will work to cool the bloodflow.

Some animals have tongues that are specially adapted for catching prey. For example, chameleons, frogs, pangolins and anteaters have prehensile tongues.

Other animals may have organs that are analogous to tongues, such as a butterfly's proboscis or a radula on a mollusc, but these are not homologous with the tongues found in vertebrates and often have little resemblance in function. For example, butterflies do not lick with their proboscides; they suck through them, and the proboscis is not a single organ, but two jaws held together to form a tube. Many species of fish have small folds at the base of their mouths that might informally be called tongues, but they lack a muscular structure like the true tongues found in most tetrapods.

Figures of speech
The tongue can serve as a metonym for language. For example, the New Testament of the Bible, in the Book of Acts of the Apostles, Jesus' disciples on the Day of Pentecost received a type of spiritual gift: "there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues ....", which amazed the crowd of Jewish people in Jerusalem, who were from various parts of the Roman Empire but could now understand what was being preached. The phrase mother tongue is used as a child's first language. Many languages have the same word for "tongue" and "language", as did the English language before the Middle Ages.

A common temporary failure in word retrieval from memory is referred to as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. The expression tongue in cheek refers to a statement that is not to be taken entirely seriously – something said or done with subtle ironic or sarcastic humour. A tongue twister is a phrase very difficult to pronounce. Aside from being a medical condition, "tongue-tied" means being unable to say what you want due to confusion or restriction. The phrase "cat got your tongue" refers to when a person is speechless. To "bite one's tongue" is a phrase which describes holding back an opinion to avoid causing offence. A "slip of the tongue" refers to an unintentional utterance, such as a Freudian slip. The "gift of tongues" refers to when one is uncommonly gifted to be able to speak in a foreign language, often as a type of spiritual gift. Speaking in tongues is a common phrase used to describe glossolalia, which is to make smooth, language-resembling sounds that is no true spoken language itself. A deceptive person is said to have a forked tongue, and a smooth-talking person is said to have a.

Gestures
Sticking one's tongue out at someone is considered a childish gesture of rudeness or defiance in many countries; the act may also have sexual connotations, depending on the way in which it is done. However, in Tibet it is considered a greeting. In 2009, a farmer from Fabriano, Italy, was convicted and fined by Italy's highest court for sticking his tongue out at a neighbor with whom he had been arguing - proof of the affront had been captured with a cell-phone camera.

Body art
Tongue piercing and splitting have become more common in western countries in recent decades. One study found that one-fifth of young adults in Israel had at least one type of oral piercing, most commonly the tongue.

Representational art
Protruding tongues appear in the art of several Polynesian cultures.

As food
The tongues of some animals are consumed and sometimes prized as delicacies. Hot-tongue sandwiches frequently appear on menus in kosher delicatessens in America. Taco de lengua (lengua being Spanish for tongue) is a taco filled with beef tongue, and is especially popular in Mexican cuisine. As part of Colombian gastronomy, Tongue in Sauce (Lengua en Salsa) is a dish prepared by frying the tongue and adding tomato sauce, onions and salt. Tongue can also be prepared as birria. Pig and beef tongue are consumed in Chinese cuisine. Duck tongues are sometimes employed in Sichuan dishes, while lamb's tongue is occasionally employed in Continental and contemporary American cooking. Fried cod "tongue" is a relatively common part of fish meals in Norway and in Newfoundland. In Argentina and Uruguay cow tongue is cooked and served in vinegar (lengua a la vinagreta). In the Czech Republic and in Poland, a pork tongue is considered a delicacy, and there are many ways of preparing it. In Eastern Slavic countries, pork and beef tongues are commonly consumed, boiled and garnished with horseradish or jellied; beef tongues fetch a significantly higher price and are considered more of a delicacy. In Alaska, cow tongues are among the more common. Both cow and moose tongues are popular toppings on open-top-sandwiches in Norway, the latter usually amongst hunters.

Tongues of seals and whales have been eaten, sometimes in large quantities, by sealers and whalers, and in various times and places have been sold for food on shore.

title: Tongue


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Conformance testing

Conformance testing — an element of conformity assessment, and also known as compliance testing, or type testing — is testing or other activities that determine whether a process, product, or service complies with the requirements of a specification, technical standard, contract, or regulation. Testing is often either logical testing or physical testing. The test procedures may involve other criteria from mathematical testing or chemical testing. Beyond simple conformance, other requirements for efficiency, interoperability, or compliance may apply. Conformance testing may be undertaken by the producer of the product or service being assessed, by a user, or by an accredited independent organization, which can sometimes be the author of the standard being used. When testing is accompanied by certification, the products or services may then be advertised as being certified in compliance with the referred technical standard. Manufacturers and suppliers of products and services rely on such certification including listing on the certification body's website, to assure quality to the end user and that competing suppliers are on the same level.

Aside from the various types of testing, related conformance testing activities include:
 * Surveillance
 * Inspection
 * Auditing
 * Certification
 * Accreditation.

Forms of conformance testing
The UK government identifies three forms of testing or assessment:
 * 1st party assessment (self assessment)
 * 2nd party assessment (assessment by a purchaser or user of a product or service)
 * 3rd party assessment (undertaken by an independent organisation)

Typical areas of application
Conformance testing is applied in various industries where a product or service must meet specific quality and/or regulatory standards. This includes areas such as:

 * biocompatibility proofing
 * data and communications protocol engineering
 * document engineering
 * electronic and electrical engineering
 * medical procedure proofing
 * pharmaceutical packaging
 * software engineering
 * building construction (fire)

In all such testing, the subject of test is not just the formal conformance in aspects of completeness of filed proofs, validity of referred certificates, and qualification of operating staff. Rather, it also heavily focuses on operational conditions, physical conditions, and applied test environments. By extension conformance testing leads to a vast set of documents and files that allow for reiterating all performed tests.

Software engineering
In software testing, conformance testing verifies that a product performs according to its specified standards. Compilers, for instance, are extensively tested to determine whether they meet the recognized standard for that language.

Electronic and electrical engineering
In electronic engineering and electrical engineering, some countries and business environments (such as telecommunication companies) require that an electronic product meet certain requirements before they can be sold. Standards for telecommunication products written by standards organizations such as ANSI, the FCC, and IEC have certain criteria that a product must meet before compliance is recognized. In countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and some parts of Europe, products cannot be sold unless they are known to meet those requirements specified in the standards. Usually, manufacturers set their own requirements to ensure product quality, sometimes with levels much higher than what the governing bodies require. Compliance is realized after a product passes a series of tests without occurring some specified mode of failure.

