text:
Timeline of the 2003 invasion of Iraq

This is a timeline of the events surrounding the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

March 16

 * U.S. Special Operations Forces enter Iraq on long-range desert mobility missions to infiltrate into the country and raid key objectives along the border with Saudi Arabia.

March 17

 * U.S. President George W. Bush delivers a televised address to the world, in which he summarizes the past few months' events between the United States and Iraq. He demands that Saddam Hussein vacate his office and leave Iraq within two days, or else the U.S. and its allies will invade Iraq and depose his regime.
 * In the United Kingdom, Leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook resigns in protest of Prime Minister Tony Blair's support of the American invasion.

March 18
Protests against a possible invasion of Iraq begin to take place around the world.
 * In Australia, a "NO WAR" slogan is painted on the Sydney Opera House by protesters. This comes as Australia's Prime Minister John Howard announced he will commit troops to any American-led war against Iraq. A former Navy officer burns his uniform outside Australia's Parliament House.
 * In Denmark, protestors hurl red paint at Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for his pro-U.S. stance shortly before a press conference.
 * In the United Kingdom, Tony Blair survives a rebellion within his own party to win parliamentary support of war actions in Iraq, in which 159 Labour Members of Parliament vote against the government.

March 19

 * As anti-war protests continue, Greenpeace demonstrators chain themselves to the gates of the Australian prime minister's residence, The Lodge.

March 20
The first assaults on Baghdad begin shortly following the 01:00 UTC expiry of the United States' 48-hour deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq.
 * 02:30 UTC: Explosions are reported in Baghdad, damaging civilian buildings. The United States Department of Defense later states that the assault consisted of 36 Tomahawk missiles and two F-117-launched GBU-27 bombs, and that the target was a military bunker thought to contain high-level Iraqi regime officials, including Saddam Hussein himself. Later, on May 29, CBS Evening News reports that the bunker never existed.
 * 03:15 UTC (March 19 U.S. time): U.S. President George W. Bush states that he ordered the coalition to launch an "attack of opportunity" against specified targets in Iraq. The military action was dubbed "Operation Iraqi Freedom".
 * Iraqi state television broadcasts an address from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The U.S. and the British analyze the footage closely, believing that one of his body doubles may have made the speech. However, the U.S. eventually says it believes the address was indeed delivered by Saddam Hussein himself. It has not yet been ascertained when the address was recorded, however. Speculation begins that Saddam Hussein may have been killed. However, these reports are deemed to be false.
 * It is announced that special operations forces are operating inside Iraq. Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States all have special operations forces in the area. Soon after the strike on Baghdad, Iraq launches a number of missiles at targets in Kuwait, including at the coalition forces stationed there. 2-3 Scud missiles are also intercepted. The coalition report that they caused no damage. Later in the day, both British and U.S. ground troops move into the demilitarized zone between Iraq and its neighbor, Kuwait, and then into Iraq itself. During the night, 12 British military personnel and four American troops are killed when a transport helicopter crashes.

March 22

 * Airstrikes on Baghdad continue, with the attacks now concentrated on the city's outskirts.
 * Around midnight UTC (early morning local time), reports indicate that 1,500 Turkish troops had moved into northern Iraq. The intervention of Turkish troops had been opposed by the U.S. government. The German government has announced that it will call back the German AWACS personnel watching NATO airspace above Turkey if Turkish troops engage in fights in northern Iraq. Turkey later denies they moved troops into Iraq.
 * At 1:15 (UTC), a collision of two Royal Navy Westland Sea King helicopters from HMS Ark Royal (R07) over the Persian Gulf kills six Britons and one American.
 * At 10:00 UTC, it is reported that U.S. forces are attempting to capture the city of Basra, and are involved in a major tank battle on the western side of the city.
 * Kurdish officials report a U.S. missile attack on territory held by the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam.
 * According to Iraqi regime reports, two civilians are killed and 207 wounded, consisting of mostly women and children. They claim that there have been no defections or surrenders of Iraqi soldiers, and that footage to the contrary is in fact that of kidnapped Iraqi civilians.
 * Five U.S. tanks and numerous vehicles have been destroyed by Iraqi fighters, and coalition forces enter but are later repelled from Umm Qasr.
 * The Iraqi regime puts a bounty of 50 million dinars (US$33,000) for the capture, or 25 million dinars for the killing of each "mercenary".
 * Parts of the city of Basra are entered by the British.
 * A hand grenade attack on a rear base of the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait causes the death of CPT Chris Seifert of the Army and MAJ Gregory Stone of the Air Force and injuries to 14 others. An American soldier, SGT Hasan Akbar is arrested for the attack.

March 23

 * American and British forces succeed in taking the airport outside of Basra, and battle with Iraqi forces for control of the city itself.
 * U.S. Marines battle Iraqi forces near the city of Nassiriya, a key crossing of the Euphrates about 225 mi southeast of Baghdad.
 * News media report that pictures of British and American soldiers wounded and killed by Iraqi forces were shown by the Arabian Al Jazeera TV network.
 * Sixteen Americans go missing; five of them were shown on Iraqi state-run television as prisoners of war and at least four are shown dead in what appears to be a hospital room.
 * In another incident about ten U.S. Marines are confirmed to be killed, after they ran into an ambush during the Battle of Nasiriyah.
 * The British television network ITV reports that its reporter Terry Lloyd was killed near Basra.
 * The battles around the Iraqi cities of Basra and Nassiriya continue.
 * Iraq reports that it has captured a number of American prisoners of war. The United States military states that 12 soldiers from a maintenance unit are missing. A videotape of the captured and dead soldiers are released, showing possible torture and execution-style killings. U.S. officials charge that Iraqi treatment of the captives violates the Geneva Conventions.
 * A RAF Panavia Tornado is shot down by "friendly fire" by an American Patriot missile battery.
 * Coalition forces take control of a large complex of buildings in An Najaf Province near the city of Najaf. Some news sources proclaim that this is a "huge chemical weapons plant", but Pentagon officials call such announcements "premature" and state that no weapons of mass destruction had yet been found.
 * In Belgium, legal complaints are filed against American officials for "crimes against humanity". It was reported that an Iraqi representing seven families deposited complaints for violation of human rights against former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Norman Schwarzkopf in Belgium. Supported by a socialist deputy and a non-governmental organization (NGO), the Iraqis denounce the bombing of a shelter which had made 403 civilian victims in Baghdad in February 1991 during the Persian Gulf War. This is made possible by the Belgian law of universal competence, which provides justice on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and can apply to any nationalities. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell indicates the event was a "serious problem", affecting the ability to go to Belgium, in particular to NATO in Brussels. Powell stated that this law was a subject of worry.

March 24
"Oh, brave fighters! Hit your enemy with all your strength. Oh Iraqis, fight with the strength of the spirit of jihad which you carry in you and push them to the point where they cannot go on."
 * An operation of about thirty American attack helicopters attack the Medina Division of the Iraqi Republican Guard, entrenched in the Karbala area. One U.S. Army Apache helicopter is shot down and captured by Iraqi civilians, along with its two crewmen, who appear later on Arab satellite TV channels. A CNN reporter that was embedded with a helicopter unit that participated in the battle reports the destruction of another helicopter and that helicopters were under heavy fire, with only two of them managing to achieve their objectives. The helicopter's crewmen are later safely recovered.
 * China gives the United States the address of its embassy in Baghdad in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the deadly attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
 * Five people, including one woman, are killed when a missile falls down onto their houses in a populated district in the west of Baghdad.
 * The United States accuses the Russians of deliveries of weapons to Iraq. Ari Fleischer, the spokesman of the U.S. president, rejects denials by Moscow and claims that Washington has "evidence" of these deliveries, which could give the Iraqis invaluable assets against British and American forces. Devices listed are binoculars for night vision, GPS units, and anti-tank missiles. Fleischer says the U.S. government asked the Russians to immediately put an end to its assistance. The Russian government and the companies mentioned as having delivered armaments to Iraq rejects these allegations on Monday, describing them as "inventions" and reaffirming that Moscow strictly respects the embargo imposed by the U.N. on Baghdad. Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects the American charges himself during a telephone conversation with George W. Bush, the U.S. presidential press secretary indicated Tuesday, quoted by the Interfax agency.
 * The Arab League votes 21–1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq. The lone dissenting vote was cast by Kuwait.
 * Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gives a televised address on Iraqi state television, urging Iraqi citizens to fight coalition forces:

