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Leto II Atreides

Leto II Atreides is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Born at the end of Dune Messiah (1969), Leto is a central character in Children of Dune (1976) and is the title character of God Emperor of Dune (1981). The character is brought back as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson sequels which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007). Leto also appears as a child in the prequel The Winds of Dune (2009).

Leto is the son of Paul Atreides and his Fremen concubine Chani, and the twin brother of Ghanima. Leto is named for his paternal grandfather Duke Leto I Atreides, who is killed in the Harkonnen invasion of the desert planet Arrakis (Dune) during the events of Dune (1965). Leto II is the second child of Paul to bear that name, the first having been killed as an infant by the Emperor's Sardaukar in Dune.

Leto is portrayed by James McAvoy in the 2003 miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.

Dune Messiah
Chani dies giving birth to Leto and his twin sister Ghanima near the end of Dune Messiah. Blinded by the blast of a nuclear weapon called a stone burner, Paul is at a disadvantage when the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale holds a knife over the newborns and threatens their death if Paul does not surrender his Empire to the Tleilaxu. Paul suddenly finds that he is able to see through the eyes of the infant Leto, allowing him to aim and throw a crysknife that kills Scytale.

Children of Dune
In Children of Dune, Leto and Ghanima are nine years old. Because of the melange ingested by their mother, which causes unusual effects for the Atreides bloodline, the twins are "pre-born", meaning that as fetuses they had been awakened to consciousness and to their genetic memories; they had been born as fully matured human beings in the bodies of infants. At the start of the novel, Leto is not prescient to the degree that his father Paul had been, but he senses the test his father had faced — to embrace a prescient vision of the universe is to set the universe on that path, a terrible responsibility that comes with terrible power. At the end of Dune Messiah, Paul had forsaken that responsibility by walking into the desert — his time as the Fremen messiah had shown him that he was not strong enough to be messiah/tyrant to the universe. Leto believes that he must face the same test.

At the same time, the Imperium created by Paul is ruled by his sister Alia Atreides as regent. The horror of the pre-born—the reason the Bene Gesserit call them "Abominations"—is that they are easily possessed by the ego-memories of their ancestors. When Bene Gesserit awaken to their "other memories" in the rite of the spice agony, they are adults with fully formed personalities, and can withstand the inner assault of their forebears; the pre-born have no such defense. Like Leto and Ghanima, Alia had been pre-born, and she succumbs to the pressure under an intense dose of spice. Among her ancestors is the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, still hungry for revenge against his enemies, the Atreides. Alia is possessed by him, and unconsciously turns against the Atreides empire, plotting to kill Leto and Ghanima and to tear down the Imperium in a bloody civil war.

Independently, Leto and Ghanima both solve the problem of the pre-born. Leto constructs his own personality out of an executive committee of his ancestors; with all (the important ones) possessing him, none can possess him individually. Following an assassination attempt by House Corrino, Leto disappears into the desert leaving Ghanima behind. As part of Leto's plan, Ghanima hypnotizes herself to believe that Leto had been killed. The intense mental discipline needed for this self-deception builds a safe haven in Ghanima's mind for her own personality to safely develop, with the spirit of Chani acting as a guardian.

Leto finds Jacurutu, a sietch that has been forbidden to anyone by Fremen law. There he faces the test his father had refused to take, and embraces prescience, its visions, its attendant power, and the terrible price it will extract — to follow his vision, Leto will become a symbiote with the sandworm, setting the universe on the Golden Path, a future in which humanity's survival is assured. After consuming massive amounts of spice, he allows many sandtrout to cover his body, the concentration of spice in his blood fooling the creatures:

"The sandtrout squirmed on his hand, elongating, stretching ... becoming thin, covering more and more of his hand. No sandtrout had ever before encountered a hand such as this one, every cell supersaturated with spice ... Delicately Leto adjusted his enzyme balance ... The knowledge from those uncounted lifetimes which blended themselves within him provided the certainty through which he chose the precise adjustments, staving off the death from an overdose which would engulf him if he relaxed his watchfulness for only a heartbeat. And at the same time he blended himself with the sandtrout, feeding on it, feeding it, learning it ... He located another, placed it over the first one ... Their cilia locked and they became a single membrane which enclosed him to the elbow ... This was no longer sandtrout; it was tougher, stronger. And it would grow stronger and stronger ... With a terrible singleness of concentration he achieved the union of his new skin with his body, preventing rejection ... They were all over his body now. He could feel the pulse of his blood against the living membrane ... My skin is not my own." This layer gives Leto tremendous strength and speed, acting as a living powered exoskeleton and also protection from mature sandworms, who mistake his sandtrout-covered body for a lethal mass of water. He calls it a "living, self-repairing stillsuit of a sandtrout membrane," and soon notes that he is "no longer human." Leto returns to wrest the Imperium from Alia and take his rightful place as Emperor.

God Emperor of Dune
A little more than 3,500 years have passed, and in God Emperor of Dune, Leto is now almost fully transformed into a sandworm. He is almost invulnerable to physical damage; only his face is susceptible to injury, and his single greatest weakness that he shares with the sandworms, an intense vulnerability to water, is a secret. "Leto's peace" has kept the universe quiet for that time, and the entirety of human society has become an audience for him. He is their emperor; he is their god. His all-female army of Fish Speakers keeps order and act as priestesses. Leto believes that a female army is a nurturing disciplinarian, while a male army is essentially predatory, always turns against its civilian support base in the absence of an enemy, and has "a strong tendency toward homosexual activities".

Desolate Dune is gone; Arrakis is now a verdant planet with a great river named after Duncan Idaho. Except for Leto, the sandworms are extinct, and all that is left of the "ocean without water", bahr bela ma, is a desert preserve set aside for Leto alone. This remnant is called the Sareer and is about the size of California. The old institutions, the Bene Gesserit, the Bene Tleilax, the Spacing Guild, the houses Major and Minor, the Landsraad, the technocrats of Ix, and CHOAM, have all faded from power in the face of Leto's hydraulic despotism: since he has absolute control of the spice on which the whole universe depends, he has the universe in the palm of his hand, and ruthlessly enforces his simplistic order.

Leto has taken over the Bene Gesserit's breeding program for himself, the same program that produced his father, the Kwisatz Haderach. His Golden Path is nearly assured now, and his long rule has begun to bore him; the trap of prescience is an existence without surprises. To ensure that humanity will survive, Leto has spent millennia enforcing quiescence on humanity: people rarely travel, rarely fight in wars, rarely do anything but live and worship him. This repression has created in humanity a deep and urgent need to explode upon the universe, scattering itself beyond the reach of any single tyrant. Leto seeks a solution in which he might die without destroying his people; if a god commits suicide, his worshippers would commit suicide with him. The only option is revolution, so Leto breeds for the person who will overthrow him: Siona Atreides, the daughter of his majordomo, Moneo.

Siona is the second human to carry a gene that makes her invisible to prescience and thus uncontainable by it, the first being the Count Fenring, from the novel Dune. Siona is different from Fenring in that she can pass on this gene to her descendants, whereas Fenring was a genetic eunuch. Since Siona cannot be seen in a vision, she cannot be controlled by a vision, nor can her descendants. Thus the tyranny of prescience will end with Siona — humanity can never again be bound by a powerful prescient like Muad'dib or the God Emperor himself.

