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Gullah language

Gullah (also called Gullah-English, Sea Island Creole English, and Geechee ) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" within the community), an African American population living in coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia (including urban Charleston and Savannah) as well as extreme northeastern Florida and the extreme southeast of North Carolina.

Origins
Gullah is based on different varieties of English and languages of Central Africa and West Africa. Scholars have proposed a number of theories about the origins of Gullah and its development:
 * 1) Gullah developed independently on the Sea Islands off the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida throughout the 18th and 19th centuries by enslaved Africans. They developed a language that combined grammatical,  phonological, and lexical features of the nonstandard English varieties spoken by that region's white slaveholders and farmers, along with those from numerous Western and Central African languages. According to this view, Gullah developed separately or distinctly from African American Vernacular English and varieties of English spoken in the South.
 * 2) Some enslaved Africans spoke a Guinea Coast Creole English, also called West African Pidgin English, before they were forcibly relocated to the Americas. Guinea Coast Creole English was one of many languages spoken along the West African coast in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries as a language of trade between Europeans and Africans and among multilingual Africans. It seems to have been prevalent in British coastal slave trading centers such as James Island, Bunce Island, Elmina Castle, Cape Coast Castle and Anomabu. This theory of Gullah's origins and development follows the monogenetic theory of creole development and the domestic origin hypothesis of English-based creoles.

Vocabulary
The Gullah people have several words of Niger-Congo and Bantu origin in their language that have survived to the present day, despite over four hundred years of slavery when African Americans were forced to speak English.

The vocabulary of Gullah comes primarily from English, but there are numerous Africanisms that exist in their language for which scholars have yet to produce detailed etymologies. Some of the African loanwords include: cootuh ("turtle"), oonuh ("you [plural]"), nyam ("eat"), buckruh ("white man"), pojo ("heron"), swonguh ("proud") and benne ("sesame").

The Gullahs’ English-based creole language is strikingly similar to Sierra Leone Krio of West Africa and contains such identical expressions as bigyai ("greedy"), pantap ("on top of"), ohltu ("both"), tif ("steal"), yeys ("ear"), and swit ("delicious"). Linguists observe that 25% of the Gullah language's vocabulary originated from Sierra Leone. Songs and fragments of stories were traced to the Mende and Vai people, and simple counting in the Guinea/Sierra Leone dialect of the Fula people was also observed.

Turner's research
In the 1930s and 1940s, the linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner did a seminal study of the language based on field research in rural communities in coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Turner found that Gullah is strongly influenced by African languages in its phonology, vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and semantics. Turner identified over 300 loanwords from various languages of Africa in Gullah and almost 4,000 African personal names used by Gullah people. He also found Gullahs living in remote seaside settlements who could recite songs and story fragments and do simple counting in the Mende, Vai, and Fulani languages of West Africa.

In 1949, Turner published his findings in a classic work called Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (ISBN 9781570034527). The fourth edition of the book was reprinted with a new introduction in 2002.

Before Turner's work, mainstream scholars viewed Gullah speech as substandard English, a hodgepodge of mispronounced words and corrupted grammar, which uneducated black people developed in their efforts to copy the speech of their English, Irish, Scottish and French Huguenot slave owners.

Turner's study was so well researched and detailed in its evidence of African influences in Gullah that some academics soon changed their minds. But his book primarily "elicited praise but not emulation." Over time, other scholars began to take interest in the language and culture and start developing further research on Gullah language and culture.

Morphology
The following sentences illustrate the basic verb tense and aspect system in Gullah:
 * Uh he'p dem — "I help them/I helped them" (present/past tense)
 * Uh bin he'p dem — "I helped them" (past tense) [I've been helping them]
 * Uh gwine he'p dem — "I will help them" (future tense) [I'm going to help them]
 * Uh done he'p dem — "I have helped them" (perfect aspect) [I've done helped them]
 * Uh duh he'p dem — "I am helping them" (present continuous) [I do help them]
 * Uh binnuh he'p dem — "I was helping them" (past continuous) [I've been helping them]

Syntax
These sentences illustrate 19th-century Gullah speech:
 * Da' big dog, 'e bite'um — "That big dog, it bit him" (topicalization)
 * Duh him da' cry out so — "It is he (who) cried out that way" (fronting)
 * Uh tell'um say da' dog fuh bite'um — "I told him, said that dog would bite him" (dependent clauses with "say")
 * De dog run, gone, bite'um — "The dog ran, went, bit him" (serial verb construction)
 * Da' duh big big dog — "That is a big, big dog" (reduplication)

Storytelling
The Gullah people have a rich storytelling tradition that is strongly influenced by African oral traditions but also by their historical experience in America. Their stories include animal trickster tales about the antics of "Brer Rabbit", "Brer Fox" and "Brer Bear", "Brer Wolf", etc.; human trickster tales about clever and self-assertive slaves; and morality tales designed to impart moral teaching to children.

Several white American writers collected Gullah stories in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The best collections were made by Charles Colcock Jones Jr. from Georgia and Albert Henry Stoddard from South Carolina. Jones, a Confederate officer during the Civil War, and Stoddard were both whites of the planter class who grew up speaking Gullah with the slaves (and later freedmen) on their families' plantations. Another collection was made by Abigail Christensen, a Northern woman whose parents came to the Low Country after the Civil War to assist the newly-freed slaves. Ambrose E. Gonzales, another writer of South Carolina planter-class background, also wrote original stories in 19th-century Gullah, based on Gullah literary forms; his works are well remembered in South Carolina today.

The linguistic accuracy of those writings has been questioned because of the authors' social backgrounds. Nonetheless, those works provide the best available information on Gullah, as it was spoken in its more conservative form in the 19th century.