March 25

 * Coalition forces begin fighting Iraqi militia in Basra, the second largest city in Iraq. British soldiers reported that the Shiite population of Basra appeared to be rebelling against the Iraqi militia. The anti-Saddam resistance group based in Iran, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, confirmed that the Shiite revolt was taking place in Basra. According to some sources, the Iraqi militia forces were attacking the local Basra civilians, attempting to stop the revolt, with artillery and mortars. The Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed al-Sahhaf denied that any uprising was taking place in Basra.
 * The Red Cross warned that a humanitarian crisis was emerging in the city. The Red Cross, Save the Children and other organizations are attempting to reach the city. Kuwait also has a caravan of supply trucks heading north into Iraq. Coalition forces announce that the port city of Umm Qasr was now "safe and open" and divers begin searching for mines off shore. Once the waters are clear, British ships, which are waiting off of the Iraqi coast, land in Umm Qasr with additional medicine, food and water for the area. Coalition forces have a small supply of food and water that they begin to pass out to the citizens of Umm Qasr.
 * While fighting in Nasiriya, coalition forces discover and confiscate weapons caches and gear to protect against chemical weapons, including a T-55 tank, over 3,000 chemical suits with masks, and Iraqi munitions and military uniforms. All of this equipment was hidden in a Nasiriya hospital.
 * U.S. forces advance toward Baghdad, but are hampered by extreme dust storms.
 * Thousands of chemical suits as well as a tank and a large stockpile of weapons are reportedly found by coalition forces in the An Nasiriyah hospital in Iraq. Coalition forces enter the hospital after being fired upon by Iraqi soldiers hiding in the building. U.S. officials report the possibility that chemical weapons would be deployed on coalition troops as they approach Baghdad.
 * British forces report that a popular uprising in the city of Basra has provoked Iraqi troops to fire upon civilians with mortars. British forces attack the mortar position.
 * According to a U.S. officer, approximately 650 Iraqis were killed around Najaf "in the last twenty-four hours" while the American forces would not have, on their side, recorded any casualties. This assessment, not confirmed by any independent source, would be the heaviest since the beginning of the offensive, the Thursday prior.

March 26

 * The American central command in Qatar admits to have carried out bombardments which could have killed civilians because Iraqi military assets were being placed close to civilian areas - within 300 feet (100 m) in some cases. This occurs a few hours after two explosions occurred in on a commercial street of Baghdad which killed 14 Iraqi civilians and injured thirty more, according to Iraqi civil defense. Also on this day special units of the Iraqi Republican Guard, for the first time, take part in the fights against the American and British forces. Just after the marketplace explosions in Baghdad, Russia calls for "the immediate end of the war against Iraq" and discussions to resume within the Security Council.
 * 954 soldiers from the American 173rd Airborne Brigade, commanded by Colonel William C. Mayville, conduct a combat parajump into Northern Iraq onto Bashur Airfield. Their mission is to secure a northern front to air-land ground units including armor and logistical assets. The paratroopers also assist special operations forces (SOF) already active in the areas north of Kirkuk and Mosul.

March 27

 * U.S. forces take the bridge at Samawah.

March 28

 * The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution allowing the resumption of the Oil for Food program, suspended on March 18, and which 60% of the Iraqi population relies upon for sustenance. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, underlines that this vote should not be confused with a recognition of the war carried out and with a way to legitimize the military action afterwards. The resolution states that the chief responsibility for addressing humanitarian consequences of the war would fall to the United States and the United Kingdom if they take control of the country. This refers to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which defines the responsibilities of a country in wartime to occupying forces.
 * U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accuses Syria of supplying arms and materiel to Iraq; Syria denies these allegations.
 * The first coalition forces humanitarian aid ship, the RFA Sir Galahad, prepares to dock at the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr at 11:45 p.m. (UTC).
 * After 2 days of fighting, Royal Marines from J Company, 42 Commando, captured the town of Umm Khayyal, killing a number of Fedayeen Saddam fighters.
 * An Iraqi missile strikes a shopping mall in Kuwait City. The mall was closed at the time it was hit.

March 29

 * The Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf accuses U.S. forces of killing 140 civilians during the last 24 hours and denies allegations that Iraqi soldiers are disguising themselves as civilians.
 * An explosion damaged a shopping center in Kuwait City before dawn. Initial reports suggest the cause is a malfunctioning U.S. cruise missile, but later reports focused on an Iraqi Silkworm missile as being responsible. No injuries are reported.
 * An Iraqi suicide bomber, driving a taxi, kills four U.S. soldiers, Sgt Eugene Williams, Cpl Michael "Jersey" Curtain, PFC Michael Creighton, and PFC Diego Rincon.

March 31

 * U.S. forces kill seven civilians, including women and children, in an automobile whose driver allegedly did not slow down at a checkpoint. According to a U.S. official, the family, which was probably trying to flee, did not stop after U.S. forces fired several shots above the car, and then into the car's radiator.
 * Journalist Peter Arnett is fired by NBC after giving an interview to Iraqi television, which some considered as unfairly critical of the Bush administration's war on Iraq. Later in the day, Arnett was hired by a British tabloid, the Daily Mirror.
 * The U.S. Department of Defense orders Fox News embedded reporter Geraldo Rivera away from its troops and demands him to leave Iraq after accusing him of reporting the positions of U.S. forces.

April 2

 * U.S. forces reach the outskirts of Baghdad and encounter fierce fighting from small units of Iraqi Republican Guard.
 * Kurdish militiamen, aided by U.S. forces, move into Kanilan near Mosul in northern Iraq. Citizens living in the town tell reporters that they are happy that the Iraqi soldiers are gone.

April 3

 * U.S. forces take control of Saddam International Airport, in southern Baghdad. They rename the airport to "Baghdad International Airport".

April 4

 * MSNBC finds evidence of the deadly toxins ricin, and botulinum at a laboratory in northern Iraq, used as a training camp for Ansar al-Islam, a terrorist group with ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network. The tests conducted by MSNBC were the same type of tests used by U.N. weapons inspectors. U.S. officials said that they planned on conducting their own tests of the area.
 * Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi TV for the final time as the country's head of state.
 * U.S. forces search the Latifiyah Explosives and Ammunition Plant, south of Baghdad, and discover thousands of boxes full of vials of a white powdery substance, atropine (a nerve agent antidote) and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare. Early reports suggest that the powdery substance is an explosive, although additional tests are needed. Some vials contained a liquid. The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. U.N. weapons inspectors visited the plant at least nine times, including as recently as February 18. Later tests show no forbidden weaponry.

April 6

 * Basra becomes the first major Iraqi city to be captured by coalition forces when it comes under British control.

April 8

 * The International Atomic Energy Agency's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, reiterates a statement he made on March 31 that only the IAEA has a mandate to search for and destroy any nuclear weapons or parts of nuclear weapons that are found in Iraq.
 * Two American air to surface missiles hit Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad, killing a reporter and wounding a cameraman. The nearby office of Arab satellite TV channel Abu Dhabi is also hit by air strikes. Al-Jazeera accuses the U.S. of attacking civilian media as censorship. On the same day, an American M1 Abrams main battle tank fires into the fifteenth floor of Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, where many foreign journalists are berthed, killing two cameramen and wounding three. In the case of Abu Dhabi, the station airs footage of Iraqi fire coming from underneath the camera's viewpoint. In the hotel's case, however, other journalists on the scene deny any fire from or around the hotel.

April 9

 * Baghdad is captured by U.S. forces. Some Iraqis cheer in the streets as U.S. forces capture deserted Ba'ath Party ministry buildings and pull down a huge iron statue of Saddam Hussein, ending his 24-year rule of Iraq. Looting of government offices breaks out and forces fighting for Hussein melt away in large portions of the city.