Compliance testing for electronic devices include emissions tests, immunity tests, and safety tests. Emissions tests ensure that a product will not emit harmful electromagnetic interference in communication and power lines. Immunity tests ensure that a product is immune to common electrical signals and electromagnetic interference (EMI) that will be found in its operating environment, such as electromagnetic radiation from a local radio station or interference from nearby products. Safety tests ensure that a product will not create a safety risk from situations such as a failed or shorted power supply, blocked cooling vent, and powerline voltage spikes and dips.

For example, Ericsson's telecommunications research and development subsidiary Telcordia Technologies publishes conformance standards for telecommunication equipment to pass the following tests:

 * Radiated immunity : An antenna is used to subject the device to electromagnetic waves, covering a large frequency range (usually from 80 MHz to 6 GHz).
 * Radiated emissions : One or more antennas are used to measure the amplitude of the electromagnetic waves that a device emits. The amplitude must be under a set limit, with the limit depending on the device's classification.
 * Conducted immunity : Low frequency signals (usually 10 kHz to 80 MHz) are injected onto the data and power lines of a device. This test is used to simulate the coupling of low frequency signals onto the power and data lines, such as from a local AM radio station.
 * Conducted emissions : Similar to radiated emissions, except the signals are measured at the power lines with a filter device.
 * Electrostatic discharge (ESD) immunity : Electrostatic discharges with various properties (rise time, peak voltage, fall time, and half time) are applied to the areas on the device that are likely to be discharged too, such as the faces, near user accessible buttons, etc. Discharges are also applied to a vertical and horizontal ground plane to simulate an ESD event on a nearby surface. Voltages are usually from 2 kV to 15 kV, but commonly go as high as 25 kV or more.
 * Electrical Fast Transient Burst immunity (EFTB) : Bursts of high voltage pulses are applied to the powerlines to simulate events such as repeating voltage spikes from a motor.
 * Powerline dip immunity : The line voltage is slowly dropped down then brought back up.
 * Powerline surge immunity : A surge is applied to the line voltage.

Standardization and agreements
Several international standards relating to conformance testing are published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and covered in the divisions of ICS 03.120.20 for management and ICS 23.040.01 for technical. Other standalone ISO standards include:

 * ISO/TR 13881:2000 Petroleum and natural gas industries—Classification and conformity assessment of products, processes and services
 * ISO 18436-4:2008 Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines—Requirements for qualification and assessment of personnel—Part 4: Field lubricant analysis
 * ISO/IEC 18009:1999 Information technology—Programming languages—Ada: Conformity assessment of a language processor

Conformity assessment and mutual recognition agreements
Many countries sign mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) with other countries in order to promote trade of and facilitate market access to goods and services, while making it easier to meet a country's conformance testing requirements. Additionally, these agreements have the advantage of increasing confidence in conformance assessment bodies (e.g., testing labs and certification bodies), and by extension, product quality. An example is the IAF MLA which is an agreement for the mutual recognition of accredited certification between IAF Accreditation Body (AB) Member signatories.

title: Conformance testing


text:
Talk:Xanana Gusmão

Australian first wife
At some stage he married an an Australian aid worker, Kirsty Sword IIRC. Anyone know what happened to his first wife? --Robert Merkel
 * Don't know, sorry, but I've just added a Kirsty Sword Gusmão entry. Tale 13:18, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Kirsty Sword met him 1994 and married Xanana 2000, one year after he was left out of jail. --J. Patrick Fischer 00:23, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
 * She is still pretty much alive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pelike88 (talk • contribs) 07:10, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

He is a Mestiço
Is Gusmao of ethnic Portuguese descent? Just curious...--fredericknoronha 21:35, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Xanana Gusmao is a Mestiço which is a hybrid of Portugese and Malay/Papuan. But he is a Timorese. 68.144.126.226 23:24, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

 * No, he is not a mestiço, much less of ethnic Portuguese descent. Unfortunately, the clowns responsible for the Prime Minister's website have just copied and pasted the Wikipedia article without checking the facts. Quiensabe (talk) 10:27, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Name Change
I didn't notice that it mentioned when or how his name was changed. For the record, Xanana contributed to local (Dili?) newspapers. In his words, "There was this popular song at the time that went 'sha na na na'." He chose this as his penname, but changed the spelling from Shanana to Xanana (Don't quote me but that might have been because of Portugese spelling of 'sh'). Someone must have recognized his writing, because one day when he was walking someone behind him called, "Hey, Shanana!" and he turned around. After that the name simply stuck. I am unsure exactly when he began using it officially. Wyrmfire 03:23, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Gusmao is not currently a representative of FRETILIN
The box to the right of the article listed his party affiliation as FRETILIN, but FRETILIN re-elected Alkatiri less than two weeks ago. Also, this article from a mainstream Australian news source describes Gusmao as an opponent of FRETILIN. It says he is allied with the Democratic Party (East Timor). Here's a quote:

"The talks came after pressure from the UN, Australia and the US for East Timor's rival political factions - Fretilin and the Democratic Party supported by Mr Gusmao - to settle their differences."

Another article from the same mainstream Australian source says that Gusmao left FRETILIN as long ago as the 1980's: "...during the 1980s Gusmao distanced himself from Marxism and eventually left Fretilin..."

Can someone please settle this confusion? It should of course be possible to provide conclusive proof of Gusmao's party affiliation. It might help if we had a link somewhere to the official FRETILIN website, but I can't find it right now. I saw it yesterday and it had an english part to it but I can't find it anymore.