Today
Gullah is spoken by about 5,000 people in coastal South Carolina and Georgia. As of 2021, an estimated 300 people are native speakers. Although some scholars argue that Gullah has changed little since the 19th century and that most speakers have always been bilingual, it is likely that at least some decreolization has taken place. In other words, some African-influenced grammatical structures in Gullah a century ago are less common in the language today. Nonetheless, Gullah is still understood as a creole language and is certainly distinct from Standard American English.

For generations, outsiders stigmatized Gullah-speakers by regarding their language as a mark of ignorance and low social status. As a result, Gullah people developed the habit of speaking their language only within the confines of their own homes and local communities. That causes difficulty in enumerating speakers and assessing decreolization. It was not used in public situations outside the safety of their home areas, and many speakers experienced discrimination even within the Gullah community. Some speculate that the prejudice of outsiders may have helped to maintain the language. Others suggest that a kind of valorization or "covert prestige" remained for many community members and that the complex pride has insulated the language from obliteration.

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was raised as a Gullah-speaker in coastal Pin Point, Georgia. When asked why he has little to say during hearings of the court, he told a high school student that the ridicule he received for his Gullah speech, as a young man, caused him to develop the habit of listening, rather than speaking, in public. Thomas's English-speaking grandfather raised him after the age of six in Savannah.

In recent years educated Gullah people have begun promoting use of Gullah openly as a symbol of cultural pride. In 2005, Gullah community leaders announced the completion of a translation of the New Testament into modern Gullah, a project that took more than 20 years to complete.

In 2017, Harvard University began offering Gullah/Geechee as a language class in its African Language Program. It is taught by Sunn m'Cheaux, a native speaker from South Carolina.

Samples
These sentences are examples of how Gullah was spoken in the 19th century:

This story, called Brer Lion an Brer Goat, was first published in 1888 by story collector Charles Colcock Jones Jr.: "Brer Lion bin a hunt, an eh spy Brer Goat duh leddown topper er big rock duh wuk eh mout an der chaw. Eh creep up fuh ketch um. Wen eh git close ter um eh notus um good. Brer Goat keep on chaw. Brer Lion try fuh fine out wuh Brer Goat duh eat. Eh yent see nuttne nigh um ceptin de nekked rock wuh eh duh leddown on. Brer Lion stonish. Eh wait topper Brer Goat. Brer Goat keep on chaw, an chaw, an chaw. Brer Lion cant mek de ting out, an eh come close, an eh say: 'Hay! Brer Goat, wuh you duh eat?' Brer Goat skade wen Brer Lion rise up befo um, but eh keep er bole harte, an eh mek ansur: 'Me duh chaw dis rock, an ef you dont leff, wen me done long um me guine eat you'. Dis big wud sabe Brer Goat. Bole man git outer diffikelty way coward man lose eh life."

This is a literal translation into English following Gullah grammar, including verb tense and aspect, exactly as in the original: "Brer Lion was hunting, and he spied Brer Goat lying down on top of a big rock working his mouth and chewing. He crept up to catch him. When he got close to him, he watched him good. Brer Goat kept on chewing. Brer Lion tried to find out what Brer Goat was eating. He didn't see anything near him except the naked rock which he was lying down on. Brer Lion was astonished. He waited for Brer Goat. Brer Goat kept on chewing, and chewing, and chewing. Brer Lion couldn't make the thing out, and he came close, and he said: 'Hey! Brer Goat, what are you eating?' Brer Goat was scared when Brer Lion rose up before him, but he kept a bold heart, and he made (his) answer: 'I am chewing this rock, and if you don't leave me (alone), when I am done with it I will eat you'. This big word saved Brer Goat. A bold man gets out of difficulty where a cowardly man loses his life."

The Bible in Gullah
This passage is from the New Testament in Gullah:

"Now Jedus been bon een Betlem town, een Judea, jurin de same time wen Herod been king. Atta Jedus been bon, some wise man dem dat study bout de staa dem come ta Jerusalem fom weh dey been een de east. 2An dey aks say, 'Weh de chile da, wa bon fa be de Jew people king? We beena see de staa wa tell bout um een de east, an we come fa woshup um op.' Wen King Herod yeh dat, e been opsot fa true. An ebrybody een Jerusalem been opsot too. He call togeda all de leada dem ob de Jew priest dem an de Jew Law teacha dem. E aks um say. 'Weh de Messiah gwine be bon at?' Dey tell King Herod say, 'E gwine be bon een Betlem town een Judea. Cause de prophet write say [...]"

"Therefore when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of king Herod, lo! astronomers,, came from the east to Jerusalem, and said, Where is he, that is born [the] king of Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and we have come to worship him. But king Herod heard, and was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And he gathered together all the princes of priests, and scribes of the people, and inquired of them, where Christ should be born. And they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by a prophet [...]"

Kumbayah
The phrase Kumbaya ("Come by Here"), taken from the song of the same name, is likely of Gullah origin.

Related languages
Gullah resembles other English-based creole languages spoken in West Africa and the Caribbean Basin, including Krio of Sierra Leone, Bahamian Creole, Jamaican Patois, Bajan Creole, Trinidadian Creole, Tobagonian Creole, Sranan Tongo, Guyanese Creole, and Belizean Creole. Those languages are speculated to use English as a lexifier (most of their vocabularies are derived from English) and that their syntax (sentence structure) is strongly influenced by African languages, but research by Salikoko Mufwene and others suggests that nonstandard Englishes may have also influenced the syntactical features of Gullah (and other creoles).

Gullah is most closely related to Afro-Seminole Creole, which is spoken in scattered Black Seminole communities in Oklahoma, Texas, and Northern Mexico. The Black Seminoles' ancestors were Gullahs who escaped from slavery in coastal South Carolina and Georgia in the 18th and 19th centuries and fled into the Florida wilderness. They emigrated from Florida after the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). Their modern descendants in the West speak a conservative form of Gullah that resembles the language of 19th-century plantation slaves.