Siona's partner in revolution is Duncan Idaho, the constant companion of Leto throughout the long millennia. For his entire reign, Leto has had a ghola of Duncan in charge of his Fish Speaker army. The Duncans represent the old Atreides loyalty, along with everything vital in humanity, so something in the Duncans always rebels against the blasphemous chimaera Leto has made of himself; many Duncans die trying to kill Leto. When Siona finally arrives, she finds in Duncan a justification for revolt.

Meanwhile, the rest of the universe is scheming to kill Leto as well. The Bene Tleilax try many ham-fisted schemes; the technocrats of Ix are smarter. They craft a human to seduce Leto. First they create Malky, a being of perfect evil, a Devil to Leto's God. Malky is a charming Lucifer, and as ambassador to Leto's court he plumbs the depths of Leto's piety. In Dune Messiah, the Face Dancer Scytale reveals to a Reverend Mother that the Bene Tleilax created their own Kwisatz Haderachs, and discovered that Kwisatz Haderachs will die before becoming their opposites (and so can be killed by manipulating them into betraying themselves). Malky's purpose is to get Leto to turn against his holy creativity, but Malky fails because Leto, more than anyone, understands the blasphemy of his enterprise.

At the same time as Leto is breeding a psi-invisible human, Ix invents another solution: no-chambers. A no-chamber is an electro-mechanical construct that hides its contents from prescient vision. Inside the first no-chamber, the Ixians grow their replacement for Malky: his niece Hwi Noree, a creature of pure goodness. Where Malky failed, Hwi succeeds. Leto falls in love with her, and plans to marry her. He is not alone in loving her, however, for his current Duncan has also fallen to her charms. By this chain of events, Leto weakens his godhood enough to allow Siona's revolt the possibility of success.

Leto planned to wed Hwi in what remains of an old Fremen village near the former Sietch Tabr, but changes his mind at the last instant to use the Museum Fremen's Tuono Village, the place where Moneo had sent Siona and Duncan in an attempt to keep the peace and keep Duncan alive, safe from the God Emperor's wrath. However, that is not to be.

The Royal Peregrination, the journey on foot for any of Leto's trips, to Tuono has all the appearance of a normal trip. However, Siona and Duncan, both well aware of the God Emperor's coming and his schemes to breed them, are primed for rebellion, not quiet acceptance. Siona uses her power over Nayla, Leto's pet Fish Speaker, to set in motion his demise. At the point of the Sareer's guardian wall that opens to allow for the passage of the Idaho River, Nayla, caught in her faith in Leto, opens fire on the bridge with a lasgun, destroying it as Leto and Hwi are crossing, dropping them into the Idaho River. The water destroys Leto's sandworm body, decomposing it into the sandtrout that will lock up the water in their bodies, recreating the conditions for the sandworms to re-appear, each with a pearl of Leto's consciousness and adaptability inside it. Leto dies, his last vision that of the Golden Path, shining brightly in humanity's future. His total reign spanned 3509 years.

Before arrival to Tuono, Hwi asks Leto to "share their souls", since they cannot interact physically after Leto's loss of humanity. Her deep empathy and ability to see beyond the abyss that separates Leto from all human beings—an abyss that no other human would ever dare to cross—and to love him brings a tear in each of his eyes. Earlier, it was remarked that the God Emperor was unable to shed tears, partly because of the disrupting effect water had on his worm body and partly because of the Fremen-inherited inhibition of wasting body water. (The discussion in which that matter had been brought up sparked a deep interest and concern for Hwi.)

Although the Atreides (Moneo, Siona) that surround him needed to be shown (by activating their genetically-inherited prescient powers) the absolute horrors that could only be avoided by Leto's apparent tyranny in order for them to support the Golden Path, Hwi is able to understand without having seen any proof the altruism in Leto's actions and the ultimate sacrifice that he had to make... and is able to love him.

It is that moment they share which brings forth the deepest emotions in Leto's current life... emotions thought forgotten: fear, surprise, admiration, understanding and being understood and ultimately that moment of true happiness that he had lost hope for.

After Leto's death, driven by the Famine Times and the pent up desires of thousands of years of Leto's enforced peace, which bred stagnation and isolation, humanity explodes out into the universe in waves of migration known as the Scattering (as predicted and forced by Leto's Golden Path). Humanity's exponential expansion in the Scattering spreads them beyond the ability of any single force to control or threaten their destiny. Thus Leto's Golden Path gave humanity both immunity to domination by prescient rulers via Siona's genetic trait, and immunity to domination by any single ruler or disaster by spreading them far and wide into unknown reaches of the universe.

The sandworms which once again travel Dune after Leto's death carry, in his words, "a pearl of his awareness locked forever in an endless dream." They (and Leto) are worshipped as the Divided God, and their existence keeps humanity locked on Leto's Golden Path.

Sequels
More than 1500 years after his death, Leto II is brought back as a ghola on board the no-ship Ithaca in Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's continuation of the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006). Even at a very young age, this Leto shows signs that he may be more than he seems. During an assassination attempt, he appears to transform into a small sandworm and defends himself before reverting to an innocent one-year-old. Genetically, he is noted to be very unusual; as he grows older, he displays an uncanny intelligence, but is very withdrawn. The current Duncan ghola notes that it had been cruel to bring Leto back without his twin sister, who had been so much of the original's life.

In the concluding novel Sandworms of Dune (2007), Leto (like Sheeana) can control the worms. After his memories are returned, he leads the seven sandworms being transported on the Ithaca to wreak havoc in Synchrony, homeworld of the thinking machines. At the conclusion of the battle, all seven worms fuse together into one massive worm; Leto steps inside, and they descend below the planet's surface. While it is stated that Leto had foreseen the conflict with Omnius and the thinking machines, the ultimate fate of the Golden Path, or the worms' status on Synchrony, is left open.

In adaptations

Leto is portrayed by James McAvoy in the 2003 miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. Laura Fries of Variety wrote, "the mini picks up a great deal of charisma when McAvoy and [Jessica] Brooks [as Ghanima] come aboard as the next generation of the house of Atreides." The characters Leto and Ghanima were aged from ten-year-olds to teens for the miniseries, which Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called "a smart move here, as finding two ten year old kids who had the ability to behave as though they had millennia of ancestral memory bubbling up inside of them was always going to be an impossibility." Asher-Perrin also called McAvoy "easily one of the highlights of the miniseries, and he plays the part with a sort of brooding-yet-impish etherealness. He's really excellent, and his rapport with Jessica Brooks's Ghanima is dazzling.