April 11

 * Mosul and Kirkuk captured by American and Kurdish forces.

April 12

 * Looting and unrest, especially in major cities such as Baghdad and Basra becomes a very serious issue. In Baghdad, with the notable exception of the Oil Ministry, which was guarded by American soldiers, the majority of government and public buildings are totally plundered, to the point where there is nothing of any value left. This includes the National Museum of Iraq, with initial reports stating that 170,000 artifacts have been lost. The reports are later discovered to have been exaggerated, with the actual losses ultimately being determined to have been around 15,000 items. Many major hospitals are also looted. The losses caused by looting and plundering starts to cause more and more damage to Iraqi civilian infrastructure, economy, and culture, than those caused by three weeks of coalition bombing.

April 13

 * Tikrit, the home town of Saddam Hussein, and the last town not under control of the coalition, was taken by the Marines of Task Force Tripoli. Perhaps to the surprise of many, there was little resistance.

April 15

 * With the capture of the Tikrit region, the coalition declares that the war in Iraq is effectively over.

May 1

 * U.S. President George W. Bush announces from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), that major combat operations by the U.S. in Iraq "have ended".

title: Timeline of the 2003 invasion of Iraq


text:
Talk:William Norris (CEO)

Untitled
This should be disambiguated. There is also an author William Norris Danny 01:38 Feb 18, 2003 (UTC)
 * Created William Norris (disambiguation) today and started a stub for another William Norris that I know about. slambo 21:54, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)

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The page for Control Data has the much larger cirrect figure of $600 million in the decree, and not "tens of millions." --enm 230 AM 15 May 2004

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Digital Century InOp URL (Deleted)

 * William Norris: Computer Pioneer, Maverick Social Activist

CBI Oral History Archives
Abstract: Norris was a founding vice president of Engineering Research Associates (ERA). He later became head of the Univac Division of the Remington Rand before founding and becoming president and chief executive officer of Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1957.

Norris begins by describing his employment before World War II, his civilian career with the Navy, and his commission in the Naval Reserve. He then discusses his work with Communications Supplementary Activities-Washington. Norris' description of the formation and operations of ERA comprise over half of the interview.

Topics include: the roles of Howard Engstrom, John E. Parker, C. B. Tompkins, and Northwestern Aeronautical in the formation of ERA; the influence of the Whirlwind project; government contracts held by ERA; magnetic drums; and contract negotiations with James Birkenstock of International Business Machines.

In the second half of the interview Norris discusses the ERA 1101, ERA 1102, and ERA 1103 computers, the acquisition of ERA by Remington Rand, the Univac File computer, his work as head of the Univac Division, and the formation of CDC. RJBurkhart 17:16, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

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The Digital Century article (archived) apparently contains an incorrect birthdate of July 16, 1911. According to Norris's bio at the University of St. Thomas, he was born July 14, 1911. This date is consistent with the birthdate of his twin sister Willa Norris as stated in her obituary. 192.18.101.5 15:13, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

inaccuracy in 1980s
"In the 1980s CDC was left primarily as a hard disk manufacturer, and their series of SCSI drives were particularly successful. But at this point the rest of the company crashed, and the board started pressing for Norris to step down."

Perhaps it should say "at the end of the 1980s".

During the 1980s, Control Data rolled out the 800 (825, 835, 855, 830 as I recall) and 900 (930 released about 1987 March**...) series computers and NOS/VE under which a variant of UNIX was added about 1986, referred to as VE/UX. One of the 800 series machines, and the 900 series were manufactured in Canada, as I recall, to cut costs.

From my personal knowledge, through the 1980s we were also involved in data-base management systems (Data Management Technology Center, where Paul Thompson was actively evangelizing for NIAM -- Nijssen's Information Analysis Methodology, now called ORM), CAD/CAM/CAE (CIM division; the 910 work-station was out by 1985, ICEM Surf was close to release in mid-1987, together with a major feature, bug fix and portability release of ICEM/DDN), utility management systems (the Cyber 2000 for electricity and telephone systems management; this was yet another division with its own senior VP*). The joint project between MPI (Magnetic Peripherals Inc.) and Seagate bore fruit in 1986, with the Wren disk drive.

In the late 1980s, the TCE (transparent computing environment) was released, allowing a GUI interface amongst CDC, DEC, Apple, and PeeeCeee boxes, letting you use the native mode on the box before which you were sitting to use apps and files on any of them, or to transfer and translate app files merely by dragging and dropping.

The death knell started to toll in 1985 when Commercial Credit spun off... which later became CitiGroup. That undermined the conglomerate's flexibility.

Of course, the basic point is correct, that the hardware business was suffering. The shift to NOS/VE (which made the IBM mistake of trying to be all things to all people) and attendant shift to integrated CPU chip and micro-code-based systems ran into he competition from low-price AT&T, Sun, SGI, and MIPS work-stations, and the micro-computers. The massive hardware and software development and support organizations were high quality and extremely expensive, and couldn't be maintained with the smaller profit margins.

By 1991, the only new systems I saw coming out of CDC were lottery management systems running on MIPS hardware (3400 series, as I recall). In 1998 or so I had to sell my few shares of stock (and, miracle of miracles, made a small but significant gain on it), and within a few months after that the last piece of the company with anything remotely resembling the name went private.

 * Each major division or subsidiary was headed by a senior VP, but there were many lesser VPs. As Norris explained it, there were many current and prospective customers and government people who insisted on having access to at least a VP, so, at one point we had some 200 VPs.  Yet the organizational structure was fairly flat and used an operational matrix.  At one point I simultaneously worked directly with multiple managers: senior VP Jim Murdakes maybe 3-4 times a year, another VP under him maybe once a year, a general manager (maybe 3 times a year, though I raced past his office a dozen times a day), 2 managers (on a weekly basis), a team leader (every day or two), and then had direct daily contact with at least 3 managers of other software development groups, and the software release manager, and met every 2 weeks to 3 months with the system performance task-force... and yet it worked rather smoothly; people just did what had to be done.

 * I've got the "Cyber 930 in concert" booklet and envelope with the printed signatures of most of the people involved "all of the players and participants" in the release. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.44.18.253 (talk) 16:22, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

http://www.cray-cyber.org/systems/cy960.php Info about the Cyber 180/960 released 1988. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.44.18.253 (talk) 21:20, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

 * This is supposed to be a biography. I'd like to learn about the man, not details surrounding the company. -- œ ™ 09:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:William Norris (CEO)


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Sophie Aldred

Sophie Aldred (born 20 August 1962) is an English actress and television presenter. She has worked extensively in children's television as a presenter and voice artist. She played the Seventh Doctor's companion, Ace, in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s, becoming the final companion in the series' first run.

Early life
Aldred was born on 20 August 1962 in Greenwich, London, but grew up in nearby Blackheath. She sang in the church choir of St James', Kidbrooke, and attended Blackheath High School from 1973 until 1980. She then enrolled as a drama student at the University of Manchester. She graduated in 1983 and embarked on a career in children's theatre. She also sang in working men's clubs around Manchester.

Career
In 1987, Aldred was cast as Ace in Doctor Who, initially for Dragonfire, the final story of the twenty-fourth season. Her tenure on the show spanned the last nine stories of the programme's original run, which ended in 1989.

In January 1992, she guest-starred in More than a Messiah, one of the videos in the series The Stranger, starring Colin Baker, also formerly of Doctor Who.

Both before and since Doctor Who, Aldred has had a varied and busy television career, particularly in children's programming, where she has presented educational programmes under the name "Sophie Socket" such as Corners, Melvin and Maureen's Music-a-grams (which ran from 1992 to '96), Tiny and Crew (which she presented, 1995–96), the BBC series Words and Pictures (1992, 1996-2001), and also the CITV paranormal show It's a Mystery in 1996. She also played the character Minnie The Mini Magician from series 8 onwards in CITV's ZZZap! between 1999 and 2001. Aldred has presented and sung in several BBC Schools Radio series, including Singing Together, Music Workshop, Time and Tune and Music Box. She has also performed on radio and in the theatre. She has also reprised her role as Ace in the 1993 thirtieth-anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time and, since 2000, the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. Following the start of rumours in 1994 and 1995, avid Doctor Who fans expressed hope that Aldred would reprise her role in the project that would become the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, but she did not appear, and her character's fate was not mentioned.