There is debate among linguists on the relationship between Gullah and African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). There are some that postulate a Gullah-like "plantation creole" that was the origin of AAVE. Others cite different British dialects of English as having had more influence on the structure of AAVE.

Films

 * Daughters of the Dust
 * The Language You Cry In. Toepke, Alvaro, Angel Serrano, and California Newsreel (Firm). 1998. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel. video recording.
 * Conrack (1974; Jon Voight, Paul Winfield and Hume Cronyn)

Audioclips

 * Old Recordings, Library of Congress
 * Gullah New Testament Reading
 * Modern Gullah
 * Modern Gullah Storyteller (video)
 * example of Spoken Gullah
 * Gullah on ILoveLanguages
 * Gullah on ILoveLanguages

title: Gullah language


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Origins Game Fair

Origins Game Fair is an annual gaming convention that was first held in 1975. Since 1996, it has been held in Columbus, Ohio at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Origins is run by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Origins was chartered to serve gaming in general, including wargaming and miniatures gaming.

Origins is the site of the annual Origins Awards ceremony. For many years, the Charles S. Roberts Awards for historical boardgames were presented at Origins, but these are now presented at the World Boardgaming Championships. Board games, trading card games, LARPs and role-playing games are also popular at Origins.

Origins Game Fair was formerly known as the Origins International Game Expo. The name was changed in the summer of 2007.

Origins typically has a theme each year, which affects some of the events and decorations like banners or art, and the Origins mascot will be depicted wearing an outfit related to the theme as well. The theme in 2012 was Time Travel. In 2014 it was Monster. 2014 was also the 40th Origins convention and, keeping with the Monster theme, they introduced the mascot Crit. In 2015 the theme was Space. In 2016 it was Robots. 2017 was Dragons. 2018 was Mystery. 2019 was Mythical. A survey was distributed online to help select the theme for the 2020 show. The options were: Scary Fun, Games Around the World, Adventure, Futuristic, and Top Secret. According to the 2019 Origins Sitebook, the theme for 2020 will be Games Around the World.

History
Origins started in 1975 with a gathering of game players in Baltimore, Maryland. The Interest Group Baltimore, a local wargaming club, worked with the Baltimore-based Avalon Hill game company to put on the first show that year at Johns Hopkins University.

Avalon Hill produced the first commercial war games in 1958. In a nod to Baltimore's position as the home of Avalon Hill and the birthplace of the commercial wargame hobby, Don Greenwood, a game designer with Avalon Hill and founder of the convention, suggested calling the show "Origins". Over the next few years, both Avalon Hill and SPI (another wargame company) ran the show. As the show continued expanding, the Game Manufacturers Association assumed management in 1978. RuneQuest debuted as Chaosium's first RPG at the Origins convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan in July 1978.

In each of 1988 and 1992, Origins and Gen Con joined together to hold a single convention in Milwaukee.

In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that Origins would be postponed from its usual mid-June date to October 7–11. In its place, an event called Origins Online was to be held that would allow attendees to "demo and buy games and merchandise" and offer "streaming workshops and educational seminars with guest authors, artists and game designers, plus hundreds of games online that attendees can sign up to participate in."

In June, due to a lack of response by GAMA concerning Black Lives Matter and the George Floyd Protests, some members of the community who were intending to run or participate in Origins Online events stepped down, and others joined them in solidarity. Such a large number of people withdrew, it is speculated that Origins Online may not have been able to run without them. Regardless of the reason, Origins Online was cancelled completely, and GAMA offered to "match, dollar for dollar, any exhibitor, sponsor, advertiser, or vendor who donates the amounts they are owed for Origins Online to one of" several different black organizations. Soon after, the regular Origins convention was cancelled for 2020 as well, citing fears of a second wave of COVID-19. This would mark 2020 as the first year without an Origins convention since 1975.

ICv2 reported that Origins had "17,706 attendees" in June 2024 which was "up over 9% from 2023's attendance total, which was 16,082 people, but still down around 14% from the last pre-pandemic show in 2019, where Origins drew 20,642 people". Additionally in 2024, Origins "had 326 exhibitors, up for 2023's count of 305" and event totals went "from 6,135 to 6,528, up about 6%".

Columbus, Ohio
Throughout the first twenty years of its life, Origins migrated from city to city, until in 1996, GAMA decided to anchor Origins in a single location. After considering a number of possibilities, GAMA chose Columbus, Ohio.

Controversies
Several reports of sexual harassment emerged after 2018 Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. After multiple first hand accounts were published on social media and Reddit, GAMA, released a public statement regarding the complaints and has since then updated its anti-harassment policies.

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

title: Origins Game Fair


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Talisman The Adventure

Talisman The Adventure is a 1986 expansion to the Talisman board game, both produced by Games Workshop. The Adventure, which requires the original Second Edition board game, is incompatible with and has no counterpart for the Third Edition, and like Talisman, is currently out of print.

Contents
This expansion includes
 * 37 new Adventure cards
 * 11 new spells
 * 8 new character cards
 * Centaur
 * Ninja
 * Ork
 * Samurai
 * Soldier
 * Warrior of Chaos
 * Witch Doctor
 * Woodsman
 * 6 Alternate endings (See "Victory conditions")
 * 6 character record sheets with which to organize character's attributes, followers and objects.
 * rules sheet

Victory conditions
In the original game, the character who reached the Crown of Command first was the winner. In this supplement, when the player reaches the inner sanctum, the player draws an alternate ending card and encounters one of the following:
 * Demon Lord: a powerful demonic being with Craft 12 and 4 Lives. If the player defeats the Demon Lord, the player wins the game. Otherwise, play continues.
 * Pandora's Box: the character draws Adventure and spell cards to be used against his or her foes. Play continues.
 * Hercules' Belt: a powerful artifact which gives the character 12 Strength and 5 lives. Play continues.
 * Dragon King: a randomized finale with many possibilities.
 * The Horrible Black Void: the character is sucked into the void and dies instantly. (If playing with the Talisman Timescape set, the character is transferred there instead.) Play continues.
 * Crown of Command: as in the original version, the player wins the game.