 * I removed FRETILIN party affiliation from the Infobox for Gusmao. I can find no evidence that Gusmao is presently a part of FRETILIN and abundant evidence that he is not. In fact in the present political environment it seems like intentional misinformation to say that he represents FRETILIN. He was endorsed by nine political parties when he won the Presidency but FRETILIN was not one of them. Here are some quotes I found:

 * "...simmering tensions between the former jungle warrior [Gusmao] and Fretilin. Gusmao led Fretilin's military wing in the 24-year independence battle but has since distanced himself from the party..." - Agence France Presse, 2002, posted on ETAN website

 * "Gusmao, who abandoned Fretilin´s leadership in 1987 to assume a supra-partisan resistance role, underlined past differences with the party, including its decision not to form a “government of national unity” after its overwhelming victory in last August´s constitutent assembly elections... Fretilin won 55 of the assembly´s 88 seats." - LUSA (Portugese News Agency), 2002 (links here)

 * "I was a member of the Central Committee of Fretilin until '87, and I already explained to some people and I already told Fretilin also that as a member of Central Committee of Fretilin until '87, I will respond also for the political mistakes. If people don't like to say crimes, but political mistakes that Fretilin did." - Xanana Gusmao, 2000, (links here)

 * There's plenty more info out there (here's just one easy search you could do).

Resistance Wording
currently says "he was appointed with a defence lawyers". I would be bold and change it if I knew what it should be-  (a) defence lawyer(s) were appointed for him? He appointed his own defence lawyers?

IceDragon64 21:36, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Some old page history of interest
See Talk:Xanana Gusmão/History for some old page history that is related to this article. Graham 87 08:31, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Assassination attempt?
Gusmao is categorized as a survivor of an assassination attempt, but it says nothing in the article. Is it true or should the category be removed? Crisco 1492 (talk) 15:31, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

 * Check 2008 East Timorese assassination attempts. --J. Patrick Fischer (talk) 20:54, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

 * Okay. I will add a bit of info to the article. Thanks! Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:15, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Xanana Gusmão


text:
User:Doodoo

Hello there. Could you explain how the files you uploaded are to be used in wikipedia? I quess you could be able to use the images in an article but screen shots of a game are probably protected by copyright and it is difficult to imagine how they really could contribute to an article without some explanation in the upload comment field. These are the files;, Tunnel.jpg, Mountain Resort.jpg, Crash.jpg --maveric149

 * Never mind, another sysop deleted the files. --maveric149

title: User:Doodoo


text:
User:Toreun

I am Toreun, a chaotician and discordian. I have been interested in self-moderation communities such as Wiki for some time. Website: http://www.toreun.org/

title: User:Toreun


text:
Talk:Alphons

Alphonso / Alfonso
I don't understand why the title of the page is Alfonso (the name in Italian and Spanish), when within the heading it is said that Alphonso is the spelling of the name in English. Shouldn't we move the title to the English name?--RR' 09:03, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

The "ph"
The "ph" in most of the Alphonsos here seems to be an archaic spelling. For example: "Alphonso V" Aragon yields 180 results on Google, and "Alfonso V" Aragon yields 963. I will check and change over those Alphonsos that yield similar results and provide Alfonso redirects for borderline cases as I have time. --maveric149
 * The "ph" was obliterated from Spanish orthography in 1780s. I thaught 'Alphonso' wass the name in the English tradition. Other than that, which variant should you choose? The French Alphonse? the Catalan Alfons? the contemporary Spanish Alfonso? or the Portuguese one or...? Perique des Palottes 2002/07/25
 * I really don't think "Alphonso" is an English spelling. To the extent that we have the name in English, it's "Alphonse". I say change these guys to Alfonso (the only way I've ever seen them anyway). - Montréalais

I am now moving all the Spanish Alphonsos to Alfonso. I don't know how the Portuguese Alphonsos should be spelt and I would appreciate input. - Montréalais
 * Is the choice between Afonso or Affonso (the Portuguese name) and Alfonso (the usual translation) and Alphonso (the old-fashioned translation)? I would think using Alfonso would be fine, if only to match the Spanish ones. Googling on these + Portugal (as an approximation as it will also catch non-king references):
 * Afonso & Portugal 59,200
 * Affonso & Portugal 4,770
 * Alfonso & Portugal 76,100
 * Alphonso & Portugal 2,690
 * Alphonse & Portugal 9,030
 * Someone else 07:04 Dec 29, 2002 (UTC)

Redirects
I have finished fixing the redirects for the Alfonsos of Castile as far as Alfonso IX. If you want to continue, please let me know how far you got. I'm going to bed ^_^ - Montréalais

Afonso
Alfonso is not portuguese. Portuguese translation is Afonso (one f). I understand that is problaby more correct for English Wikipedia to put Alphonso or Alfonso, but, as a portuguese, I find that somewhat strange. Is like calling King John Charles to El Rey Juan Carlos de Espana. Perhaps I should substitute every Alfonso... Opinions? Muriel Gottrop

You are quite right. There has never been an "L" in the Portuguese variant of the surname. However, it has been spelled "Affonso" and "Afonco" on occasion. This style went mostly out of use from about the early 19th century although I suppose it would be possible to find someone somewhere using that more archaic form today.

The tradition in Portugal is to associate the Afonso surname with the illegitimate royal line beginning with Count Henry of Burgundy, father of the first Portuguese king, in the 11th century. Henry's illegitimate son was named Afonso. His legitimate heir was Afonso Henriques (Afonso, son of Henry) who became the first of the Burgundian dynasty that established Portugal as an independent and sovereign nation nearly 350 years before a united Spain in 1492.

Most subsequent rulers of Portugal until the late middle ages reserved "Afonso" for the identity of a natural child who, although of paternal royal blood, could not assume the throne. The Burgundian dynasty was followed by the Avis and then the Braganza dynasties, but in most instances, the surname "Afonso" was reserved for and adopted by illegitimate lines as a means to track them. Their social status ranged from the highest level of noble to commoner. Today, the surname Afonso is relatively rare and it is diffused throughout the country, suggesting multiple origins.

Grandcross 03:44, 8 July 2014 (UTC)grandcross — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grandcross (talk • contribs)

Ildephonsus
Is Alfonso a variant of Ildephonsus?

Expansion and Dab
Hello peolple! Please don't think I'm trying to place in this one dab page all the people named Alfonso, Alfons, Afonso, Affonso, Alphonse, Alphons, Alphonso, Alphonzo, Hildefuns, Ildefonso or Ildephonsus (plus all the variants). This is a preliminary step to build up different disambiguation pages for all those names, connecting the pages between them. Do you agree? Hope so. Cheers! The Ogre 20:54, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Done! But I've changed my mind. I now think it should all stay in the same dab page. What do you think? The Ogre 04:50, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

alfons = pimp
In Danish, Polish and Norwegian the word alfons means pimp and is almost unused as a given name. This meaning is derived from the pimp who is the main character of the comedy Monsieur Alphonse (1873) by Alexandre Dumas. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.74.142.188 (talk) 07:38, 7 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I would assume this is notable enough to be mentioned (a source is found at http://denstoredanske.dk/Samfund,_jura_og_politik/Jura/Kriminalret,_speciel/alfonseri ) - and in any case, the Dumas character should have been mentioned under the Fictional characters section. Any objections to such an amendment?