God Emperor of Dune is parodied in the animated television show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy in the 2003–04 season episode "Mandy, the Merciless", with Mandy as the emperor Leto II, and Billy as Duncan Idaho.

title: Leto II Atreides


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USS Virginia

USS Virginia may refer to:

 * USS Virginia (1776), was a 28-gun sailing frigate built in 1776, captured by the British in the following year and recommissioned as HMS Virginia
 * USS Virginia (1797), was a 14-gun revenue cutter built in 1797 and returned to the Revenue Cutter Service in 1801
 * USS Virginia (1825), was a 74-gun ship of the line laid down in 1818 but never launched, and broken up on the stocks in 1874
 * USS Virginia (1861), was a captured Spanish blockade runner during the American Civil War and commissioned into the United States' Navy
 * USS Virginia (BB-13), was a Virginia-class battleship commissioned in 1906, decommissioned in 1920, and destroyed in 1923 as a bombing target
 * USS Virginia (SP-274), was a yacht purchased by the Navy and officially referred to only as SP-274, patrolled Lake Michigan during World War I
 * USS Virginia (SP-746), was a motorboat acquired by the Navy and officially referred to only as SP-746, patrolled the east coast during World War I
 * USS Virginia (SP-1965), was a two-masted auxiliary schooner acquired by the Navy and officially referred to only as SP-1965, patrolled the east coast during World War I
 * USS Virginia (CGN-38), was a Virginia-class cruiser commissioned in 1976 and decommissioned in 1994
 * USS Virginia (SSN-774), is a Virginia-class submarine commissioned in 2004

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

title: USS Virginia


text:
Talk:Tap dance

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 September 2021 and 10 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Pipermclesbian.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:42, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Text moved
Talk regarding the African welly boot dance moved to that article's talk page. -- Oliver P. 07:42 Mar 4, 2003 (UTC)

tap dance is not soft shoe
I haven't studied dance; but isn't there some huge differences between soft shoe (which redirects to tap dance) and tap dance?

Like, tap dance, it is expected that the hands seem to be relaxed and at ones side while soft shoe often the dancers are provided with (or bring their own) hat and can and this is part of the dance?

And tap dance actually adds to the rhythm of the music with special toe and heel combinations while soft shoe is nothing like that (and a lot easier to do)? A bad tap dancer would hurt the music, in fact, a tap dance is a musician while a bad soft shoe dancer just doesn't matter so much.

This is a plea for someone who understands dance to make the distinction between soft shoe and tap here. One of those dancers is also a musician.... -- Carol 13:09, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Concur on soft-shoe being distinct (albeit related). - Jmabel | Talk 19:26, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

A soft shoe style is a type of tap, practiced generally by old masters such as Bill Bojangles Robinson and Honi Coles. It consists of slower, more melodic and stylized taps. Its a bit of a misnomer, as most soft shoes are performed with tap shoes on, although there are soft shoes performed with leather or wooden soles (in the case of Bojangles).

Coles and Atkins doing a soft shoe to "Taking a chance on love" — Preceding unsigned comment added by DeKere (talk • contribs) 01:45, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Precursors
No mention of shingle dancing? I see that none of the precursors are cited, but this would seem to me to merit as much mention as the others. - Jmabel | Talk 19:27, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

So I took out the Flamenco part of the precursors. Flamenco developed independently, and really had no effect on Tap. Tap was truly born in the Minstrel Shows- first with Irish actors imitating Black slaves, then with Black actors imitating Irish Actors imitating Black slaves. Please incorporate —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.162.86.145 (talk) 06:59, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

 * There's actually been considerable research into the roots of tap, and its become pretty clear that neither flamenco nor Indian dancing influenced Tap Dance's creation. The main influences were African dances brought over by slaves, and Irish step dancers and cloggers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DeKere (talk • contribs) 09:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I question "Irish jigs" listed as origin. I think it should be Irish hard-shoe stepdancing in general. A jig is a specific rhythm in Irish dance music, not a generic name for Riverdance-looking stuff. If we're going to get specific about Irish dance rhythms, I'd say reels are more likely to be danced in hardshoe. I would suggest changing "Irish jigs" to "Irish step dancing". Gilmer (talk) 05:46, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

There are many moves in tap dancing. For example: hop, jump, buffalo, step, stomp, shuffle, leap, falap, ball-change, heel dig, time steps, and many more. it takes time to master the art of tap dancing (a.k.a. you wont learn to be a tap expert in just one lesson). It takes years to become a expert. Here are a few rules to tap dancing: 1. Dont share your weight! 2. Stay on your toes not your heels! 3. Lean forward just a little 4.If you want to go faster, practice it slower than gradually go faster in speed 5. There is NO shortcut to be an expert at tap Following these simple steps will improve your tapping ability! Try walking on your toes for 2 minutes each day to get used to standing on your toes while your tapping. Also taking ballet will help you with the weight sharing. Everyone has to start somewhere! It doesnt matter if your a beginner or an expert! So get tapping! --68.196.239.204 (talk) 23:58, 8 November 2008 (UTC)Sophia Roberts
 * The Basics:

Is there any connection to clog dancing as practised in Northern England? Bare clogs or clogs with irons on are used for similar percussive effect. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 14:08, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, but that sort of thing is never mentioned these days. It's terribly fahionable for everything to be "Irish" and of course that English never had an impact of popular US culture. For reference, look up the great popularity (quite forgotten now) of Lancashire Clog dancers on the American stage (Vaudeville etc) in the later 19th century. Tap dance has strong roots in those traditions.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.71.39.170 (talk) 19:28, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Surely clogging deserves a mention somewhere; it's gotta be related. The clogging page says it is "the" precursor to tapdancing; I don't know, but surely it is one of the precedents. Mercster (talk) 16:46, 26 December 2023 (UTC)

Non-notable names
I will remove all the names that have been stuck in which are not notable enough to have an article about them or not cited. This is not a directory. Dmcq (talk) 17:30, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Problem with tone
The phrase "may include" is not appropriate for a wikipedia entry. I suggest dropping "may." Hmoulding (talk) 17:41, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Gypsy / Romani tap dancing
Not sure if this has any relevence.

I am from a Romani Gypsy family and I can recall my grandfather reciting Gypsies (Romani) tap dancing back before the wartime. This must be back before the 1900s as my family would be able to recall to me. Music and dance is a big part of Romani culture when getting together. My Grandfather and his brothers and sisters would all sing where as his parents would do tap dance.

Interestingly Spanish Romani (Calo - Gitanos / Ciganos) also tap dance within Flamenco music. Something else amongst Romani across Europe is the guitar. We play guitar, clap and raise arms & we step / tap dance. Type in Romafest and again we see Romani of Eastern Europe tap dancing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.96.252.34 (talk) 17:22, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

 * Absolutely. The subject is tap dance, and is remarkably ill-informed. Where it refers in passing to English roots, it misses completely the link to earlier clog-dancing, with styles across Europe: the difference being that clog is heel-and-toe. Another aspect is that Flamenco appears to be derivative from the Low Countries, typified by the Gilles de Binche, who simply imagined what American Indian dress might be like and added it to their established folk repertoire, as a Royal Command.