If drawing one of the above does not result in the end of the game, the card that was drawn is replaced with a new random ending.

Publication history
Games Workshop published Talisman in 1983, and followed up with several supplements, including Talisman The Adventure, which was designed by Edward Campbell, Charles Johnson, Alan Merrett, and Aly Morrison, with interior art by Aly Morrison, and cover art by Christos Achilleos.

Metal miniatures
The supplement comes with small cards illustrating each character, which are then mounted in plastic bases to provide each player with a character token to move around the board. Games Workshop, through its subsidiary Citadel Miniatures, also offered metal miniatures of the characters for sale.

Reception
Robert Neville reviewed Talisman The Adventure for White Dwarf #83, and stated that "This is just the thing for those irritatingly smug people who always win at Talisman – just watch their joy turn to misery as their beloved hero disappears down into the darkness. All in all, Talisman The Adventure is a fun package, and will do much to refresh the parts of Talisman that other expansion sets can't reach."

title: Talisman The Adventure


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Midland Main Line

The Midland Main Line (MML) is a major railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield.

Express passenger services on the line are operated by East Midlands Railway (EMR). The line is electrified between St Pancras and Corby, and the section south of Bedford forms a branch of the northern half of the Thameslink network, with a semi-fast service to Brighton and other suburban services. A northern part of the route, between Derby and Chesterfield, also forms part of the Cross Country Route operated by CrossCountry. Tracks from Nottingham to Leeds via Barnsley and Sheffield are shared with Northern. East Midlands Railway also operates regional and local services using parts of the line.

The Midland Main Line is undergoing a major upgrade of new digital signalling and full line electrification from London to Sheffield. High Speed 2 was planned to branch onto the Midland Main Line at East Midlands Parkway railway station.

Midland Counties early developments
The Midland Main Line was built in stages between the 1830s and the 1870s. The earliest section was opened by the Midland Counties Railway between Nottingham and Derby on 4 June 1839. On 5 May 1840 the section of the route from Trent Junction to Leicester was opened.

The line at Derby was joined on 1 July 1840 by the North Midland Railway to Leeds Hunslet Lane via Chesterfield, Rotherham Masborough, Swinton, and Normanton.

On 10 May 1844 the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway merged to form the Midland Railway.

Midland Main Line southern extensions
Without its own route to London, the Midland Railway relied upon a junction at Rugby with the London and Birmingham Railway line for access to the capital at London Euston. By the 1850s, the junction at Rugby had become severely congested. The Midland Railway employed Thomas Brassey to construct a new route from Leicester to Hitchin via Kettering, Wellingborough, and Bedford giving access to London via the Great Northern Railway from Hitchin. The Crimean War resulted in a shortage of labour and finance, and only £900,000 was available for the construction, approximately £15,000 for each mile (. To reduce construction costs, the railway followed natural contours, resulting in many curves and gradients. Seven bridges and one tunnel were required, with 60 ft cuttings at Desborough and Sharnbrook. There are also major summits at Kibworth, Desbrough and at Sharnbrook where a 1 in 119 gradient from the south over 3 mi takes the line to 340 ft above sea level. This route opened for coal traffic on 15 April 1857, goods on 4 May, and passengers on 8 May. The section between Leicester and Bedford is still part of the Midland Main Line.

While this took some of the pressure off the route through Rugby, the GNR insisted that passengers for London alight at Hitchin, buying tickets in the short time available, to catch a GNR train to finish their journey. James Allport arranged a seven-year deal with the GN to run into Kings Cross for a guaranteed £20,000 a year. Through services to London were introduced in February 1858.

This line met with similar capacity problems at Hitchin as the former route via Rugby, so a new line was constructed from Bedford via Luton to St Pancras which opened on 1 October 1868. The construction of the London extension cost £9 million (equivalent to £ million in ).

As traffic built up, the Midland Railway opened a new deviation just north of Market Harborough railway station on 26 June 1885 to remove the flat crossing of the Rugby and Stamford Railway.

Northernmost sections
Plans by the Midland Railway to build a direct line from Derby to Manchester were thwarted in 1863 by the builders of the Buxton line who sought to monopolise on the West Coast Main Line.

In 1870, the Midland Railway opened a new route from Chesterfield to Rotherham which went through Sheffield via the Bradway Tunnel.

The mid-1870s, saw the Midland line extended northwards through the Yorkshire Dales and Eden Valley on what is now called the Settle–Carlisle Railway.

Before the line closures of the Beeching era, the lines to Buxton and via Millers Dale during most years presented an alternate (and competing) main line from London to Manchester, carrying named expresses such as The Palatine and the "Blue Pullman" diesel powered Manchester – London service (the Midland Pullman). Express trains to Leeds and Scotland such as the Thames–Clyde Express mainly used the Midland's corollary Erewash Valley line, returned to it, and then used the Settle–Carlisle line. Expresses to Edinburgh Waverley, such as The Waverley travelled through Corby and Nottingham.

Under British Railways and privatisation
Most Leicester-Nottingham local passenger trains were taken over by diesel units from 14 April 1958, taking about 51 minutes between the two cities. When the Great Central Main Line closed in 1966, the Midland Main Line became the only direct main-line rail link between London and the East Midlands and parts of South Yorkshire.