Throughout the 2000s she has worked extensively as a voice-over artist for television advertisements, and has also provided voices for animated series such as Bob the Builder, Sergeant Stripes, the UK dubbed version of the CGI animated version of the Australian TV series Bananas in Pyjamas, El Nombre, Peter Rabbit, Noddy in Toyland, The Magic Key and Dennis & Gnasher.

She co-wrote with Mike Tucker the hardcover nonfiction book Ace, The Inside Story of the End of An Era, published by Virgin Publishing in 1996. (ISBN 1-85227-574-X).

Aldred provided voices for the 2009 series Dennis and Gnasher, including that of title character Dennis the Menace.

She was also a former presenter of the 1996 CITV Saturday morning magazine programme WOW!. Since 2012 Aldred has provided the voice of Tom in Tree Fu Tom, a CBeebies series. The series' other main voice actor, David Tennant (who voices Twigs), previously played the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who. In November 2013 she appeared in the one-off fiftieth-anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot. In 2018, Aldred reprised the role of Ace in an audio drama set during the first season of Class.

In 2019, Aldred reprised the role of Ace in a special announcement trailer for the Doctor Who Season 26 Blu-ray box set. That same year, she also appeared as Mistress Na in the direct-to-DVD film Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor; a role for which she won Best Supporting Actress at the Accolade Competition in 2020.

In 2020, Aldred released the novel Doctor Who: At Childhood's End, where an older Ace (now a philanthropist) meets the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions while investigating an alien satellite.

Aldred reprised the role of Ace in the October 2022 Doctor Who BBC Centenary special "The Power of the Doctor" alongside Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka – who was also a companion of the Doctor during the series' original run and in the episode she reunites with Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. She also reprised the role in the series Tales of the TARDIS.

Personal life
Aldred was in a relationship with fellow Manchester University student Tim Booth of the band James in the mid-1980s. She also had a relationship with comedian Les Dennis during his first marriage, which Dennis documented in his autobiography. She married television presenter and actor Vince Henderson on 12 July 1997. They have two sons: Adam and William. Aldred is allergic to cats and is a vegan.

title: Sophie Aldred


text:
Artabazos I of Phrygia

Artabazos (Ἀρτάβαζος; 480 BC - 455 BC) was a Persian general in the army of Xerxes I, and later satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia (now northwest Turkey) under the Achaemenid dynasty, founder of the Pharnacid dynasty of satraps. He was the son of Pharnaces, who was the younger brother of Hystaspes, father of Darius I. Artabazos was therefore a first cousin of the great Achaemenid ruler Darius I.

General in the Second Persian invasion of Greece
Artabazus was one of the generals of Xerxes in the 480 BC Second Persian invasion of Greece, in command of the Parthians and the Chorasmians in the Achaemenid army. He was particularly in charge of the reserve forces guarding the route back to Asia, and responsible for suppressing a revolt in Potidaea.

The invasion ended the following year with the commander-in-chief Mardonius, ignoring advice from Artabazus and others, meeting the Greeks in pitched battle at the Battle of Plataea and being defeated (479 BC). The Greeks followed up their victory by sailing to Ionia, where they destroyed the garrisoning forces under Tigranes at Mycale in the same year.

Artabazus, however, had refrained from engaging his troops at the Battle of Plataea, and thus managed to lead the remnant portion of a greatly reduced Achaemenid army out of Greece and back to Ionia. According to Herodotus and Plutarch, this force consisted of 40,000 men. Herodotus claims that in Thessaly he did not reveal the defeat as he would have been attacked, but claimed he needed to go to Thrace on a special mission. He was able to return to Persian territory despite losing men in attacks in Thrace.

Satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia

As a reward, Artabazus was made satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia. He was already preceded in this role by several Achaemenid satraps: the first Achaemenid ruler of Hellespontine Phrygia had been Mitrobates (c. 525–522 BC), who was appointed by Cyrus the Great and continued under Cambyses II. He was killed and his territory absorbed by the satrap of neighbouring Lydia, Oroetes. Following the reorganization of Darius I, Mitrobates was succeeded by Oebares II (c.493), son of Megabazus.

Artabazus was named satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia in 479 BC. He was the first official satrap of the Pharnacid dynasty, named after his illustrious father Pharnaces. This office was passed down to his descendants, down to the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Egypt and Cyprus campaigns
Artabazos, together with Megabyzus, then satrap of Syria, had command of the Persian armies sent to put down the revolt of Inarus in Egypt. They arrived in 456 BC, and within two years had put down the revolt, capturing Inarus and various Athenians supporting him. They then turned their attention to Cyprus, which was under attack by the Athenians, led by Cimon. Shortly afterwards hostilities between Persia and Athens ceased, called the peace of Callias.

Origin of the Egyptian campaign
When Xerxes I was assassinated in 465 BC, he was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes I, but several parts of the Achaemenid empire soon revolted, foremost of which were Bactria and Egypt. The Egyptian Inarus defeated the Persian satrap of Egypt Achaemenes, a brother of Artaxerxes, and took control of Lower Egypt. He contacted the Greeks, who were also officially still at war with Persia, and in 460 BC, Athens sent an expeditionary force of 200 ships and 6,000 heavy infantry to support Inarus. The Egyptian and Athenian troops defeated the local Persian troops of Egypt, and captured the city of Memphis, except for the Persian citadel which they besieged for several years.

Siege of Memphis (459-455 BC)
The Athenians and Egyptians had settled down to besiege the local Persian troops in Egypt, at the White Castle. The siege evidently did not progress well, and probably lasted for at least four years, since Thucydides says that their whole expedition lasted 6 years, and of this time the final 18 months was occupied with the Siege of Prosoptis.

According to Thucydides, at first Artaxerxes sent Megabazus to try and bribe the Spartans into invading Attica, to draw off the Athenian forces from Egypt. When this failed, he instead assembled a large army under Megabyzus, and dispatched it to Egypt. Diodorus has more or less the same story, with more detail; after the attempt at bribery failed, Artaxerxes put Megabyzus and Artabazus in charge of 300,000 men, with instructions to quell the revolt. They went first from Persia to Cilicia and gathered a fleet of 300 triremes from the Cilicians, Phoenicians and Cypriots, and spent a year training their men. Then they finally headed to Egypt. Modern estimates, however, place the number of Persian troops at the considerably lower figure of 25,000 men given that it would have been highly impractical to deprive the already strained satrapies of any more man power than that. Thucydides does not mention Artabazus, who is reported by Herodotus to have taken part in the second Persian invasion; Diodorus may be mistaken about his presence in this campaign. It is clearly possible that the Persian forces did spend some prolonged time in training, since it took four years for them to respond to the Egyptian victory at Papremis. Although neither author gives many details, it is clear that when Megabyzus finally arrived in Egypt, he was able to quickly lift the Siege of Memphis, defeating the Egyptians in battle, and driving the Athenians from Memphis.

Siege of Prosopitis (455 BC)
The Athenians now fell back to the island of Prosopitis in the Nile delta, where their ships were moored. There, Megabyzus laid siege to them for 18 months, until finally he was able to drain the river from around the island by digging canals, thus "joining the island to the mainland". In Thucydides's account the Persians then crossed over to the former island, and captured it. Only a few of the Athenian force, marching through Libya to Cyrene survived to return to Athens. In Diodorus's version, however, the draining of the river prompted the Egyptians (whom Thucydides does not mention) to defect and surrender to the Persians. The Persians, not wanting to sustain heavy casualties in attacking the Athenians, instead allowed them to depart freely to Cyrene, whence they returned to Athens. Since the defeat of the Egyptian expedition caused a genuine panic in Athens, including the relocation of the Delian treasury to Athens, Thucydides's version is probably more likely to be correct.