English clog-shoe dancing comes from Lancashire and Wales, with a distinctively different East Anglian style which descends from Rom roots. Even earlier, the Rom being linked to a low-caste Hindi origin, I think you may find something in India. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.213.9.109 (talk) 11:24, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

More info please!
I think this page would certainly be better if it named a few places where tap dancing hit its peak and who were some of the very first tap dancers. I am in the dark about that and would like to know. But otherwise, it's an O.K article. Like I said, MORE INFORMATION. ~Timestep22 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timestep22 (talk • contribs) 01:36, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

I see no info On Willie Covan
I see no info on Willie Covan.--Realwords101 (talk) 03:42, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Taps
There seems to be no detail about the taps themselves. Are they rigid metal plates attached to the shoe or are they hinged to give the distinctive sound of tap as against clog? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 14:10, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

 * They are rigid metal plates screwed on to the shoe. Usually the screws are not tight, so that they can rattle a little. That gives a more clear and distinct "tap" sound. I would say 'always' but there is probably some obscure person who once danced with tight taps, so 'usually' it is :-) 116.231.74.1 (talk) 10:54, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

List section?
Suggestion: what about a list of notable tap dancers as a separate section? This might help clean up the text, as well as make the article more inclusive/encyclopaedic? Just a thought. Testbed (talk) 13:40, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Hoofer -> Tap dance
I think the redirection from Hoofer to Tap dance is misleading. It implies that a hoofer is a tap dancer, but I think a hoofer is a person who dances for entertainment purposes but not specifically tap dances. 86.185.221.250 (talk) 12:19, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

 * Traditionally, "hoofer" has been used as a reference for tap dancers (I've never heard ballet or ballroom dancers referred to as hoofers). I inserted a citation request to clarify this. Lambtron (talk) 15:03, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
 * I could be wrong, but I think the IP is referring to the actual redirect page for hoofer, not the wikilink. However, the article probably needs a citation for hoofer anyway. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 15:29, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

I'll add the link and info when I find that book. Personal knowledge for now: 'hoofing refers to the heavier, stompier, (African-)American vernacular technique of Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Roxanne Butterfly, etc and is contrasted with balletic "show tap" or "Broadway tap" typified by Fred and Ginger. FourViolas (talk) 17:55, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅ and I hope to make time soon to reorganize and rewrite the article with the books I tracked down. FourViolas (talk) 21:48, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

I would differ here. In the script of the MGM picture "Kiss Me Kate", the word "hoofer" is used to refer to a "Broadway tap" dancer. The movie dates back to the 1950's — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.129.194.55 (talk) 20:16, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

"Early" hoofers
The article currently says, "Steve Condos developed an innovative rhythmic tap style that influenced the work of later tap dancers such as Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. The majority of early hoofers, such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Glover, Hines, and LaVaughn Robinson were African American men."

What time period is supposed to be "early" in this context? Sammy Davis Jr., Gregory Hines, and Savion Glover were/are of three different generations. If Savion Glover is an "early" hoofer (even though he's still only 43 years old), who are the "recent" hoofers that he should be contrasted with? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 04:58, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

The best-known tap dancer ever, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
I'm a bit concerned about "The best-known tap dancer ever, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson". Outside of specialist circles I would have thought that Fred Astaire was much more widely known. May I suggest "One of the best-known ..."? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 14:13, 25 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree. This appears to be nothing more than the opinion of the author of the supporting citation. Lambtron  talk  00:10, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

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‘Two-colored rule’
The article says it was a rule, but doesn’t specify something pretty important: who enforced it? Was this a common law counties would pass or something? A general agreement among vaudeville theatre managers? It is pretty unclear. שונרא (talk) 22:24, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Tap dance


text:
Talk:No Border network

Excerpt
When does an "excerpt" become a copyright violation? -- Zoe
 * Excerpt of what? Please explain, Zoe. I went to expecting to see exactly the same text as in the Wikipedia article, but our article differs from anything on their site. Dramatic 10:07 Mar 4, 2003 (UTC)

 * I removed the excerpt; you can still find it in the article's history. AxelBoldt 16:34 Mar 4, 2003 (UTC)

 * Someone appears to have put the excerpt back in, i'm going to add wikify notice, 'cos this page doesn't seem particularly wiki (especially with that great big "excerpt"), perhaps it should be summarised and put into headings? - FrancisTyers 09:40, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

 * I started to summarise, though the whole excerpt is just an advertisement for a minority point of view regarding the No Border Network, especially since there is some controversie about their views. I therefore removed the excerpt and made a link to the source. AlexP 14:56, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Capitalize?
Shouldn't the "n" in "network" be capitalized?
 * Yes, why shouldn't it be? →bjorn the great t|c 02:50, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Aim?
In the article 'anti-globalisation' it says the No Border networks "argues for unrestricted migration and the abolition of all national borders."

This isnt stated as clearly or as widely (only refers to europe) in this article. Is this because one of them is incorrect?

If not could someone edit this article to make it clearer to a reader who is unfamilar with the No Border Networks aims.

Updates
This page is heavily outdated and misses references and information. I start to update it, starting with United Kingdom and references. I will continue work in the next days. Startx (talk) 23:13, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

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title: Talk:No Border network


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Gumboot dance

The gumboot dance (or Isicathulo ) is a South African dance that is performed by dancers wearing wellington boots. In South Africa these are more commonly called gumboots.

The boots may be embellished with bells, so that they ring as the dancers stamp on the ground. This sound would be a code or a different calling to say something to another person a short distance away. This was used to communicate in the mines as there was strictly no talking otherwise there would be severe, drastic punishments at the discretion of their superior. The mines were very noisy workplaces, with pneumatic drills at work most of the time; in those days (until the mid 1970s) ear-defenders did not exist in South African mines.

History
Rooted back in the dark gold mine tunnels of South Africa, gumboot dancing has come full circle. Initially a codified tap used by black miners deprived of conversation, gumboot dancing today is one of the most expressive South African dance genres.

Description
Gumboot dancers are commonly sighted on the streets and plazas of tourist areas in South Africa such as the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town. Many of the steps and routines are parodies of the officers and guards who controlled the mines and barracks of South African gold miners. Like other forms of African dance, Gumboot utilizes the concepts of polyrhythm and total body articulation, drawing from the cultural dances of the African workers that worked the mines. It is a percussive dance made by idiophones or autophones (objects of the everyday life vibrating by themselves), and is similar in execution and style to forms of "stepping" done by African-American fraternities and sororities.

Appearances outside core context
The dance is the highlight of the performance of Black Umfolosi, a prominent South African folk group.

The album Graceland by the American pop singer Paul Simon has a song titled "Gumboots", which is performed in the style of South African township jive (mbaqanga) and contains performances by members of the Boyoyo Boys.

The British-American composer David Bruce has written a clarinet quintet entitled "Gumboots", which was inspired by Gumboot dancing. It was commissioned by Carnegie Hall in 2008 and can be heard in full on their website, performed by Todd Palmer and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.

Since a South-African student introduced gumboot to his classmates from all over the world at Pearson College UWC, the international school has kept this tradition through the Gumboot Core Team – a group that trains the steps, learns about the culture, and keeps the respect for it alive on campus for over 45 years now. The group respects the origins of the dance and tries to be as authentic and educative as possible when performing. At the beginning of every year, around the months of March and April, the team is responsible for choreographing and performing at the One World festival, an annual concert in Victoria, BC.

Since the 1990s and 2000s, Drakensberg Boys' Choir School based at gumboot dancing the folk-African part of their repertoire and white gumboots are the part of the second variant of their concert costume (the first variant is a classical "white man's" costume).