The Beeching cuts and electrification of the West Coast Main Line brought an end to the marginally longer London–Manchester service via Sheffield.

In 1977, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of Britain's rail network, and by 1979 BR presented a range of options that included electrifying the Midland Main Line from London to Yorkshire by 2000. By 1983, the line had been electrified from Moorgate to Bedford, but proposals to continue electrification to Nottingham and Sheffield were not implemented.

The introduction of the High Speed Train (HST) in May 1983, following the Leicester area resignalling, brought about an increase of the ruling line speed on the fast lines from 90 mph to 110 mph.

Between 2001 and 2003, the line between Derby and Sheffield was upgraded from 100 mph to 110 mph as part of Operation Princess, the Network Rail funded CrossCountry route upgrade.

In January 2009, a new station, East Midlands Parkway, was opened between Loughborough and Trent Junction, to act as a park-and-ride station for suburban travellers from East Midlands cities and to serve nearby East Midlands Airport.

Since then, 125 mph running has been introduced on extended stretches. Improved signalling, increased number of tracks, and the revival of proposals to extend electrification from Bedford to Sheffield are underway. Much of this £70 million upgrade, including some line-speed increases, came online on 9 December 2013 (see below).

Network Rail route strategy for freight 2007
Network Rail published a Route Utilisation Strategy for freight in 2007; over the coming years a cross-country freight route will be developed enhancing the Birmingham to Peterborough Line, increasing capacity through Leicester, and remodelling Syston and Wigston junctions.

Network Rail 2010 route plan

Traffic levels on the Midland Main Line are rising faster than the national average, with continued increases predicted. In 2006, the Strategic Rail Authority produced a Route Utilisation Strategy for the Midland Main Line to propose ways of meeting this demand; Network Rail started a new study in February 2008 and this was published in February 2010.

After electrification, the North Northamptonshire towns (Wellingborough, Kettering, and Corby) are planned to have an additional 'Outer Suburban service' into London St Pancras, similar to the West Midlands Trains' Crewe – London Euston services, to cater for the growing commuter market. North Northamptonshire is a major growth area, with over 7,400 new homes planned to be built in Wellingborough and 5,500 new homes planned for Kettering.

Highlights include:
 * Work related to line speed increases, removing foot crossings and replacing with footbridges
 * Capacity enhancements for freight
 * Re-signalling of the entire route, expected to be complete by 2016 when all signalling will be controlled by the East Midlands signalling centre in Derby
 * Rebuilding Bedford and Leicester
 * Accessibility enhancements at Elstree & Borehamwood, Harpenden, Loughborough, Long Eaton, Luton, and Wellingborough by 2015
 * Upgraded approach signalling (flashing yellow aspects) added at key junctions – Radlett, Harpenden, and Leagrave allowing trains to traverse them at higher speeds
 * Lengthening of platforms at Wellingborough, Kettering, Market Harborough, Loughborough, Long Eaton, and Beeston stations as well as work related to the Thameslink Programme (see below)
 * Realignment of the track and construction of new platforms to increase the permissible speed through Market Harborough station from 60 mph to 85 mph saving 30–60 seconds
 * Electrification (see below)
 * Re-doubling the Kettering to Oakham Line between Kettering North Junction and Corby as well as re-signalling to Syston Junction via Oakham, allowing a half hourly London to Corby passenger service (from an infrastructure perspective) from December 2017 and creating additional paths for rail freight.

Thameslink Programme
The Thameslink Programme has lengthened the platforms at most stations south of Bedford to 12-car capability. St Pancras, Cricklewood, Hendon, and Luton Airport Parkway were already long enough, but bridges at Kentish Town mean it cannot expand beyond the current 8-car platform length. West Hampstead Thameslink has a new footbridge and a new station building. In September 2014 the current Thameslink Great Northern franchise was awarded and trains on this route are currently operated by Thameslink. In 2018 the Thameslink network expanded when some Southern services merged into it.

Station improvements
In 2013/14 Nottingham station was refurbished and the platforms restructured.

As part of Wellingborough's Stanton Cross development, Wellingborough station is to be expanded.

Ilkeston between Nottingham and Langley Mill was opened on 2 April 2017.

Two new stations are planned:
 * Brent Cross West between Cricklewood and Hendon as part of the Brent Cross Cricklewood development in North London. It opened in December 2023.
 * Wixams between Flitwick and Bedford as part of the new town just outside Bedford. Expected to be built by 2015, scheduled for 2019, but now expected to be 2024.

Some new stations have been proposed:
 * Clay Cross between Chesterfield and Ambergate/Alferton.
 * Irchester (Rushden Parkway) between Wellingborough and Bedford.
 * Ampthill between Bedford and Flitwick.

Extension of electrification
Unlike the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines, the Midland Main Line has not been electrified along its full length. The line was electrified as far as Bedford in the early 1980s, but services relied on diesel traction beyond that.

In 2011 work commenced to extend the electrification, including to both Corby and Nottingham. Increasing costs initially saw this terminated at Kettering in 2017, but in 2021 work began on extending electrification to Market Harborough with plans to extend further to Sheffield.

In May 2022, a briefing to contractors was released ahead of an invitation to tender for Midland Mainline Electrification project work to extend electrification to Nottingham and Sheffield. This scheme is expected to cost £1.3 billion.

2021 Integrated Rail Plan
In November 2021 the Government announced its Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands which made a number of proposals for the Midland Main Line. These included a commitment to complete the stalled electrification work, an upgrade to digital signalling, and a connection to High Speed 2. The latter would see a junction built south of East Midlands Parkway station rather than the previous plan of an East Midlands Hub further north on the Toton sidings. This will allow HS2 services to connect to both Derby and Nottingham city centres directly using the MML for access, which was a criticism of the previous HS2 eastern leg proposal.