Succession
He was succeeded by his son, Pharnabazus I (fl. 455 BC - 430 BC), of whom little is known, and then by his grandson Pharnaces II of Phrygia (fl. 430 BC - 413 BC), who is known to have been satrap at the outset of the Peloponnesian War. Pharnaces was in turn succeeded by his son, Pharnabazus II (fl. 413 BC - 373 BC), who is well known for his rivalry with Tissaphernes and wars against the Spartans.

title: Artabazos I of Phrygia


text:
Talk:February 16

1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires in Australia killed 75. http://geog.tamu.edu/sarah/australia/bushfires.pdf

1907 Melvin Burkhart, “the Human Blockhead” (d. December 2001), American performer who could drive a five-inch nail or an ice pick into his head without flinching

Obit: http://www.smh.com.au/news/0112/19/entertainment/entertain101.html

Oy. I had put Pete Postlethwaite in the wrong spot on the page, and I had thought I had fixed it. Somehow it didn't stay fixed. :) -- Zoe

"1989 - Kate Peckham, quite possibly the coolest person alive." - Self aggrandisement or romantic tribute? I'll go out on a limb and say Hi Kate. 203.62.236.200 07:37, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

"* 1989 - Noelia C, a Puerto Rican spokeswoman." Second time i removed this. --171.161.160.10 14:41, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Kim Jong Il in 1942 not 1941 born!!!
Hello, I wanted to point out that major incorrect statement on this page namely Kim Jong Il in 1942 was born. Source: http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201002/news22/20100222-01ee.html No problem helping here, we must correct falsehoods through work. Only be reading the truth can we inform ourselves.ProgressiveThinker (talk) 02:09, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
 * See this reliable source for explanation of his year of birth. -- Mufka (u) (t) (c) 02:22, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

James Ingram listed twice
Hi folks, just a "heads up" that American R & B singer James Ingram appears twice on the February 16 birthday list -- 1952 and 1956. I'm not sure if there is ongoing debate as to his birth year or if it's just simple oversight but I figured someone who deals with the list regularly might wish to investigate and correct. Have a great Wiki kind of day! Sector001 (talk) 18:24, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Reminding The FAKE Birthday
Excuse me! Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to remind you all that; Tsunesaburō Makiguchi real birthday was on 23 July 1871, NOT 6 June, and also Nichiren real birthday was on 16 February 1222, NOT 6 April! So we hope that everybody NOT to citation the fake of dates, otherwise, you will get error confusion! Thank you and have a nice day...

不好意思! 女士及先生们, 我想要提醒你们大家的那就是; 牧口常三郎真正的生日是在1871年7月23日, 不是什么6月6日, 还有大日莲真正的生日是在1222年2月16日, 不是什么4月6日! 所以我们希望大家别引用那个假的日期, 否则, 你将会得到错误的困惑! 谢谢及祝你们日子愉快...

title: Talk:February 16


text:
Nonblocking minimal spanning switch

A nonblocking minimal spanning switch is a device that can connect N inputs to N outputs in any combination. The most familiar use of switches of this type is in a telephone exchange. The term "non-blocking" means that if it is not defective, it can always make the connection. The term "minimal" means that it has the fewest possible components, and therefore the minimal expense.

Historically, in telephone switches, connections between callers were arranged with large, expensive banks of electromechanical relays, Strowger switches. The basic mathematical property of Strowger switches is that for each input to the switch, there is exactly one output. Much of the mathematical switching circuit theory attempts to use this property to reduce the total number of switches needed to connect a combination of inputs to a combination of outputs.

In the 1940s and 1950s, engineers in Bell Lab began an extended series of mathematical investigations into methods for reducing the size and expense of the "switched fabric" needed to implement a telephone exchange. One early, successful mathematical analysis was performed by Charles Clos, and a switched fabric constructed of smaller switches is called a Clos network.

The crossbar switch
The crossbar switch has the property of being able to connect N inputs to N outputs in any one-to-one combination, so it can connect any caller to any non-busy receiver, a property given the technical term "nonblocking". Being nonblocking it could always complete a call (to a non-busy receiver), which would maximize service availability.

However, the crossbar switch does so at the expense of using N2 (N squared) simple SPST switches. For large N (and the practical requirements of a phone switch are considered large) this growth was too expensive. Further, large crossbar switches had physical problems. Not only did the switch require too much space, but the metal bars containing the switch contacts would become so long that they would sag and become unreliable. Engineers also noticed that at any time, each bar of a crossbar switch was only making a single connection. The other contacts on the two bars were unused. This seemed to imply that most of the switching fabric of a crossbar switch was wasted.

The obvious way to emulate a crossbar switch was to find some way to build it from smaller crossbar switches. If a crossbar switch could be emulated by some arrangement of smaller crossbar switches, then these smaller crossbar switches could also, in turn be emulated by even smaller crossbar switches. The switching fabric could become very efficient, and possibly even be created from standardized parts. This is called a Clos network.

Completely connected 3-layer switches
The next approach was to break apart the crossbar switch into three layers of smaller crossbar switches. There would be an "input layer", a "middle layer" and an "output layer." The smaller switches are less massive, more reliable, and generally easier to build, and therefore less expensive.

A telephone system only has to make a one-to-one connection. Intuitively this seems to mean that the number of inputs and the number of outputs can always be equal in each subswitch, but intuition does not prove this can be done nor does it tell us how to do so. Suppose we want to synthesize a 16 by 16 crossbar switch. The design could have 4 subswitches on the input side, each with 4 inputs, for 16 total inputs. Further, on the output side, we could also have 4 output subswitches, each with 4 outputs, for a total of 16 outputs. It is desirable that the design use as few wires as possible, because wires cost real money. The least possible number of wires that can connect two subswitches is a single wire. So, each input subswitch will have a single wire to each middle subswitch. Also, each middle subswitch will have a single wire to each output subswitch.

The question is how many middle subswitches are needed, and therefore how many total wires should connect the input layer to the middle layer. Since telephone switches are symmetric (callers and callees are interchangeable), the same logic will apply to the output layer, and the middle subswitches will be "square", having the same number of inputs as outputs.

The number of middle subswitches depends on the algorithm used to allocate connection to them. The basic algorithm for managing a three-layer switch is to search the middle subswitches for a middle subswitch that has unused wires to the needed input and output switches. Once a connectible middle subswitch is found, connecting to the correct inputs and outputs in the input and output switches is trivial.

Theoretically, in the example, only four central switches are needed, each with exactly one connection to each input switch and one connection to each output switch. This is called a "minimal spanning switch," and managing it was the holy grail of the Bell Labs' investigations.

However, a bit of work with a pencil and paper will show that it is easy to get such a minimal switch into conditions in which no single middle switch has a connection to both the needed input switch and the needed output switch. It only takes four calls to partially block the switch. If an input switch is half-full, it has connections via two middle switches. If an output switch is also half full with connections from the other two middle switches, then there is no remaining middle switch which can provide a path between that input and output.

For this reason, a "simply connected nonblocking switch" 16x16 switch with four input subswitches and four output switches was thought to require 7 middle switches; in the worst case an almost-full input subswitch would use three middle switches, an almost-full output subswitch would use three different ones, and the seventh would be guaranteed to be free to make the last connection. For this reason, sometimes this switch arrangement is called a "2n−1 switch", where n is the number of input ports of the input subswitches.

The example is intentionally small, and in such a small example, the reorganization does not save many switches. A 16×16 crossbar has 256 contacts, while a 16×16 minimal spanning switch has 4×4×4×3 = 192 contacts.

As the numbers get larger, the savings increase. For example, a 10,000 line exchange would need 100 million contacts to implement a full crossbar. But three layers of 100 100×100 subswitches would use only 300 10,000 contact subswitches, or 3 million contacts.

Those subswitches could in turn each be made of 3×10 10×10 crossbars, a total of 3000 contacts, making 900,000 for the whole exchange; that is a far smaller number than 100 million.

Managing a minimal spanning switch
The crucial discovery was a way to reorganize connections in the middle switches to "trade wires" so that a new connection could be completed.