In 2017, World of Step was established by Creative Director, Chuck Maldonado and Founder of Art of Stepping, Jessica 'Remo' Saul in direct response of preserve the historical component of gumboot dance to be shared to the mass.

title: Gumboot dance


text:
Spaßguerilla

The Spaßguerilla or Spaßgerilja (fun guerrilla) was a grouping within the student protest movement of the 1960s in Germany that agitated for social change, in particular for a more libertarian, less authoritarian, and less materialistic society, using tactics characterized by disrespectful humour and provocative and disruptive actions of a minimally violent nature. Events organized by the groups included actions such as attacking politicians or the police with custard pies.

One of the main proponents was Fritz Teufel, sometimes referred to as the political clown of the Extra-parliamentary Opposition (Außerparlamentarische Opposition). The lack of respect for traditional, "bourgeois," "repressive" forms of authority and ritual, countered by irony and humour, was typified by Fritz Teufel's reply when told to stand for the judge at a trial: "If it helps the search for the truth" (Wenn's der Wahrheitsfindung dient). The tactics of the Spaßguerilla were characterized by civil disobedience, symbolic (rather than real) violence, provocation of authority, using actions of the "authoritarian" state, such as trials, as opportunities for "unmasking" outdated traditions. These tactics and attitudes were in contrast to the more serious, revolutionary rhetoric and actions of other groups centred on the SDS and figures like Rudi Dutschke. While Dutschke spoke of a "Stadtguerilla" (urban guerrilla), Teufel spoke of a "Spaßguerilla" (fun guerrilla).

It was Wolfgang Lefèvre who said that every event or demonstration should be planned so as to be fun for the participants.

The forms of provocative and disruptive protest invented by the Spaßguerilla were later adopted by the peace movement of the 1980s and later by youth protest movements in the reunified Germany. Similar forms of disruption have also been adopted by hacktivists.

Spelling
Fritz Teufel used the word "Spaßgerilja". Though the normal German spelling is Spaßguerilla, Teufel's spelling became known as the "teuflische Schreibweise" (a pun meaning either "Teufelian" spelling or "diabolical spelling"; Teufel in German means devil). This spelling is retained by some, including academics (see references).

title: Spaßguerilla


text:
Boot

A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece. Traditionally made of leather or rubber, modern boots are made from a variety of materials.

Boots are worn both for their functionality and for reasons of style and fashion. Functional concerns include: protection of the foot and leg from water, mud, pestilence (infectious disease, insect bites and stings, snake bites), extreme temperatures, sharp or blunt hazards (e.g. work boots may provide steel toes), physical abrasion, corrosive agents, or damaging radiation; ankle support and traction for strenuous activities such as hiking; and durability in harsh conditions (e.g. the underside of combat boots may be reinforced with hobnails).

In some cases, the wearing of boots may be required by laws or regulations, such as the regulations in some jurisdictions requiring workers on construction sites to wear steel-toed safety boots. Some uniforms include boots as the regulated footwear. Boots are recommended as well for motorcycle riders. High-top athletic shoes are generally not considered boots, even though they do cover the ankle, primarily due to the absence of a distinct heel.

History
Early boots consisted of separate leggings, soles, and uppers worn together to provide greater ankle protection than shoes or sandals. Around 1000 BC, these components were more permanently joined to form a single unit that covered the feet and lower leg, often up to the knee. A type of soft leather ankle boots were worn by nomads in eastern Asia and carried to China to India and Russia around AD 1200 to 1500 by Mongol invaders. The Inuit and Aleut natives of Alaska developed traditional winter boots of caribou skin or sealskin featuring decorative touches of seal intestine, dog hair and suchlike. 17th century European boots were influenced by military styles, featuring thick soles and turnover tops that were originally designed to protect horse mounted soldiers. In the 1700s, distinctive, thigh-high boots worn by Hessian soldiers fighting in the American Revolutionary War influenced the development of the iconic heeled cowboy boots worn by cattlemen in the American west.

Practical uses
Boots which are designed for walking through snow, shallow water and mud may be made of a single closely stitched design (using leather, rubber, canvas, or similar material) to prevent the entry of water, snow, mud or dirt through gaps between the laces and tongue found in other types of shoes. Waterproof gumboots are made in different lengths of uppers. In extreme cases, thigh-boots called waders, worn by anglers, extend to the hip. Such boots may also be insulated for warmth. With the exception of gum boots, boots sold in general retail stores may be considered "water resistant", as they are not usually fully waterproof, compared to advanced material boots, such as Gore-Tex, used regularly by fishers or hikers.

Speciality boots have been made to protect steelworkers' feet and calves if they accidentally step in puddles of molten metal, to protect workers from a variety of chemical exposure, to protect workers from construction site hazards and to protect feet from extreme cold (e.g., with insulated or inflatable boots for use in Antarctica). Most work boots are "lace ups" made from leather. Formerly they were usually shod with hobnails and heel- and toe-plates, but now can usually be seen with a thick rubber sole, and often with steel toecaps. While gumboots are often used in workplaces, such as underground mines, studies have shown that workers prefer "lace up" boots mainly due to their support and better fit.

Boots are mostly worn with socks to prevent chafes and blisters, to absorb sweat, to improve the foot's grip inside the boot, or to insulate the foot from the cold. Before socks became widely available, footwraps were worn instead.

Specialty boots have been designed for many different types of sports, particularly riding, skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating, and sporting in wet/damp conditions.

Fashion and fetish use
Bovver boots, Doc Martens boots and army boots were adopted by skinheads and punks as part of their typical dress and have migrated to more mainstream fashion, including women's wear. As a more rugged alternative to dress shoes, dress boots may be worn (though these can be more formal than shoes). Fashionable boots for women may exhibit all the variations seen in other fashion footwear: tapered or spike heels, platform soles, pointed toes, zipper closures and the like. The popularity of boots as fashion footwear ebbs and flows. Singer Nancy Sinatra popularized the fad of women wearing boots in the late 1960s with her song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". They were popular in the 1960s and 1970s (particularly knee-high boots), but diminished in popularity towards the end of the 20th century. In the 2010s, they experienced a resurgence in popularity, especially designs with a long bootleg. Boot bolos, boot bracelets, boot straps, boot chains, and boot harnesses are used to decorate boots. Sandal boots also exist.

Boots have become the object of sexual attraction for some people and they have become a standard accessory in the BDSM scene (where leather, latex and PVC boots are favoured) and a fashion accessory in music videos. Knee- or thigh-high leather boots are worn by some strippers and pornography models and actresses. Boots have even become a sexual fetish for devotees known as boot fetishists and foot fetishists.

Cowboy boots
Cowboy boots originated in the 1800s in the plains and desert of the midwest and far Western United States, however they were inspired by the vaquero-style boot bought from Spain to the Americas in the 1600s. Cowboy boots are traditionally tall and hide the calf, which is meant to help keep the foot firmly in the stirrup to keep it firmly anchored. Furthermore, they have angled heels, which help to anchor the foot into the stirrup to prevent it from slipping. The stitching on the leather exterior of the boots also serve a utilitarian purpose, to prevent the shaft of the boot from folding over.