Adefons
Adefons might easily be a corruption of Adelfons, but it turns out the earliest records of the name do not have the -l-. Förstemann makes a point of recording both forms as valid names and saying that they cannot reasonably be kept apart. It is also not clear what the element ath is supposed to mean, but it is well recorded. It may itself be a conflation of various prefixes, including hath and also a shortened athal.

Förstemann also says that Adefons was the name of a 6th-century Visigothic king (but no such king figures in our list), and of course this makes perfect sense if the name reappears as the name of Iberian royalty 200 years later. But then it should be treated as Gothic in form. --dab (𒁳) 17:18, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

This is surprisingly complicated. We can mine expertise posted in an extensive online discussion in 2007, . According to this (citing José Pedro Machado's Dicionário Onomástico Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa),
 * Adefonsi is recorded in documents between 867-912
 * Adelffonsus in a document of 915
 *  Adelphonsi in 1050
 * Alfonso in 875
 * Afonso in Portuguese first in 1024; Alfonso last recorded in Portugal in 1256 (will of Mahaud of Savoy)
 * The name has been conflated (used interchangeably) with Ildefonsus from an early time.

The (rare) forms Adelfonsus in the 10th and 11th century seem to substantiate the existence of the name athal+funs. But this may still have been conflated with a separate name ata+funs and/or ala+funs. The Al- form may also have been strengthened by association with the Arabic article (Beni Alfons), and/or by conflation with Ildefons (hildi+funs). --dab (𒁳) 10:32, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alphons


text:
Talk:Radiological weapon

Chocolate bomb?
The paragraph in the beginning referring to the "chocolate bomb" is either a complete farse or poorly written. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.93.140.118 (talk) 14:40, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Merge discussion
Why are Radiological weapon and dirty bomb separate articles? If a consolidation of content is warrented, I'm not sure(Even though i think bunnys could kill us all) which title should be where the article is and which is where the redirect should go. Some thoughts: "dirty bomb" is more widely known and used but is also more ambiguous than "radiological weapon" in my opinion. Also, use of the word "bomb" in this case implies that this is a nuclear device --
 * which it isn't. I also remember this term being used in the 1980s to describe a nuclear device that has extra radioactive material on board. --maveric149
 * Radiological weapon and dirty bomb are very different weapons. A radiological weapon is basically a load of radioactive waste (unsuited to making a true nuclear explosive) packed amongst conventional explosives. It's all of the fallout with none of the nuclear explosion. A salted bomb, on the other hand, is a true nuclear explosive that is specifically designed to create long-lasting fallout with its nuclear reactions. I'd recommend taking down the flag on "salted bombs" suggesting the merger with "radiological weapons." --

These are the old definitions. The current definitions are that Dirty bomb and Radiological weapon both refer to conventional explosives mixed with or surrounded by already radioactive materials. The bomb goes off and spreads the radiation. Salted bomb (and the specific example, Cobalt bomb) refer to a nuclear explosive with a casing of potentially radioactive isotopes. For example, a casing of non-radioactive cobalt-59 could be converted to highly radioactive cobalt-60 by the nuclear explosion. The nuke explodes, spreading the now radioactive casing (which produces vastly more fallout than an "unsalted" bomb).

Conventional, dirty, salted and straight nuclear bombs or devices can be delivered by hand, by truck, from the air, from missiles or any other means. But obviously, a dirty bomb is more within the technological capabilities of non-state actors.

Right now, both the Dirty bomb and Radiological weapon articles (and their redirects) discuss the same underlying material. (If you doubt, read the articles.) In my opinion, they should be merged. What do you think? --RoyGoldsmith (talk) 23:25, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

 * Merge Dirty bomb and Radiological weapon; they cover the same topic, based on the current use of the term, as the pages show. I agree that Salted bomb should stay separate. Klbrain (talk) 20:41, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Another discussion

 * Iraq under Saddam Hussein is reported to have tested a radiological weapon in 1987 for use against Iran. This weapon was found to be impractical because the radioactive isotopes in the weapon would decay quickly, rendering it useless within a week after the weapon was manufactured. Furthermore, it was found that for the radioactive material to spread, weather conditions had to be ideal. These problems are in general shared by all forms of air-borne radiological warfare.

Is there a source for this? I'm skeptical, because I've been skeptical of US Intelligence reports since there has been a bit of doubt on they're correctness/NPOV. So a source would be nice to back this up. Leaving it in the article for now. --ORBIT 06:17, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

''I have read a similar description from the UN that had sent inspectors and investigated the 1987 event (after 1991). The problems with RW are well documented in US military history, and are essentially are similar to what Iraq discovered in 1987. The additional problem is that a RW stockpile conflicts with the logistics needed for obtaining plutonium for a nation with a limited neutron budget.

I am surprised that RW has been limited to a "RDD" (a catchy fraze from a contemporary security paper). If you asked someone in 1960's, RW would have also included deliberate use of nuclear fallout and enhanced radiation variants of nuclear weapons (i.e., "neutron bomb).''

If you watch the BBC Programme "The power of Nightmares" you will see proof and fact backed up to show that the "Dirty Bomb" is useless (by military standards)- at worst it is a weapon of fear, but the actual harm is neglegable by in large (see above article) unless you are caught in the direct line of the blast. Please will someone clear this myth up once and for all!!? The media, films and TV series take great pleasure in keeping this load of twadle alive and well!