Route definition
The term Midland Main Line has been used from the late 1840s to describe any route of the Midland Railway on which express trains were operated.

It is first recorded in print in 1848 in Bradshaw's railway almanack of that year. In 1849 it begins to be mentioned regularly in newspapers such as the Derby Mercury.

In 1867, the Birmingham Journal uses the term to describe the new railway running into St Pancras railway station.

In 1868, the term was used to describe the Midland Railway main route from North to South through Sheffield and also on routes to Manchester, Leeds and Carlisle.

Under British Rail the term was used to define the route between St Pancras and Sheffield, but since then, Network Rail has restricted it in its description of Route 19 to the lines between St. Pancras and Chesterfield.

Accidents

 * 26 September 1860 Bull bridge accident; bridge collapse
 * 2 September 1861 Kentish Town rail accident; collision
 * 2 September 1898 Wellingborough rail accident; derailment due to post trolley on track
 * 24 December 1910 Hawes Junction rail crash; signalman forgot about train
 * 2 September 1913 Ais Gill rail accident; collision
 * 3 December 1923 Nunnery Colliery
 * 13 December 1926 Orgreave Paddy Mail accident
 * 1 February 2008 Barrow upon Soar rail accident

East Midlands Railway
The principal operator is East Midlands Railway, which operates four InterCity trains every hour from London St Pancras with two trains per hour to both Nottingham and Sheffield. EMR use Meridian trains in various carriage formations for its InterCity services.

EMR also operate a twice hourly commuter service from London St Pancras to Corby, which is branded as EMR Connect, using Class 360 Desiro electric trains.

Thameslink
Thameslink provides frequent, 24-hour commuter services south of Bedford as part of its Thameslink route to London Bridge, Gatwick Airport, Brighton, and Sutton, using 8-car and 12-car electric trains.

Other operators
CrossCountry runs an hourly service between Derby and Sheffield on its route between the South West and North East, and twice-hourly services between Nottingham and Derby, continuing to Birmingham and Cardiff. Northern runs an hourly service from Leeds to Nottingham via Barnsley and Alfreton. TransPennine Express also operates in the Sheffield area.

Route description
The cities, towns and villages served by the MML are listed below. Stations in bold have a high usage. This table includes the historical extensions to Manchester (where it linked to the West Coast Main Line) and Carlisle (via Leeds where it meets with the 'modern' East Coast Main Line).

Network Rail groups all lines in the East Midlands and the route north as far as Chesterfield and south to London as route 19. The actual line extends beyond this into routes 10 and 11.

Tunnels, viaducts and major bridges
Major civil engineering structures on the Midland Main Line include the following.

Line-side monitoring equipment
Line-side train monitoring equipment includes hot axle box detectors (HABD) and wheel impact load detectors (WILD) ‘Wheelchex’, these are located as follows.

Ambergate Junction to Manchester
For marketing and franchising, this is no longer considered part of the Midland Main Line: see Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway

The line was once the Midland Railway's route from London St Pancras to Manchester, branching at Ambergate Junction along the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, now known as the Derwent Valley line. In days gone by, it featured named expresses such as The Palatine. Much later in the twentieth century, it carried the Midland Pullman.

This line was closed in the 1960s between Matlock and Buxton, severing an important link between Manchester and the East Midlands, which has never been satisfactorily replaced by any mode of transport. A section of the route remains in the hands of the Peak Rail preservation group, operating between Matlock and Rowsley to the north.

Leeds to Carlisle
For marketing and franchising, this is no longer considered part of the Midland Main Line: see Settle–Carlisle Railway.

World War I prevented the Midland Railway from finishing its direct route through the West Riding to join the Settle and Carlisle (which would have cut six miles from the journey and avoided the need for reversal at Leeds).

The first part of the Midland's West Riding extension from the main line at Royston (Yorks.) to Dewsbury was opened before the war. However, the second part of the extension was not completed. This involved a viaduct at Dewsbury over the River Calder, a tunnel under Dewsbury Moor and a new approach railway into Bradford from the south at a lower level than the existing railway (a good part of which was to be in tunnel) leading into Bradford Midland (or Bradford Forster Square) station.

The 500 yd gap between the stations at Bradford still exists. Closing it today would also need to take into account the different levels between the two Bradford stations, a task made easier in the days of electric rather than steam traction, allowing for steeper gradients than possible at the time of the Midland's proposed extension.

Two impressive viaducts remain on the completed part of the line between Royston Junction and Dewsbury as a testament to the Midland's ambition to complete a third direct Anglo–Scottish route. The line served two goods stations and provided a route for occasional express passenger trains before its eventual closure in 1968.

The failure to complete this section ended the Midland's hopes of being a serious competitor on routes to Scotland and finally put beyond all doubt that Leeds, not Bradford, would be the West Riding's principal city. Midland trains to Scotland therefore continued to call at Leeds before travelling along the Aire Valley to the Settle and Carlisle. From Carlisle they then travelled onwards via either the Glasgow and South Western or Waverley Route. In days gone by the line enjoyed named expresses such as the Thames–Clyde Express and The Waverley.