The boots become popular in post-Civil War America, when the country saw a switch from military boots to cowboy boots. Hollywood also saw a further rise in popularity of the boots due to the increase of mid-Western cowboy films on the big screen. In the summer of 2022, cowboy boots were seen making a comeback into mainstream fashion, with, as of 8 August 2022, there being over 379.7 million views on the hashtag #CowboyBoots on TikTok. Cowboy boots were seen on many in the fields of festivals such as Coachella, and being worn by many mainstream celebrities such as Dua Lipa, Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid. Variations of the classic cowboy boot were also being sold in many high-street stores such as Mango, ASOS and Urban Outfitters, and were seen on the runways for high fashion brands such as Miu Miu and Bottega.

Boot parts and accessories

 * Spats
 * Boot jack
 * For the parts of a boot, see Hiking boot

In heraldry
Boots have been used by riders for millennia, and were used by knights. As a consequence, albeit not common, boots came to be used as charges in heraldry.

Because of the origin of heraldry as insignia used by mounted warriors like the medieval knights, when boots are used in heraldry, they are often displayed as riding boots, even if the blazon might not specify it as such. They are sometimes adorned with spurs, which may or may not have another tincture (colour) than the boot and the background field.

Boots were also used in coats of arms of shoemakers' guilds and in shop signs outside their shops.

Idioms and cultural references

 * Boots that are particularly old and well worn, or a similarly tough item are referred to as being tough and strong with the phrase "tough as old boots."
 * A discarded boot may be used in the construction of a musical instrument known as the "mendoza."
 * Tall (high) boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a tool to provide better leverage in getting the boots on. The figurative use "to pull one's self up by one's bootstraps" in the sense of "ability to perform a difficult task without external help" developed in the 19th century in US English. The term "bootstrapping" was subsequently used in a metaphorical sense in a number of fields, notably computing (which uses the term "bootup" to describe the process of starting a computer and in entrepreneurship, which uses the term "bootstrapping" to describe start-up companies which are launched without major external financing.
 * To "die with one's boots on" means to die while one is still actively involved in work or to go down fighting. Popularized by Wild West movies.
 * Boot camp: a colloquial term for the initial recruit training of a new recruit enlisting in a military organization or armed force. In this context, a "boot" is just such a recruit.
 * Stormtroopers and other agents of authority or units used for political strongarm tactics such as intimidation are typically referred to by their detractors as "jackbooted thugs," a reference to the hobnailed military jackboot of the World War I German Stormtrooper and later Nazi uniform. Authoritarian rule, either by hostile military forces, or by groups of armed intimidators, is imposed by "jackboot tactics."
 * To "give one the boot" means to kick one out (of a job, a club, etc.) or expel one, either literally or figuratively.
 * To "put the boot in" is an idiom for inflicting violence on someone.
 * "The boot is on the other foot now" means that a situation has become reversed—a previous victor is now losing, for example.
 * Wearing "seven-league boots" references a classic children's fairy tale and indicates that a person or company can cover great distances, figuratively or literally, in a single stride.
 * To "shake/quake in one's boots" means to be very frightened, and is mostly used sarcastically.
 * "Knocking boots" is slang for having sex, regardless of whether either person is wearing boots.
 * The country of Italy is referred to as "lo Stivale" ("The Boot") due to its shape.

title: Boot


text:
USS Virginia (BB-13)

USS Virginia (BB-13) was a United States Navy pre-dreadnought battleship, the lead ship of her class. She was the fifth ship to carry her name. Virginia was laid down in May 1902 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, was launched in April 1904, and was commissioned into the fleet in May 1906. The ship was armed with an offensive battery of four 12 in guns and eight 8 in guns, and she was capable of a top speed of 19 kn.

For the duration of her career, Virginia served in the Atlantic Fleet, much of it spent conducting peacetime training exercises to maintain fleet readiness. In 1907–1909, she took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet around the world. She was involved in the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution in 1913–1914, including the occupation of Veracruz. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, she was used first to train gunners for the expanding wartime fleet, and later to escort convoys to Europe. During this period, she served briefly as the flagship of the 1st and 3rd Divisions, Battleship Force. After the war ended in November 1918, she was assigned to the operation to transport American soldiers back from France. Virginia was decommissioned in 1920 and eventually expended as a target ship in 1923 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

Design
Design work on the Virginia-class battleship began in 1899, after the United States' victory in the Spanish–American War, which had demonstrated the need for sea-going battleships suitable for operations abroad, finally resolving the debate between proponents of that type and those who favored low-freeboard types useful for coastal defense. The designers included a superposed arrangement of the main and some of the secondary guns, which proved to be a significant disappointment in service, as firing either set of guns interfered with the others, slowing the rate of fire.

Virginia was 441 ft long overall and had a beam of 76 ft and a draft of 23 ft. She displaced 14948 LT as designed and up to 16094 LT at full load. The ship was powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at 19000 ihp, with steam provided by twenty-four coal-fired Niclausse boilers. The propulsion system generated a top speed of 19 kn. As built, she was fitted with heavy military masts, but these were quickly replaced by cage masts in 1909. She had a crew of 812 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 12 in /40 caliber Mark 4 guns in two twin gun turrets on the centerline, one forward and aft. The secondary battery consisted of eight 8 in /45 caliber guns and twelve 6 in /50 caliber guns. The 8-inch guns were mounted in four twin turrets; two of these were superposed atop the main battery turrets, with the other two turrets abreast the forward funnel. The 6-inch guns were placed in casemates in the hull. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried twelve 3 in/50 caliber guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull and twelve 3-pounder guns. As was standard for capital ships of the period, Virginia carried four 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.

Virginia's main armored belt was 11 in thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces and 6 in elsewhere. The faces of the main battery gun turrets (and the secondary turrets on top of them) were 12 in thick. Each turret rested on a supporting barbettes that had 10 in of armor plating. The conning tower had 9 in thick sides.

Construction and the Great White Fleet
Virginia was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding on 21 May 1902 and was launched on 5 April 1904. She was commissioned for active service on 7 May 1906. Captain Seaton Schroeder was the ship's first commander. Virginia began a shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, to Newport, Rhode Island, then to Long Island, New York, before arriving in Bradford, Rhode Island on 9 August. Sea trials followed off Rockland, Maine, in which the ship recorded an official speed of 19.734 kn., before proceeding to Oyster Bay, Long Island, where she was reviewed by President Theodore Roosevelt from 2 to 4 September. The ship returned to her shakedown cruise. In the meantime, a revolution had begun in Cuba against President T. Estrada Palma, who requested United States intervention to protect his government. Virginia was sent on 15 September to protect Havana from attack; she remained there from 21 September to 13 October, when she returned to Sewell's Point, Virginia.