That one is from the Federation of American Scientists Strategic Security Blog. A table linked from the blog entry makes the point that to get enough radioactivity out of Uranium to devastate, say, Manhattan, it would take 1,460 tons. The GOOD stuff, enriched Uranium for nuclear power plants. You'd need a nuclear bomb just to blow it up. That's compared to a few pounds of Radium, or the real deal, Cobalt 60, of which you'd need basically a pinch, a TINY pinch, 3.2 grams, or Celsium-137, for which you'd need 40 grams. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.105.5.112 (talk) 13:24, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Episode of 24
On a recent episode of 24 (TV series), Jack remotely piloted an unmanned drone (equipped by terrorists with a tactical "suitcase" nuke) to a crash-landing. The bomb did not explode, but containment was breached, and the first responders (non-hazmat firemen) were exposed, presumably to a fatal dose. The vice president referred to it as a radiological attack, "a dirty bomb," in an attempt to justify a retaliatory nuclear strike. Could this be mentioned as an illustration of the different types of radiological attacks? --205.201.141.146 21:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

template
I'm bad at the pretty stuffright now.. so would someone mind adding the WMD template to this page

History section
I'm fairly certain the "History" section is original research, and incorrect. I am pretty sure they talked about use radioactive poisons within the Manhattan Project as early as 1942, and that the idea of radioactive poisons had almost certainly been explorer earlier in fiction and speculative science. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 22:47, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Radioactive stuffs and Poisons are different things. Poisons are substances that can destroy the human body by disabling or interrupting with systems in our body. Think of neuro-toxins which destroy the brain. A radioactive substance is a substance that decays, and releases dangerous radiation. This can be in the form of loose neutrons, a Hydrogen atom, or a gamma ray. If one of these hits the human body, it can destroy cells, sometimes interrupting them, and changing the DNA to make the cell mutate, or it can make it go berserk and become cancer. --82.217.246.208 (talk) 21:59, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Professional
"The professional history of radioactive weaponry may be traced to a 1943 memo to Brigadier General Leslie Groves of the Manhattan Project and to a 1940 science fiction story, "Solution Unsatisfactory"[1] by Lt. J. G. Robert A. Heinlein, USN(R)."

A sci-fi story is "professional"? Really? 146.145.251.34 (talk) 18:13, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

The 1943 Memo is "forged". It consists of 3 pages 2. Each of the pages of the memo as published is from a different document. Three are from the Manhattan Project Archives microfilms and the fourth is from an obscure article by prominent radiation health specialist Dr R P Stone. The Memo needs to be so identified in the Wikipedia. The following description of the various documents is available at http://www.ntanet.net/traprock.html

September, 2005 - A skeptical analyst recently had the following comments about the Doug Rokke version of the Groves memo: I have been looking at Mr. Rokke and his claims for depleted uranium for some time. His acceptance by the "peace" community continues to baffle me. His "Groves memo", while it does suffer from the "out of context" flaw, is subject to much more fundamental criticism.

The "Memo", as presented by Rokke (hereafter the "Rokke Memo"), is itself a fabrication. If you look carefully at the four pages of the Rokke memo, several things cry out for notice. The pages are oddly numbered - there is one "page 1", and three "page 2" sheets.

They are typed with a mix of Pica and Elite typewriters. There is no continuity in paragraph and sub-paragraph numbering among the pages. The grammatical transitions from page to page either extremely strained, or missing altogether.

There is no "signature block", a cardinal sin in military correspondence.

I was able to verify that the four pages actually come from four separate documents.

References for the first two pages comes from "Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments' public meeting, 13-14 June 1994, Tab F. The second two pages are found in "Correspondence ("Top Secret") of the Manhattan Engineer District 1942-1946" National Archives Microfilm Publication M1109, Roll 1. Page one is the only page that is actually part of the original "Groves Memo". The second (and last) page of the actual memo is missing in the Rokke Memo, and shows the actual author of the memo to be K. D. Nichols, Colonel, Corps of Engineers.

The first "Page 2" of the Rokke memo is actually the second page of a three-page summary written by the same Colonel Nichols. The first page and the third page of this summary are not included in the Rokke Memo. The document he summarizes is the document actually written by Doctors Conant, Compton and Urey. The second "Page 2" of the Rokke memo is from an seven-page document entitled "Radioactive Materials as a Military Weapon". It was part of a package of information used in a then "top-secret" project known as "Operation Peppermint" early in 1944. This document is probably an accurate version of the original paper written by the three scientists above. The final "Page 2" of the Rokke memo is actually page 2 of "Appendix I. Effects of Gamma-Rays on People" authored by a "Dr. R. S. Stone". I hope some of this information is useful to you.

Sincerely, Gary F. Giesecke

Mr Giesecke advised me that he no longer had copies of the original documents in context but that he had obtained them from microfilms he had obtained at the local library. Accordingly, I went to the UC Berkeley Library and found The "Operation Peppermint" document that was written in 1944, after the October 1943 date of this memo. I will e-mail the actual material, including photos I took of the microfilm reader screen and box to anyone who contacts me and requests them. I became interested in this memo in 2005 because I read it carefully and could find no instance of the word "uranium" or "depleted uranium" in it and that it discussed "f.p.", fission products and very high levels of radiation, 100 Roentgens/day. I did not learn of Mr Giesecke's concerns and research until sometime later and did not get to the UC Library until last fall. I need to return to the UC Library and find the other two Manhattan Project Archive documents and copy them to a thumb drive so that I will have a readily available Adobe Acrobat copy of each page in original context. I want to get the Wikipedia to remove all references to the 1943 Groves Memorandum except for one entry declaring the memo, which is widely cited in anti-depleted uranium campaign circles and elsewhere as being a forgery together with the support for that.

Roger Rhotel1 (talk) 11:28, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Global threats
Perhaps the threat of the possible acquiring of radioactive material by criminal groups would need to be mentioned. Appearantly, there is a serious risk of something like that happening on specific sites on the African continent (Niger and Congo, where Areva operates). Perhaps it should be mentioned so that better precautions can be taken, resulting from mentioning this here. See Atomic Africa documentary 81.246.156.87 (talk) 15:41, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

Moved from article to here
Rhotel1 posted this comment in the article:

I moved it to here since it does not seem to belong to the article. --Brandizzi (talk) 01:02, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 3 one external links on Radiological weapon. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20051212182203/http://www.ndu.edu:80/inss/strforum/SF136/forum136.html to http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/SF136/forum136.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20050919235612/http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1281456.html?page=2&c=y to http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1281456.html?page=2&c=y
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20051229201308/http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4232 to http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4232

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Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 12:49, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Radiological weapon


text:
Talk:Computer insecurity

Suggested Merge
I suggest that this article be merged with Computer Insecurity, for the reason that "Computer Insecurity" is not really a bona-fide term related to the industry. Urgh. With few exceptions, most of the top references coming up in search engines are related to facebook entries or (minor player) pundit blogs. Not everything necessarily has an opposite. For example, you wouldn't make a "Country Non-music" article as an opposite of County Music. If computer security really needed an opposite, a better term would be computer vulnerability or more accurately, software vulnerability. Cheers. -- Abraham Lincoln
 * Agreed. This article is confusing.  Someone please candidate for delete and we can have a propper vote on this.
 * Seconded. This term is gibberish. :::Third.