 * Leeds along the Airedale line
 * Here is Apperley Junction for the Wharfedale line
 * Shipley: here is the triangular junction for the branch line serving Bradford Forster Square
 * Saltaire
 * Bingley
 * Crossflatts
 * Keighley
 * Here is the Worth Valley Branch junction to Oxenhope.
 * Steeton & Silsden
 * Cononley
 * Skipton
 * Here is Settle Junction for the line to Morecambe
 * Giggleswick
 * Clapham
 * Here was the junction for Ingleton and an end-on junction via Sedbergh to Low Gill on the London and North Western Railway (LNW) West Coast Main Line
 * Bentham
 * Lancaster Green Ayre
 * At this point the line divided: a triangular junction for the two lines:
 * Morecambe
 * Heysham Port, including a station for Middleton Road Heysham
 * Settle
 * Horton-in-Ribblesdale
 * Ribblehead
 * Dent
 * Garsdale
 * At Hawes station, on the branch to the east of the main line, there was an end-on junction with the North Eastern Railway (NER) line across the Pennines to Northallerton
 * Kirkby Stephen
 * Appleby
 * Langwathby
 * Armathwaite
 * Cumwhinton
 * Carlisle

Former stations
As with most railway lines in Britain, the route used to serve far more stations than it currently does (and consequently passes close to settlements that it no longer serves). Places that the current main line used to serve include • London to Leicester

• Camden Road

• Haverstock Hill

• Finchley Road

• Welsh Harp

• Napsbury

• Chiltern Green

• Ampthill

• Oakley

• Sharnbrook

• Irchester

• Finedon

• Isham and Burton Latimer

• Glendon and Rushton

• Desborough

• East Langton

• Kibworth

• Great Glen

• Wigston Magna

• Leicester to Trent Junction

• Leicester Humberstone Road

• Cossington Gate

• Hathern

• Kegworth

• Trent

• Derwent Valley

• Breaston (later Sawley – see Long Eaton)

• Draycott

• Borrowash

• Derby Nottingham Road

• Wingfield

• Stretton

• Clay Cross

• Erewash Valley

• Long Eaton (Original Midland Counties Railway station not the present one)

• Stapleford and Sandiacre

• Stanton Gate

• Trowell

• Ilkeston Junction and Cossall – reopened as Ilkeston

• Shipley Gate

• Codnor Park and Ironville

• Pye Bridge

• Westhouses and Blackwell

• Doe Hill

• Chesterfield to Leeds

• Staveley

• Eckington and Renishaw

• Killamarsh West

• Beighton

• Woodhouse Mill

• Treeton

• Sheepbridge

• Unstone

• Beauchief

• Millhouses

• Heeley

• Attercliffe Road

• Brightside

• Holmes

• Rotherham Masborough

• Parkgate and Rawmarsh

• Kilnhurst

• Swinton West (reopened Swinton)

• The following on the original North Midland Railway line

• Wath North

• Darfield

• Cudworth

• Royston and Notton

• Oakenshaw (originally for Wakefield)

• Normanton

• Methley North

• Woodlesford – station still open

Notes and references

 * Notes

 * References

title: Midland Main Line


text:
Undercover journalism

Undercover journalism is a form of journalism in which a reporter tries to infiltrate in a community by posing as somebody friendly to that community.

Role
The role of undercover journalism has become the topic of much debate as moral and ethical lines have been crossed. The nine elements of journalism as outlined in a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel are as follows:

 * 1) Journalism's first obligation is to tell the truth.
 * 2) Its first loyalty is to the citizens.
 * 3) Its essence is discipline of verification.
 * 4) Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
 * 5) It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
 * 6) It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
 * 7) It must strive to make the news significant, interesting, and relevant.
 * 8) It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
 * 9) Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

As reporters have gone undercover some of these guidelines have been bent and broken in order to uphold others on the list. Undercover reporting has brought to light numerous atrocities throughout history, yet often these reporters sacrifice ethical and moral code in the process.

Ethics
While journalism aims to seek and report the truth, the ethics of how the truth is revealed should always be considered. If undercover journalism is an active lie to get the truth, then eventually trust can possibly be broken between reporters and the public. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, "Overreliance on sting operations and subterfuge can weaken the public's trust in the media and compromise journalists' claim to be truth-tellers. Undercover reporting can be a powerful tool, but it's one to be used cautiously: against only the most important targets, and even then only when accompanied by solid traditional reporting." Undercover journalism exposes a lot of truths that would otherwise stay under the radar. In the 1990s, ABC Primetime Live went undercover to investigate rumors of Food Lion's unsanitary practices. According to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, "[j]ournalists should [...] [a]void undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.” Undercover journalism should be used scarcely and if it is used, then it should be done if there are no other options to get the information. It also should be accompanied by useful, interesting, and relevant information for the public.

Notable undercover journalists
Journalists who are famous for their undercover reports include:

 * Hunter S. Thompson
 * Gloria Steinem
 * Donal MacIntyre
 * Alex Dolan
 * Nellie Bly
 * Pam Zekman
 * Anas Aremeyaw Anas
 * Matt Taibbi
 * Günter Wallraff
 * Ramita Navai
 * 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC correspondents
 * Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed)
 * Carmelo Abbate
 * David Daleiden

Gloria Steinem's "A Bunny's Tale," which ran in two parts in Show magazine in 1963, exposed exploitative working conditions in New York's Playboy Club. Steinem applied for a position at the club under an assumed name, got the job, and spent 11 days as a Playboy Bunny. The piece made her a celebrity and is considered a foundational text of second-wave feminism. As Steinem later wrote, "My exposé of working in a Playboy Club has outlived all the Playboy Clubs, both here and abroad."

James O'Keefe is an American conservative activist known for producing secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters with figures and workers in academic, governmental, and social service organizations, in an effort to show abusive or allegedly illegal behavior by employees and/or representatives of those organizations. His ethics have been under scrutiny for manipulating these recordings in order to make subjects appear guilty of some wrongdoing.

Hunter S. Thompson was known for his undercover work reporting on the California-based motorcycle gang, the Hells Angels. His book, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, profiles the gang as Thompson spent roughly a year embedded among the Angels, during a time when their notoriety was at an all-time high.

Elizabeth Jane Cochran, writing under the pseudonym Nellie Bly, became known for her undercover work for the New York World, titled Ten Days in a Mad-House, when she checked herself into an insane asylum as a patient to report on cruelty and neglect. After ten days she was released and later went on to help a grand jury prosecute the mental ward.