Virginia then proceeded to Norfolk, where she coaled before continuing on to Tompkinsville, Staten Island. She then steamed to the New York Navy Yard and went into the drydock to have the bottom of her hull painted. The ship returned to the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs that lasted from 3 November 1906 to 18 February 1907, following a collision with the steamship SS Monroe (1902) in the Norfolk-Cape Henry Channel. The accident caused significant damage to both vessels and it was alleged that Virginia's steering systems had malfunctioned, contributing to the accident. A fire control device was installed between 19 February and 23 March. Virginia then returned to Cuba, arriving in Guantánamo Bay on 28 March. She conducted gunnery training off Cuba until 10 April, when she departed for Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she remained from 15 April to 15 May. During this period, she participated in the Jamestown Exposition to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Jamestown colony. An international fleet that included British, French, German, Japanese, and Austro-Hungarian warships joined the US Navy at the event. In mid-May, when she went into the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs, which lasted into early June. From 7 to 13 June, she took part in a naval review for Roosevelt in Hampton Roads. Target practice followed off Cape Cod Bay from mid-June to mid-July. Virginia and the rest of her division then cruised the east coast, stopping in Newport, New York City, and Provincetown, followed by night battle training in Cape Cod Bay.

In September 1907, Virginia returned to the Norfolk Navy Yard for maintenance, which lasted from 24 September to 24 November. It was here that she was equipped with some of the first ship-borne short-range radio equipment, intended for use during the upcoming circumnavigation of the globe., She thereafter moved to the New York Navy Yard for additional repair work before returning to Hampton Roads on 6 December. Over the following ten days, the ship's crew made preparations for a circumnavigation of the globe by the Great White Fleet. The cruise of the Great White Fleet was conceived as a way to demonstrate American military power, particularly to Japan. Tensions had begun to rise between the United States and Japan after the latter's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, particularly over racist opposition to Japanese immigration to the United States. The press in both countries began to call for war, and Roosevelt hoped to use the demonstration of naval might to deter Japanese aggression.

On 17 December, the fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads, and cruised south to the Caribbean and then to South America, making stops in Port of Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Punta Arenas, and Valparaíso, among other cities. After arriving in Mexico in March 1908, the fleet spent three weeks conducting gunnery practice. The fleet then resumed its voyage up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping in San Francisco and Seattle before crossing the Pacific to Australia, stopping in Hawaii on the way. Stops in the South Pacific included Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland.

After leaving Australia, the fleet turned north for the Philippines, stopping in Manila, before continuing on to Japan where a welcoming ceremony was held in Yokohama. Three weeks of exercises followed in Subic Bay in the Philippines in November. The ships passed Singapore on 6 December and entered the Indian Ocean; they coaled in Colombo before proceeding to the Suez Canal and coaling again at Port Said, Egypt. The fleet called in several Mediterranean ports before stopping in Gibraltar, where an international fleet of British, Russian, French, and Dutch warships greeted the Americans. The ships then crossed the Atlantic to return to Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909, having traveled 46729 nmi. There, they conducted a naval review for Roosevelt.

1909–1916

Starting on 26 February, Virginia went into drydock at the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs after the two-year voyage. The ship required extensive maintenance, which lasted until 26 June. The following fifteen months were spent conducting the normal peacetime training routine, with various maneuvers off the Virginia Capes and Newport. In late 1909, Virginia and other ships from the Atlantic Fleet crossed the Atlantic to visit Brest, France, and Gravesend, England; the visits lasted from 15 November to 7 December in Brest and 8 to 29 December in Gravesend. The fleet returned to Guantánamo Bay for maneuvers, which lasted from 13 January to 13 March 1910. Virginia then returned to the Virginia Capes for more exercises. She and her sister ship USS Georgia (BB-15) left on 11 April, bound for the Boston Navy Yard, arriving on the 13th for another round of periodic maintenance. Repairs to Virginia lasted until 24 May, when the ship steamed to Provincetown. There, she experimented with equipment to coal while underway with the collier USS Vestal and conducted torpedo training. She was back in Boston by 18 June.

For the next three years, Virginia adhered to the peacetime training routine with few interruptions. By 1913, conditions in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution began to worsen, and the US Navy began to deploy warships to the country to protect American nationals in the country. Virginia operated there out of Tampico and Veracruz from 15 February 1913 to 15 March before returning to the east coast of the United States for more training. In May, she participated in a ceremony to dedicate the USS Maine National Monument. Virginia was back in Mexican waters by 4 November, when she arrived in Veracruz; she cruised Mexican waters until January 1914, when she departed for Cuba. There, she conducted fleet maneuvers until mid-March, followed by additional training exercises off the Virginia Capes and gunnery training in Chesapeake Bay. The latter included firing on the wreck of San Marcos (formerly the battleship USS Texas (1892)). Most of April was spent at the Boston Navy Yard for repairs.

In the meantime, the United States had occupied Veracruz in the aftermath of the Tampico incident. Virginia was sent there to support operations against Mexico after emerging from the shipyard, arriving on 1 May. She remained there into early October, interrupted only by gunnery practice from 18 September to 3 October in Guantánamo Bay. After departing Veracruz in October, she returned to the east coast of the United States, where she remained through early 1916. On 20 March, she was placed in reserve at the Boston Navy Yard for a major overhaul; she was still undergoing repairs in April 1917 when the United States declared war on Germany, entering World War I.

World War I

Upon the United States' entry into the war, the US Navy seized all German merchant ships that had been interned earlier in the conflict. Virginia's crew went aboard several German vessels in Boston, including SS Amerika (1905), SS Cincinnati, SS Wittekind, SS Köln (1899), and SS Ockenfels. Repair work to Virginia was finally completed by 27 August, allowing the ship to steam to Port Jefferson, New York, where she joined the 3rd Division, Battleship Force of the Atlantic Fleet. She served as a gunnery training ship for the next year. Admiral Albert W. Grant, the commander of the Battleship Force, complained that the men under his command were very poorly trained. He reported that 87 percent of the enlisted men from Virginia had never served aboard a warship, and most of the officers were themselves insufficiently trained. During this period, she had two brief stints as a flagship, the first in December as the 1st Division flagship under Rear Admiral John A. Hoogewerff, and the second for the 3rd Division commander, Rear Admiral Thomas Snowden.

In late 1918, Virginia was overhauled at the Boston Navy Yard, after which she was tasked with escorting convoys halfway across the Atlantic, to rendezvous points where other escorts would take them to France. Her first convoy—a troopship convoy with 12,176 soldiers aboard—left New York on 14 October. She escorted another convoy on 12 November, though Germany signed the Armistice that ended the fighting in Europe the day before. With the war over, Virginia was equipped to transport American soldiers back from France; the modifications included extra bunks and mess facilities. On 17 December, she steamed out of Norfolk on her first of five trips to Brest, France. This trip was made in company with her sister ship USS Rhode Island (BB-17), and the two ships arrived in Brest on 30 December. They took on 2,043 soldiers before departing three days later. The ship's captain, Henry Joseph Ziegemeier, refused to ferry Black units (such as the 369th Infantry Regiment) home to the United States "on the grounds that no blacks had ever traveled on an American battleship." Her last voyage ended on 4 July 1919 in Boston, and in the course of the five trips, she carried 6,037 soldiers back to the United States.