Definition?
'Computer insecurity' could be seen as the designing-in of features which make the computer insecure. This differs in concept from computer security measures. It refers to the addition of features which are fundamentally unwise or ill thought-out from a security POV, and which render the computer more likely to have vulns.

Examples:
 * Hidden filename extensions (User can't tell the file is an executable)
 * Auto-running of executables on CD or USB memory (Self explanatory)
 * Using C/C++ with its buffer overflow risk (Just about any other choice would be better)
 * Allowing websites to compile and run code on the computer (Java, etc)
 * Software which malfunctions unless run as Administrator, forcing the removal of security measures
 * Using SQL to store web form responses (Code injection risk)

None of these practices are vulns in themselves, but all lead to a high risk of unnoticed vulns existing. All could, in principle, be avoided, but rarely are. Thus, insecurity is built into the system by their presence. A computer designed with security in mind would eschew such features.

-A reasonable definition? --Anteaus (talk) 20:03, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

timeline idea
We need to find some way to add a new category for the underground movement, having a timeline, references to Phrack, to 2600, to the BBS's etc.
 * already exists at the hacking article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.249.208.149 (talk) 19:33, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

viewpoints
I've been looking at this page, and I completely agree with you that it needs a major rewrite. However, I'm not sure on how to accomplish it, as what already exists is far to 'advisory' and not enough 'to the point', in addition to beeing very "morally correct".

It would be a good thing to have a rewrite, imho.

While it's unfortunate I'm temportary moving lot of useful and well-written content to /Talk. It unfortunatelly presented one-sided view of computer security. I hope we'll made better and more balanced article. --Taw

Old article:

Computer Security refers to the measures taken to assure that only the allowed persons can have access to the data in a computer system. As computer systems hold ever more valuable data, the importance of computer security grows. As the systems are ever more complex, this objective, as security in the real world, remains forever unattainable.

A determined thief can successfully rob the best guarded of banks. A determined computer criminal can read, copy, alter or destroy data in the best secured computer. As in the real world, the best you can do is make it more difficult, changing the cost/benefit equation for the criminal. You can reduce the effects of data loss by careful backing up and insurance. And you can further change the cost/benefit equation by pursuing the criminal after the attack.

The only real difference between computer security and real world, "bank" security is that computer systems are poorly understood, as a rule. Managers have usually a firm grasp on real world security issues, like fences, walls, security personnel, alarms, police, etc. And if they do not, their insurance companies do. Computer systems are many times not insured against data theft or destruction, so this "security consulting" is lost. This lack of insurance for so potentially important a loss is in itself noteworthy. It stems probably from this same lack of knowledge, although the cause may be more complex.

A teenager wandering into a warehouse to pick up a trophy and show it to his friends, is not treated in the real world as a dangerous criminal. If such an "explorer" enters into the company computer system, the management can go ballistic, and the trespasser, if aprehended, risks prosecution. This lack of knowledge is potentially the biggest risk in a company. Of course they will have competent technical personnel, but they will tend to concentrate on the technical side of the issue. Social engineering, for example, will probably be ignored.

Of course, the parallelism between computer security and real world security is not exact, for a number of reasons. For example, vandalism is more dangerous in the computer world because it is potentially much more destructive. A vandal can cause havoc in thousands of computers systems around the world with little effort and small risk of capture. Of course the result would be not as visually satisfying as a graffitied wall, but all taken into account, what is really surprising is the small probability you have today of suffering damage from a computer virus or computer worm.

Today, computer security is composed mainly from "preventive" measures, like firewalls. We could liken a firewall to the building of a good fence around your warehouse. A good first step. But not enough if you keep the fence unguarded (no monitoring), or if you hand a copy of the key to everybody that asks for it by phone (social engineering). If, to add insult to injury, it's widely known that you won't prosecute any trespasser, we could consider the firewall installation as almost an exercise in futility. However, many computer systems are not monitored, and the number of computer criminals to be really brought to justice is abysmally low. In that situation, it's no wonder you have no insurance; the policy would be enormous.

Along the same lines of reasoning, it's good to have an antivirus program, but rather pointless if your users open any and all of the executable attachments they receive by e-mail. Opening an executable attachment is the same as opening the door to your system, with your user privileges, to anybody that sent you that attachment.

In short, lack of computer security today is a multi-pronged menace to which a multi-faceted defense is the only response. Buying an off-the-shelf software package is no substitute for a careful evaluation of the risks, the possible losses, the counter-measures and the security policies, done at a high enough company level.

Interceptions
With respect to the risk that "your users" can lack the education, training, and good habits to not open executable attachments delivered by e-mail, the above discussion describes a problem where the reality is that the end users of a computer, or a computer network, have direct access to all the sins of the Internet. The reality is that this is what you find on a system that was insecure from the get go, and never fixed.

 * My work place has a computer network through which our scores of users connect to get to the Internet, and our business data bases, that handle all kinds of applications like engineering drawings, quality documents, payroll, back office accounting, each of which has different security business rules.
 * When an individual PC connects to the network, a script runs on the network to inspect that the PC meets certain standards. For example, suppose it is a laptop that has been out in the cold cruel world and picked up some viros that we not want jumping the network to some co-worker PC.  Well the script finds this and blocks on behalf of the whole network, with a log to IT administrators to inform us who is using a PC that appears to be infected with what.
 * When e-mail arrives, before it goes to the individual addressees, there is anti-virus, anti-spam, etc. protection at the network level, where tens of thousands of such unwanted e-mails get intercepted, and viruses quarantined. The end users might only get 2-3 false negatives a day, at most.