The first step is to find an unused link from the input subswitch to a middle-layer subswitch (which we shall call A), and an unused link from a middle-layer subswitch (which we shall call B) to the desired output subswitch. Since, prior to the arrival of the new connection, the input and output subswitches each had at least one unused connection, both of these unused links must exist.

If A and B happen to be the same middle-layer switch, then the connection can be made immediately just as in the "2n−1" switch case. However, if A and B are different middle-layer subswitches, more work is required. The algorithm finds a new arrangement of the connections through the middle subswitches A and B which includes all of the existing connections, plus the desired new connection.

Make a list of all of the desired connections that pass through A or B. That is, all of the existing connections to be maintained and the new connection. The algorithm proper only cares about the internal connections from input to output switch, although a practical implementation also has to keep track of the correct input and output switch connections.

In this list, each input subswitch can appear in at most two connections: one to subswitch A, and one to subswitch B. The options are zero, one, or two. Likewise, each output subswitch appears in at most two connections.

Each connection is linked to at most two others by a shared input or output subswitch, forming one link in a "chain" of connections.

Next, begin with the new connection. Assign it the path from its input subswitch, through middle subswitch A, to its output subswitch. If this first connection's output subswitch has a second connection, assign that second connection a path from its input subswitch through subswitch B. If that input subswitch has another connection, assign that third connection a path through subswitch A.  Continue back and forth in this manner, alternating between middle subswitches A and B.  Eventually one of two things must happen: In the first case, go back to the new connection's input subswitch and follow its chain backward, assigning connections to paths through middle subswitches B and A in the same alternating pattern.
 * 1) the chain terminates in a subswitch with only one connection, or
 * 2) the chain loops back to the originally chosen connection.

When this is done, each input or output subswitch in the chain has at most two connections passing through it, and they are assigned to different middle switches. Thus, all the required links are available.

There may be additional connections through subswitches A and B which are not part of the chain including the new connection; those connections may be left as-is.

After the new connection pattern is designed in the software, then the electronics of the switch can actually be reprogrammed, physically moving the connections. The electronic switches are designed internally so that the new configuration can be written into the electronics without disturbing the existing connection, and then take effect with a single logic pulse. The result is that the connection moves instantaneously, with an imperceptible interruption to the conversation. In older electromechanical switches, one occasionally heard a clank of "switching noise."

This algorithm is a form of topological sort, and is the heart of the algorithm that controls a minimal spanning switch.

Practical implementations of switches
As soon as the algorithm was discovered, Bell system engineers and managers began discussing it. After several years, Bell engineers began designing electromechanical switches that could be controlled by it. At the time, computers used tubes and were not reliable enough to control a phone system (phone system switches are safety-critical, and they are designed to have an unplanned failure about once per thirty years). Relay-based computers were too slow to implement the algorithm. However, the entire system could be designed so that when computers were reliable enough, they could be retrofitted to existing switching systems.

It's not difficult to make composite switches fault-tolerant. When a subswitch fails, the callers simply redial. So, on each new connection, the software tries the next free connection in each subswitch rather than reusing the most recently released one. The new connection is more likely to work because it uses different circuitry.

Therefore, in a busy switch, when a particular PCB lacks any connections, it is an excellent candidate for testing.

To test or remove a particular printed circuit card from service, there is a well-known algorithm. As fewer connections pass through the card's subswitch, the software routes more test signals through the subswitch to a measurement device, and then reads the measurement. This does not interrupt old calls, which remain working.

If a test fails, the software isolates the exact circuit board by reading the failure from several external switches. It then marks the free circuits in the failing circuitry as busy. As calls using the faulty circuitry are ended, those circuits are also marked busy. Some time later, when no calls pass through the faulty circuitry, the computer lights a light on the circuit board that needs replacement, and a technician can replace the circuit board. Shortly after replacement, the next test succeeds, the connections to the repaired subswitch are marked "not busy," and the switch returns to full operation.

The diagnostics on Bell's early electronic switches would actually light a green light on each good printed circuit board, and light a red light on each failed printed circuit board. The printed circuits were designed so that they could be removed and replaced without turning off the whole switch.

The eventual result was the Bell 1ESS. This was controlled by a CPU called the Central Control (CC), a lock-step, Harvard architecture dual computer using reliable diode–transistor logic. In the 1ESS CPU, two computers performed each step, checking each other. When they disagreed, they would diagnose themselves, and the correctly running computer would take up switch operation while the other would disqualify itself and request repair. The 1ESS switch was still in limited use as of 2012, and had a verified reliability of less than one unscheduled hour of failure in each thirty years of operation, validating its design.

Initially it was installed on long-distance trunks in major cities, the most heavily used parts of each telephone exchange. On the first Mother's Day that major cities operated with it, the Bell system set a record for total network capacity, both in calls completed, and total calls per second per switch. This resulted in a record for total revenue per trunk.

Digital switches
A practical implementation of a switch can be created from an odd number of layers of smaller subswitches. Conceptually, the crossbar switches of the three-stage switch can each be further decomposed into smaller crossbar switches. Although each subswitch has limited multiplexing capability, working together they synthesize the effect of a larger N×N crossbar switch.

In a modern digital telephone switch, application of two different multiplexer approaches in alternate layers further reduces the cost of the switching fabric:

 * 1) space-division multiplexers are something like the crossbar switches already described, or some arrangement of crossover switches or banyan switches. Any single output can select from any input. In digital switches, this is usually an arrangement of AND gates.  8000 times per second, the connection is reprogrammed to connect particular wires for the duration of a time slot. Design advantage: In space-division systems the number of space-division connections is divided by the number of time slots in the time-division multiplexing system.  This dramatically reduces the size and expense of the switching fabric.  It also increases the reliability, because there are far fewer physical connections to fail.
 * 2) time-division multiplexers each have a memory which is read in a fixed order and written in a programmable order (or vice versa). This type of switch permutes time-slots in a time-division multiplexed signal that goes to the space-division multiplexers in its adjacent layers. Design advantage:  Time-division switches have only one input and output wire.  Since they have far fewer electrical connections to fail, they are far more reliable than space-division switches, and are therefore the preferred switches for the outer (input and output) layers of modern telephone switches.

Practical digital telephonic switches minimize the size and expense of the electronics. First, it is typical to "fold" the switch, so that both the input and output connections to a subscriber-line are handled by the same control logic. Then, a time-division switch is used in the outer layer. The outer layer is implemented in subscriber-line interface cards (SLICs) in the local presence street-side boxes. Under remote control from the central switch, the cards connect to timing-slots in a time-multiplexed line to a central switch. In the U.S. the multiplexed line is a multiple of a T-1 line. In Europe and many other countries it is a multiple of an E-1 line.

The scarce resources in a telephone switch are the connections between layers of subswitches. These connections can be either time slots or wires, depending on the type of multiplexing. The control logic has to allocate these connections, and the basic method is the algorithm already discussed. The subswitches are logically arranged so that they synthesize larger subswitches. Each subswitch, and synthesized subswitch is controlled (recursively) by logic derived from Clos's mathematics. The computer code decomposes larger multiplexers into smaller multiplexers.

If the recursion is taken to the limit, breaking down the crossbar to the minimum possible number of switching elements, the resulting device is sometimes called a crossover switch or a banyan switch depending on its topology.

Switches typically interface to other switches and fiber optic networks via fast multiplexed data lines such as SONET.

Each line of a switch may be periodically tested by the computer, by sending test data through it. If a switch's line fails, all lines of a switch are marked as in use. Multiplexer lines are allocated in a first-in-first out way, so that new connections find new switch elements. When all connections are gone from a defective switch, the defective switch can be avoided, and later replaced.

As of 2018, such switches are no longer made. They are being replaced by high-speed Internet Protocol routers.

title: Nonblocking minimal spanning switch


text:
Michael Leunig

Michael Leunig (born 2 June 1945), typically referred to as Leunig (his signature on his cartoons), is an Australian cartoonist. His works include The Curly Pyjama Letters, cartoon books The Essential Leunig, The Wayward Leunig, The Stick, Goatperson, Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness and Curly Verse, among others and The Lot, a compilation of his 'Curly World' newspaper columns. Leunig has also written a book of prayers, When I Talk To You.