Fate
Virginia christened the Commonwealth dry dock at Boston in January 1920 by gliding through a string of flowers draped across its entrance and "cutting the ribbon" for the important new facility, and then remained there for a year, being reclassified as BB-13 on 17 July 1920 and decommissioned on 13 August. According to the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which mandated significant cuts in naval strength, Virginia was to be discarded; she was initially put up for sale on 12 July 1922, but the Navy instead transferred the ship to the War Department on 6 August 1923. Virginia was instead to be expended as a target ship for bombing tests, along with her sister USS New Jersey (BB-16) and the battleship USS Alabama (BB-8). These tests would be held in cooperation with the US Army Air Service, under the supervision of General Billy Mitchell.

On 5 September, Virginia and New Jersey were anchored off the Diamond Shoals lightship, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina for the tests, which were conducted by the Martin NBS-1 bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Group. Observers were aboard the Army transport ship USAT St. Mihiel. The bombing runs began just before 9:00, and on the third attack seven NBS-1s dropped a pair of 1100 lb bombs each, scoring two hits that caused extensive damage. The blast destroyed the bridge and knocked down both masts and all three funnels. The rest of the bombs landed close to the ship, causing major underwater damage. Within twenty minutes, Virginia capsized, and ten minutes later, she slipped beneath the waves sinking to 50 fathoms, joining New Jersey, which had been sunk earlier that day.

title: USS Virginia (BB-13)


text:
Wellington boot

A Wellington boot, often shortened to welly, and also known as a gumboot, rubber boot, or rain boot, is a type of waterproof boot made of rubber.

Originally a type of leather boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military riding boot, Wellington boots were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. They became a staple of practical foot wear for the British aristocracy and middle class in the early 19th century. The name was subsequently given to waterproof rubber boots and they are no longer associated with a particular class. They are now commonly used for a range of agricultural and outdoors pursuits.

Names
The term Wellington boot comes from Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who instructed his shoemaker to create the boot by modifying the design of the Hessian boot. The terms gumboot and rubber boot are both derived from the rubber modern Wellington boots are made from, with the term "gum" coming from gum rubber.

The terms Wellington boot and gumboot are most commonly used in British English, with the term being occasionally used in American English. Instead, the terms rubber boot and rain boot are more commonly used in American English. Further, in American English, the term Wellington boot is sometimes used to specifically refer to Wellington boots with a more fashionable design.

Origins

The Duke of Wellington instructed his shoemaker, Hoby of St. James's Street, London, to modify the 18th-century Hessian boot. The resulting new boot was fabricated in soft calfskin leather, had the trim removed and was cut to fit more closely around the leg. The heels were low cut, stacked around an inch (2.5 centimetres), and the boot stopped at mid-calf. It was suitably hard-wearing for riding, yet smart enough for informal evening wear. The boot was dubbed the Wellington and the name has stuck in English ever since. In the 1815 portrait by James Lonsdale, the Duke can be seen wearing the more formal Hessian style boots, which are tasselled.

Wellington's utilitarian new boots quickly caught on with patriotic British gentlemen eager to emulate their war hero. Considered fashionable and foppish in the best circles and worn by dandies, such as Beau Brummell, they remained the main fashion for men through the 1840s. In the 1850s they were more commonly made in the calf-high version, and in the 1860s they were both superseded by the ankle boot, except for riding. Wellington is one of the two British Prime Ministers to have given his name to an item of clothing, the other being Sir Anthony Eden (see Anthony Eden hat) whilst Sir Winston Churchill gave his name to a cigar, and William Gladstone (four times prime minister between 1868 and 1894) gave his to the Gladstone Bag, the classic doctor's portmanteau.

World War I
Production of the Wellington boot was dramatically boosted with the advent of World War I and a requirement for footwear suitable for the conditions in Europe's flooded and muddy trenches. The North British Rubber Company (now Hunter Boot Ltd) was asked by the War Office to construct a boot suitable for such conditions. The mills ran day and night to produce immense quantities of these trench boots. In total, 1,185,036 pairs were made to meet the British Army's demands.

World War II
In World War II, Hunter Boot was again requested to supply vast quantities of Wellington and thigh boots. 80% of production was of war materials, from (rubber) ground sheets to life belts and gas masks. In the Netherlands, the British forces were working in flooded conditions which demanded Wellingtons and thigh boots in vast supplies.

By the end of the war in 1945, the Wellington had become popular among men, women and children for wet weather wear. The boot had developed to become far roomier with a thick sole and rounded toe. Also, with the rationing of that time, labourers began to use them for daily work.

Post-war

The lower cost and ease of rubber "Wellington" boot manufacture, and being entirely waterproof, lent itself immediately to being the preferred protective material to leather in all forms of industry. Increased attention to occupational health and safety requirements led to the steel toe or steel-capped Wellington: a protective (commonly internal) toe-capping to protect the foot from crush and puncture injuries. Although traditionally made of steel, the reinforcement may be a composite or a plastic material such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Such steel-toe Wellingtons are nearly indispensable in an enormous range of industry and are often mandatory wear to meet local occupational health and safety legislation or insurance requirements.

In July 1956, the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission published its Report on the Supply of Certain Rubber Footwear, which covered rubber boots of all kinds including wellingtons and overboots. This 107-page official publication addressed contemporary concerns about unfair pricing of rubber footwear manufactured in the UK or imported from overseas. The appendices include lists of rubber footwear manufacturers and price-lists of each company's range of wellington boots available in the mid-1950s.

Green Wellington boots, introduced by Hunter Boot Ltd in 1955, gradually became a shorthand for "country life" in the UK. In 1980, sales of their boots skyrocketed after Lady Diana Spencer (future Princess Diana) was pictured wearing a pair on the Balmoral estate during her courtship with Prince Charles.

Construction
Wellington boots were at first made of leather. However, in 1852 Hiram Hutchinson met Charles Goodyear, who had just invented the sulfur vulcanisation process for natural rubber. Hutchinson bought the patent to manufacture footwear and moved to France to establish À l'Aigle ("At the Eagle") in 1853, to honour his home country. Today the company is simply called Aigle. In a country where 95% of the population were working on fields with wooden clogs as they had been for generations, the introduction of the wholly waterproof, Wellington-type rubber boot became an instant success: farmers would be able to come back home with clean, dry feet.

Design

Wellington boots in contemporary usage are waterproof and are most often made from rubber or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a halogenated polymer. They are usually worn when walking on wet or muddy ground, or to protect the wearer from heavy showers and puddles. They are generally just below knee-high although shorter boots are available.

Use

Before its entry into the mobile phone business, rubber boots were among the best-known products of Nokia.

Both the Finnish Defence Forces and the Swedish Armed Forces issue rubber boots to all soldiers for use in wet conditions and during the winter with felt liners.

Cultural impact
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher was Wellington's colleague at the Battle of Waterloo and there is speculation that some early emigrants to Australia, remembering the battle, may have confused a different design the Blucher shoe developed by Blucher. The Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote a poem to a pair of Blucher Boots in 1890.

title: Wellington boot


text:
Welly

Welly may refer to:

 * Wellington boot, protective boot popularized by the first Duke of Wellington
 * A nickname for the city of Wellington, New Zealand, and:
 * Wellington Phoenix FC, professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand, and participating in the Australian A-League

title: Welly