 * My ISP filters spam and virus attachments before they get to me. There is a risk of false-positives causing stuff that I might have wanted to get from reaching me.  Before they implemented this, I did have anti-spam anti-virus etc. on my e-mail, and it was a constant struggle to adjust the rules to avoid false positives and deal with new kinds of unwanted e-mail that the protections not intercepting. The effect of my ISP service has been to reduce the unwanteds significantly from hundreds of unwanteds a day to 2-5 that slip past.  If I ever move to another ISP, what they are doing in this area will be one of the essential criteria in selection.

 * Where different people in some household have access to the same computer, security settings are generally available so parents can set controls on the trouble young children can get into. Given the rapid changes in the computer world, this stuff should really be managed by teenagers in the family.

AlMac|(talk) 20:06, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

can correctness be proven ?
I toned down the claims that code correctness can be proven, by adding the qualification that critics of the so-called Star Wars projects, among others, claim that correctness cannot be proved. In any event, to write from a NPOV, statements of belief or allegations are not sufficient. If you think correctness can be proved, provide links to arguments in support of this that a reasonable qualified person could accept. Graham Chapman
 * In theory, correctness can be formally proven. However, the number of systems which have undergone a formal proof of correctness numbers fewer than the number of thumbs I have.  This maps to the A1 level of security in the old Orange Book. -- Tall Girl 21:59, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

types of attacks
Of the 4 basic attacks, the article focuses on the 3 that are hardest to do. Social engineering, eavesdropping, and even denial of service are extremely expensive. The one that's very easy is code exploits.

Why is that? Well, it's certainly not because we lack "correctness proofs" of codes. Formal proofs are pretty much useless. They're fine for NASA but nobody else can afford them. And they're certainly not error-free since specifications of software are hard to do. Yeah, you know that the program is equivalent to the specification but do you even know what the specification means? What's the point of proving software if you can't trust the proof?

The basic problem with computer security is that there are no security semantics. We still use access control lists, which were proven insecure way back in the 70s or 80s. Not only that, but they were also proven to be deceptive. Access control lists give the illusion of a kind of security which it is provably impossible to ever guarantee.

There are good security semantics, they're called capabilities, and they've been in research OSes for the past two decades. They haven't made it into commercial systems because capabilities make managers nervous; they don't provide the illusion of (provably impossible) control which ACLs do.

By the way, good security doesn't just mean preventing bad people from doing to your stuff what they have no right to do. It also means that you have the ability to do what you have every right to do. Otherwise, the most "secure" computer is one locked in a vault, turned off.

Oh, and "giving someone a program to run which then takes over their computer" is a type of attack. If you consider this attack social engineering then it means social engineering attacks can be prevented (which actually they can). And if it's a code exploit then that too can be prevented (with caps, not proofs). The distinction between a trojan horse attack and a "code exploit" should also be explained. They're not the same as far as the user is concerned. -- Ark

 * Your statements about proofs are true, but misleading. Complete program correctness does not need to be proven in order to gain security, only a core set of operations need to be guaranteed to behave correctly.  Example:  Using a proven capability system is a proof of security.  Even if I've missed something there, my main point that proofs don't have to be all or nothing still stands.  If some software uses proven components, whole classes of exploits could not happen.
 * And I did get it wrong. A program could still give a cap to something that it shouldn't, but that feels like a simpler problem to diagnose and fix than the current crop of exploits.

phraseology distortions
While I was fixing some links, and adding to the wonderful section on financial costs, I noticed some unfortunate phraseology.

Then I added some subcategories to make it easier to navigate to specific threads I wished to comment on.

The reality is that 99% of the computers in the world are delivered to their customers with little or no security, installed by many people who do not realize security implications, and then we embark on a lifetime task of trying to improve the security. There is much work needed to further improve the tools available to those of us in this reality.

However, perhaps 1% of the computer systems in the world are designed by the hardware and software vendors to be secure from the get go. How often do you see IBM AS/400/iSeries operating system listed with vulnerabilities? Perhaps once every 2-3 years, compared to new vulnerabilities every few days for the other systems used by 99% of the world. Once upon a time there were IBM PCs like that, but because including effective security and quality engineering adds to the purchase cost, and because the marketplace demands lower and lower priced computer and software, these highly secure systems that almost never crashed, they were driven out of business by the stuff that has to be rebooted daily. IBM is still very much in business, but their PC division is totally gone, because IBM was unwilling to abandon their commitment to quality, but the only way to compete in the PC business was to deliver products whose quality was in the toilet, so IBM got out of that business.

Anyhow, there are systems out there that are extremely secure in comparison to the 99% reality. The challenges for them is how to cope with the kind of nonsense we have to deal with when we network those highly secure systems to the reality that the 99% computer users dwell in.

But with respect to this article, there are a number of places where people talking about the 99% reality and say something to the effect that a lot more work has to be done, or that the science of computer security is in its infantcy. That is not a valid statement. What is in its infantcy is the challenge of adding good security to a computer system that was delivered without it.

There are in fact several areas of challenge.
 * What I call outsiders ... people who are not authorized to be doing things to the system, the source of the malware, hacking, phishing etc. You deal with this by using anti virus and more sophisticated firewall security suites.
 * What I call insiders ... people who are authorized to be using the system for certain purposes but who use it in an unauthorized way. This calls for security within the software applications to control who may do what, and to conduct computer security audits to make sure the internal controls have been properly implemented.
 * This reality is important on both the 1% of computers that are delivered with good security, but may not have been implemented wisely, and on the 99% of computer systems for which security is something to be added on after purchase.
 * There are mixtures, like insiders who fall for outsider scams like the Nigerian scam where the purpose of the scam is to get your banking info and drain everything from your bank account. Well a trusted employee might use the company account number.

AlMac|(talk) 19:23, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

PC vs. PA
When we first get a Personal Auto, we buy based on cheapest purchase price, for many reasons. Then we discover that during the life of having the car, the purchase cost is a small portion of the total ownership cost, as more and more money is spent on maintenance costs, wear and tear, insurance, impact of gasoline prices on miles per gallon.

We see around us, other kinds of autos, and we educate ourselves such that the next car we get has a higher purchase cost, but lower overall ownership cost, because it needs maintenance much less often. We learn that by changing inexpensive oil more often, the engine needs less costly  maintenance. We learn more and our cost of ownership from car to car gets less and less.