He was declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1999.

Life and career
Leunig, a fifth generation Australian, was born in East Melbourne and grew up in Footscray, an inner western suburb, where he went to Footscray North Primary School. He then went to Maribyrnong High School, but as the school had not finished being built, he first had to attend classes held at the nearby Royal Melbourne Showgrounds in Ascot Vale. He failed his final year examinations, twice.

After working as a labourer in an abattoir, Leunig enrolled at the Swinburne Film and Television School, where he was at first interested in making documentaries. He was conscripted in the Vietnam War call-up, but he registered as a conscientious objector; he was rejected on health grounds when it was revealed that he was deaf in one ear.

Leunig began his cartoon career while at Swinburne in 1965 when his cartoons appeared in the Monash University student newspaper Lot's Wife. In the early 1970s his work appeared in the radical/satirical magazines Nation Review, The Digger, and London's Oz magazine, as well as mainstream publications including Newsday and Woman's Day.

The main outlet for Leunig's work has been the daily Fairfax Media newspapers, Melbourne's The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has also provided airtime to Leunig to discuss his views on a range of political and philosophical issues.

Cartoons
Leunig's drawings are done with a sparse and quivering line, usually in black and white with ink wash; the human characters are always drawn with exaggerated noses. This style served him well in his early years, when he gained a loyal following for his quirky take on social issues. He also made increasingly frequent forays into a personal fantasy world of whimsy, featuring small figures with teapots balanced on their heads, grotesquely curled hair and many ducks.

Leunig has frequently satirised concepts such as Americanisation, greed, consumerism, corporations and warmongering, in a personal proclamation against the War on Terror. Readers and critics took special note of his parodies of political matters, especially those concerning former Australian prime minister John Howard and former American president George W. Bush. These have earned Leunig a description as a "political cartoonist", although only some of his works are political in nature or reference.

His work has also frequently explored spiritual, religious and moral themes.

Controversial works

Leunig's cartoons have occasionally been a source of controversy. In 2008, he wrote that "Artists must never shrink from a confrontation with society or the state."

Between 1995 and 2000, he drew the ire of working mothers by satirising the heavy reliance upon childcare services in Australian culture in several of his works.

Leunig opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq commenting that "if a cartoonist is representing the government line on Iraq, they're nothing better than a propagandist".

In 2006, Fairfax Media censored a cartoon in New South Wales, but not in Victoria, which criticised the then prime minister, John Howard.

Leunig has also stated his opposition to the Israeli government. Three of his 2004–2006 cartoons drew letters of protest nationally and internationally. The three pieces took as their subjects: IDF bomber pilots (13 April 2004); Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's assassination order from Ariel Sharon (11 January 2006); and the renewed Gaza occupation (12 July 2006). A fourth piece was refused publication and has since been more widely criticised for potentially confounding his opposition to the policies of Israel with an antisemitic, generalised subversion of the Jewish experience, by relying upon a reference to the Jewish Holocaust. This cartoon came to international attention after it was entered in an Iranian competition conceived by the newspaper Hamshahri as retaliation for the Muhammad cartoons controversy. Leunig denied he had submitted the cartoon as an entry to the competition and said "I've been set up horribly, maliciously." He demanded that his cartoon be withdrawn; the newspaper did this and also apologised to him. It later emerged that the cartoon had been submitted as a prank by Richard Cooke, a web contributor to the Australian comedic team The Chaser.

Leunig has partially defined his position with this statement: I have a Jewish friend, a Holocaust survivor, who says that she never could have lived in Israel because in her view it is a totalitarian state. ... I believe that something fundamental and vital, not just to Israel but to the entire world, has been gravely mishandled by the present Israeli administration and it bothers me deeply. It is my right to express it.

In November 2018, Leunig's long running association with the Melbourne Comedy Festival came to an end after 30 years, after artists expressed concerns about being associated with Leunig's anti-vaccination views, and opposition to marriage equality plebiscite. Leunig had designed the logo for the festival every year since 1988. Another Melbourne Cartoonist, Judy Horacek became the festivals branding artist for the following year. The festival did not release a statement regarding Leunig's replacement.

In September 2021, Leunig's cartoon contributions for the editorial page in the Monday edition of The Age newspaper in Melbourne were ended following the paper's rejection for publication of a cartoon he had drawn in response to COVID-19 vaccination requirements in Australia. The cartoon compared resistance to vaccine requirements to the Tank Man in Tiananmen Square. He continues to contribute cartoons for the Saturday edition of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Characters and themes
In the series of cartoons that Leunig has created over the duration of his career, a number of characters have persistently appeared, including:
 * The Duck
 * Mr Curly – a contented character who is at ease in the natural world
 * Vasco Pyjama – a restless wanderer who sometimes seeks the counsel of Mr Curly

Leunig has, from a very early stage in his career, often included his own handwritten poetry within his cartoons; subsequently he has also published books of poetry. He has been very open about his themes, in interviews about his work.

Personal life
Leunig's first marriage, to Pamela Munro, ended in divorce. He married his second wife, Helga, in 1992 but separated in the 2010s. A film documentary about his life by Kasimir Burgess, The Leunig Fragments, was released in 2020 and reveals various difficulties that Leunig has experienced with family relationships. He did not attend his parents' funerals and is not in regular contact with his siblings. His four children were all born on notable dates: Gus on Guy Fawkes Day 1974, Sunny on Valentine's Day 1980, Minna on Australia Day 1992 and Felix on Christmas Day 1994. All of his children were homeschooled.

His sister, Mary Leunig (b. 1950), is also an accomplished cartoonist.

Leunig has a studio in Northcote, Melbourne, and a property in north-east Victoria.

Honours and celebrity

 * 1999 – Leunig was declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia
 * There has been a Melbourne tram decorated with his cartoon characters
 * 2006 – Leunig featured strongly at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. In the performance, the philosophical and mystical nature of his work was on display. It featured a "boy and his duck" and the boy's dreams and visions. Leunig was heard reading a stanza of his poem as a voice-over.
 * Leunig was the creator of a popular iGoogle theme.
 * 2016 – Metrosideros leunigii, the oldest described fossil species of the flowering plant genus Metrosideros, was named after Leunig.

Collaboration with Gyan
In 2006 Australian musician Gyan Evans released the album Billy the Rabbit, which was based on the poetry of Leunig. Gyan and Leunig launched the album at the Melbourne Writers Festival, with Leunig illustrating during Gyan's singing. They also performed together at the Byron Bay Writers Festival and the Sydney Opera House.

Published works
'''Collections of press cartoons and original art and/or poems

 * The Penguin Leunig, intro. Barry Humphries (1974) (40th anniversary reissue 2014)
 * The Second Leunig: a Dusty Little Swag (1979)
 * The Bedtime Leunig (1981)
 * A Bag of Roosters (1983)
 * Ramming the Shears (1985)
 * The Travelling Leunig (1990)
 * A Common Prayer (1990)
 * The Prayer Tree (1991)
 * Introspective, foreword by Helen Garner (1991, to accompany exhibition at National Gallery of Victoria. (Reprinted as "The Michael Leunig Collection," 1994)
 * With Karl Rahner, A Common Philosophy, Ed. John Honner (1992)
 * Everyday Devils and Angels (1992)
 * A Bunch of Poesy (1992)
 * You and Me (1995)
 * Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness (1996)
 * "The Teapot of Truth" (Australia Post, 1998)
 * Why Dogs Sniff Each Other's Tails (1998)
 * Goatperson and Other Tales (1999)
 * Carnival of the Animals (2000)
 * The Curly Pyjama Letters (2001)
 * The Stick and Other Tales of our Times (2002)
 * Poems, 1972-2002 (2003)
 * Kicking Behinds (2003)
 * Strange Creature (2003)
 * Wild Figments (2004)
 * A New Penguin Leunig (2005)
 * Hot ... and Bothered (2007)
 * The Lot: in Words (2008)
 * When I Talk to You (2014)
 * Musings from the Inner Duck (2015)
 * "Ducks for Dark Times" (2017)