With computers, there is much less exposure to what other people are using, so there is not this continuing education for users after first purchase, that there is other stuff out there where by spending a higher purchase price you can get a system whose rate of needing repairs is microscopic compared to the cheapest purchase price.

I have to reboot my Microsoft Windows home PC regularly because all kinds of stuff gets messed up ... it goes with the system, I have the AS/400 where I work, scheduled to reboot at 2 am every Sunday when no one on the system. Actually it only needs to be rebooted every six months or so, but it is easier to program to do it on a day of week, than something like "First Sunday of July and December".

Bottom line, the vast majority of computer users never get the education that most car users get, with respect to the relationship between buying quality up front, and fighting quality issues for the lifetime of the ownership. AlMac|(talk) 19:37, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

=Buffer overflow peer-review==

Hey, looking for reviewers for this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Peer_review/Buffer_overflow

It would be great to have lots of input from different sources. - Tompsci 19:16, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Added some information
I think my edit manages to convey the difference between "vulnerability" and "exploit", and how exploit code relates to trojans and viruses. I also added information about rootkits, which are today very commonly used even by low-skill attackers. I'm not entirely sure about the order in the "denial of service" part, but i added info on distributed denial of service attacks (and moved the "zombie computer" explanation to there, as well as adding a snippet about denial of service exploits against specific applications.)

Victor Fors 05:27, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Added information about bulk scanning, another common source of public misconception, and usage of anynomizing systems instead of the more common zombie proxies.

Victor Fors 05:41, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

The explanation of network firewalls was blurry; cleared up the information about their role in intrusion prevention.

Victor Fors 05:53, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Added information on practices regarding attacks on "properly secured" computer systems. No need to propagate the myth of the allmighty hacker who can access all of the worlds secret databases at a whim. The practice of auditing code and applications for vulnerabilities in order to penetrate specific systems can be debated, however, the skill, time and manpower required to do this is significant and involves a large factor of luck. Discuss?

Another issue i noted, is in the following section:  "Computer security is a highly complex field, and is relatively immature, except in the area of designing computers that are secure. Because such computer systems are significantly more expensive than those with little or no security, the market place has driven several such secure systems out of the PC business, IBM for example. The ever-greater amounts of money dependent on electronic information make protecting it a growing industry and an active research topic."

Arguably the most analy secure system out there, OpenBSD, is free, as is several other "mature" operating systems such as Solaris. These systems are secure by design, and vigilant auditing/maintainance. I thus consider that sentence false or at least not standing on a logical basis. Comments? (Constructive, non-operating-system-holy war-comments, that is.)

Victor Fors 07:40, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Added in some comments to balance out the Microsoft-centrism of the article. The topic of Microsoft and viruses/spyware versus other operating systems is a controversial one (esp. with all the recent discussion about OS X security), but i think that the opinion that it is "largely a Microsoft Windows-related problem" is widely accepted. Feel free to disagree and discuss with me on this one though.

The part about Microsoft XP having bad local security is based on my experience in the security field, esp. with regards to the total lack of access privilege separation in the signaling system allowing code execution within a higher-privileged process, and thus local privilege escalation. (See information on the shatter attack for examples on what can be done with this. This particular attack vector is now used by practically everyone, as it is very simple to execute). Microsoft has publicly stated that they will not fix this flaw (possibly because it would require that they rework the entire signaling system, which would probably break a lot of third-party applications). Also, removed the part about secure computer systems being more expensive for the reasons stated above.

Victor Fors 22:53, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

"Unsecure" & "Unsecured" are the Correct Professional Terms in the Field of Computer Security
The title of this article is incorrect. There is no such thing as: "Computer Insecurity". People are "Insecure". Computers are "Unsecure". As a system administrator, and former security professional I cringed when I saw the title of this article. Any professional or government information security text will clearly state that the correct terminology is: "Unsecure"/"Unsecured". In fact, when someone uses the terminology "Insecure", when speaking of computer security, it is considered a laughable social blunder that only a novice would make, first, because of the ignorance involved, and secondly because of the humorous implied gross anthropomorphism.

I suggest that this article should be merged with "Exploit_(computer_security)" & "Vulnerability_(computing)", because the information in the article primarily deals with those topics, and both of those topics could use more content.

UNIXCOFFEE928 (talk) 04:29, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Rate of attacks
"The sheer number of attempted attacks is so large that organisations cannot spend time pursuing each attacker (a typical home user with a permanent (e.g., cable modem) connection will be attacked at least several times per day, so more attractive targets could be presumed to see many more). Note however, that most of the sheer bulk of these attacks are made by automated vulnerability scanners and computer worms."

seems to be a popular myth, possibly perpetrated by firewall vendors that like to report innocent events as possible attacks. In 2000-2001 I left a windows 98 machine online for a year with no security software whatever. When the year was up, no malware of any kind could be detected. Tabby (talk) 10:37, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

NYT resource Japanese parliament
Virus Infects Computers in Japan's Parliament; ... The discovery comes a month after Japanese defense contractors revealed that they had also been targets of cyberattacks, which may have ... October 26, 2011 by Martin Fackler 97.87.29.188 (talk) 22:58, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Cyberwarfare, Cyberespionage, ... ? 99.190.85.15 (talk) 03:35, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

 * Here is an excerpt from the October 2011 article ...
 * Related U.S. Expresses Concern About New Cyberattacks in Japan by Hiroko Tabuchi published: September 21, 2011 ... excerpt
 * 99.181.138.228 (talk) 04:11, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Maybe this would be useful in other wp locations? 99.109.125.146 (talk) 00:50, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Also consider China Singled Out for Cyberspying; U.S. Intelligence Report Labels Chinese 'Most Active' in Economic Espionage; Russia Also Named; see China (Blue Army, not Blue Team (U.S. politics)) and Russia (example 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia, 2008 Georgia–Russia crisis) in November 4th, 2011 WSJ by Siobhan Gorman. 99.109.125.101 (talk) 23:04, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Citation for claim?
It is claimed in the article under "Difficulty with response" that the typical home user with a permanent internet connection 'will' be attacked 'at least' several times a day. Is there any citation for this? I somehow feel that this has been exaggerated. Also in the citation I hope they are specific with where they gather their information and not have a computer security company just claim they did a study.Vladashram (talk) 11:37, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Computer insecurity