Multi-decade compilations

 * Poems: 1972-2002 (2003 hardback) later Curly Verse: Selected Poems (2010 paperback)
 * The Essential Leunig: Cartoons from a Winding Path (2012)
 * Holy Fool: Artworks (2014)
 * The Wayward Leunig: Cartoons that Wandered Off (2015)

Works in the Australian National Bibliographic database

 * The Animated Leunig (videorecording) (c2001)
 * A bag of roosters / Michael Leunig (1983, ISBN 0-207-14830-9)
 * The bedtime Leunig / Michael Leunig *1981, ISBN 0207145059
 * A bunch of poesy / Leunig (1992, ISBN 0-207-17798-8)
 * A celebration: Michael Leunig / Friends of the National Library of Australia (1997, ISBN 0-646-33090-X)
 * A common prayer / Leunig (1990, ISBN 0-85924-933-6)
 * A common prayer / Leunig (1993, ISBN 1-86371-231-3)
 * A common prayer : a cartoonist talks to God / Leunig (1998, ISBN 1-86371-740-4)
 * A conversation between Michael Leunig and Terry Laidler ... (1997)
 * The curly pyjama letters / Michael Leunig (2001, ISBN 0-670-04023-1)
 * The curly pyjama letters / Michael Leunig (2006, ISBN 978-0-14-300546-9 )
 * English in heat / Morris Lurie, drawings by Leunig (1972, ISBN 0-207-12384-5)
 * Everyday devils and angels / Michael Leunig (1992, ISBN 0-14-015911-8)
 * Goatperson and other tales / Michael Leunig (1999, ISBN 0-14-029140-7)
 * The happy prints: printmaking / Michael Leunig (1998)
 * Introspective / Michael Leunig, with foreword by Helen Garner (1988, ISBN 1-86436-356-8)
 * Introspective / Michael Leunig ; with a foreword by Helen Garner (1991, ISBN 1-86372-200-9)
 * Leunig's Carnival of the animals / Michael Leunig, Peter Garrett, Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra (2000, ISBN 0-7329-1070-6)
 * A new Penguin Leunig / Michael Leunig (1992, ISBN 0-14-017097-9)
 * A new Penguin Leunig / Michael Leunig (2005, ISBN 0-14-300480-8)
 * The Penguin Leunig: cartoons / by Michael Leunig, introduced by Barry Humphries (1974, ISBN 0-14-004019-6)
 * Poems 1972–2002 / Michael Leunig (2003, ISBN 0-670-04091-6)
 * The prayer tree / Leunig (1991, ISBN 1-86371-034-5)
 * The prayer tree / Leunig (1998, ISBN 1-86371-741-2)
 * Ramming the shears: a collection of drawings / Michael Leunig (1985, ISBN 0-949266-13-2)
 * Ramming the shears: a collection of drawings / Michael Leunig (1990, ISBN 0-14-015801-4)
 * The second Leunig, a dusty little swag: cartoons, a few verses and selected moments from the voyage of Vasco Pyjama / by Michael Leunig (1979, ISBN 0-207-14328-5)
 * Short notes from the long history of happiness / Michael Leunig (1996, ISBN 0-670-87405-1)
 * The stick : and other tales of our times / Michael Leunig (2002, ISBN 0-670-04048-7)
 * The stick : and other tales of our times / Michael Leunig (2006, ISBN 978-0-14-300146-1
 * Strange creature / Michael Leunig (2003, ISBN 0-670-04136-X)
 * The travelling Leunig: cartoons / by Michael Leunig (1990, ISBN 0-14-014867-1)
 * Why dogs sniff each other's tails : an old but true story / Michael Leunig (1998, ISBN 0-670-88354-9)
 * Wild figments / Michael Leunig (2004, ISBN 0-14-300353-4)
 * You and me: a collection of recent pictures, verses, fables, aphorisms and songs / Michael Leunig (1995, ISBN 0-14-025461-7)

title: Michael Leunig


text:
Talk:Grandfather paradox

Rephrase
The below paragraph doesn't make sense to me... The first sentence is particularly confusing. Can someone please shed some light on this or consider rephrasing it?

"One variant of the grandfather paradox is that when the traveller kills the grandfather, the act took place in, or resulted in the creation of, a parallel universe where the traveller's counterpart never exists as a result, but his prior existence in the original universe is unaltered.[citation needed] In other variants, the actions of the time traveller have no effect outside of their own personal experience;[citation needed] for example, in the novel The Men Who Murdered Mohammed by Alfred Bester.[citation needed]"

Electricmaster (talk) 11:35, 11 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Sure. BrightRoundCircle (talk) 23:46, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

Off-topic
I think I have a solution for grandfather paradox. Once you go back in time and kill your grandfather you actually kill him and remove your own existence as well, that is your grandfather will dead and you will not be born, end of the story. So the paradox of "whether you went back in time and killed your grandfather or not, or whether you were born or not" doesn't apply. So there is no argument of " you go back in time and kill your grandfather, thus aren't born, thus you cant go back in time and kill him, thus your grandfather isn't killed, thus you are born so you can go back in time and kill your grandfather and so on", because as I said when you go back in time and kill your grandfather this will be the end for both of you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mohammad Zuaiter (talk • contribs) 10:57, 22 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Please mind that Wikipedia article talk pages are for discussing the article. They are not for general conversation about the article's topic. What's more you merely re-state the paradox, you didn't solve anything. Bright☀ 14:29, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

Is said to
The Wikipedia Manual of Style discourages constructs like "it is said". If the purpose of the phrase,, is to question whether the grandfather paradox is actually a paradox, then a reference to a reliable source is needed and the information belongs in the philosophy section. I doubt there is such a reliable source, since unlike a lot of other "paradoxes" the grandfather paradox is a true paradox that deals with a self-contradiction, unlike other paradoxes that only deal with apparent self contradictions. Bright☀ 12:14, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

 * Whether it is a true paradox depends on the Physics you assume. In a block universe a time traveler can only do what history records that he did and there is no paradox. In Branching space-time there is also no paradox. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 19:42, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
 * You use the term "not a true paradox" as if paradoxes are only true if they apply under all conditions, which you'll have to reference if you think that's the correct definition (it's not). Zeno's paradox is a true paradox and it doesn't apply if space or motion is discontinuous. The Twin paradox is not a paradox at all even though it applies in all universes that follow general relativity.
 * Both the block universe and interacting many worlds are addressed in the article, and it states that the paradox doesn't apply to them. This does not make the paradox "not a true paradox", and if you want to say that it does, you will need a reference saying so. Bright☀ 10:39, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

This is just a paradox, not proved
There is nobody who have undergone something like Grandfather paradox, hence can't be predicted. May become as a theory from paradox, "as future is not carved in stone". Shivanesh77 (talk) 15:20, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Please discuss the article. Your two short sentences contain several mistakes (for example see history of general relativity for amazing predictions that were made before anybody has "undergone something like them") and they don't directly address any problems with the article. Bright☀ 11:15, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Baumeler et al (2019)
There's a new article (Baumeler et al, Reversible time travel with freedom of choice, 29 October 2019) which concludes that "consistency with local operations is compatible with non-trivial time travel". Likely worth mentioning it in this article. --Chris Howard (talk) 20:29, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Tachyons
The article discusses General Relativity but not Special Relativty. However, in Special Relativity with Tachyons the paradox already exists; you can send a message into the past.

Paradox
The thing is, if you go back in time to kill your grandfather, that means you never existed. If you never existed, you can't go back in time and kill you grandfather, so he's still alive. If he's still alive that means you get born. If you're alive you then will kill him, which means he's dead and you're back at the beginning of the cycle. 212.159.102.132 (talk) 11:44, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

"The Man Who Was Never Born"
N.B. Episode of The Outer Limits starring Martin Landau broadcast October 28, 1963. Manannan67 (talk) 21:52, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

 * it´s called changing the perspective: If you knew in advance, woul dyou ever have allowed your son to be grown. He say´s I´m naster of all allegories. The world is your grandchild — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:4DD7:7505:0:6452:739B:B727:BDAC (talk) 21:28, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Grandfather paradox