Gunter Wallraff is a German journalist known for his undercover work, Ganz unten ("The lowest of the low"), on exposing the oppressive conditions faced by the immigrant workforce in Germany. He sought employment in German factories, pharmaceutical companies, and a wide array of odd jobs for roughly two years before publishing the book.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is a Ghanaian investigative journalist born in the late 1970s. Anas is famous for utilizing his anonymity as a tool in his investigation arsenal (very few people have seen his face). A multimedia journalist who specializes in print media and documentary, Anas focuses on issues of human rights and anti-corruption in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa. Anas has won critical acclaim for his work advocating for the right to not be held in human slavery or servitude and to have a standard of living in the event of an illness. His investigative works have won him worldwide acclaim with President Barack Obama highlighting his virtues in a speech during his 2009 visit to Ghana: "An independent press. A vibrant private sector. A civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy. We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth." Anas has won over fourteen international awards for his investigative work. He was polled as the 5th most influential Ghanaian in 2011 by ETV,and named one of the "Most Influential Africans of the Year" by the New African Magazine, in December 2014. "Chameleon" a documentary about Anas' life and work by Ryan Mullins was premiered at the 2014 IDFA festival in Amsterdam.

Donal MacIntyre is an Irish journalist who went undercover to expose employment standards in the Adventure Sports industry following the Lyme Regis canoeing disaster. He also won an award for his undercover work exposing drug dealers and private security firms that work in collusion after living in character for eleven months.

Alex Dolan is a journalist and science teacher best known for her undercover work exposing poor student behavior in her British classroom for the filming of a Channel 4* documentary Undercover Teacher.

David Daleiden, an anti-abortion activist, secretly recorded conversations of officials at Planned Parenthood. Because Daleiden used a falsified driver's license to obtain access to the Planned Parenthood officials, he was indicted by a Houston grand jury for a second degree felony.

Mazher Mahmood, the so-called "fake sheik", who won awards for his journalism and then was jailed for perjury.

Books based on undercover projects
Related to this are books such as Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, in which a white novelist dyed his skin black and traveled the southern United States, and Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent, a woman who dressed and passed herself off as a man. Gentleman's Agreement by Laura Z. Hobson is a fictional account of a gentile journalist who poses as a Jew to investigate antisemitism.

title: Undercover journalism


text:
Talk:Zephram Cochrane

Which of the two articles contains the correct spelling; Zephram Cochrane or Zefram Cochrane?

 * Zefram, according to http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0286610 . Koyaanis Qatsi

 * Zefram also according to Star Trek Continuum (http://www.startrek.com), which is published by the copyright owners, so it should be official. Note, however, that the SciFi channel (http://www.scifi.com) has it spelled as Zephram. User:Jketola

 * I'll merge it with Zefram then. Should it turn out to be Zephram after all, the page can always be moved. branko

 * I just did. Hope we don't collide.

title: Talk:Zephram Cochrane


text:
Silly Philly

Silly Philly was the first comic strip by Bil Keane, most noted for the long-running comic The Family Circus. Silly Philly ran from April 27, 1947, to September 3, 1961.

In 1947, Keane created the Sunday strip while working for the Philadelphia Bulletin. The main character was a goofy, juvenile William Penn, who had somehow jumped down from his 37' statue on the tower of City Hall in Philadelphia and become something of a scamp. The cartoon often featured jokes submitted by readers.

The Sunday strip sometimes included Mirthquakers, a puzzle and joke feature.

Keane, a native Philadelphian, has occasionally brought the city into reminiscences in Family Circus, which began in 1960.

title: Silly Philly


text:
Talk:Veneration

Sunni Islam is a sect?
This caught my attention: "Other sects, such as Sunnis and Wahhabists, abhor the practice."

When you follow link for Sunni Islam, nowhere does it says that it is a sect (like for Wahhabi movement or Shia Islam).

But on Shia wiki page there is notable effort to call both sides as a sects.

Best regards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ensarija (talk • contribs) 13:02, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Dulia ≠ Veneration
Is a redirect in a search for "dulia" to "veneration" truthful? Given the definitions' of the two words being so dissimilar, the existence of a separate page seems fruitful and enlightening.

Dulia (Greek δουλεια) = bondage, slavery, servitude (e.g. Romans 8:15, 21; Galations 4:24; 5:1; etc.)

Veneration (Latin veneratio) = traditionally, respect or honor given to icons, physical or figurative

It is most clear, to equate the two is to hide knowledge. New Advent, among others, more correctly gives the Latin equivalent, "servitus," even if the denotation is subsequently ignored.

In short, I'd like to create a separate page for "dulia" if there are no reasonable objections or perhaps alternatives. Thanks for your time.CalebPM (talk) 07:49, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Other Religions?
"Veneration" in academic literature often refers to religious reverence for some individual through various religious avenues (religious poetry or prose, storytelling, paintings, music, etc). For example, there is a monograph by Annemarie Schimmel titled, And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety. So the topic can have a much wider scope than just Christianity, even though the term veneration is often used in Christian writings to refer exclusively to the reverence of Christian Saints. --Semaphoris (talk) 18:20, 20 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I've removed the paragraphs on Hebrew, which were full of errors. There is no word שחה meaning veneration.  The word שחה appears only once in the Bible, in an obscure verse, where it seems to mean 'lie down on the ground' (and not in veneration).  All the verses that were cited in these paragraphs have the word השתחוה, which may or may not be from the same abstract, hypothetical root as שחה.  Anyway, השתחוה does not mean 'venerate' but rather 'bow down', that is, a physical act, not a spiritual/mental/emotional or verbal one.  The source that was given for the information in the paragraphs, http://sacred-texts.com/bib/poly/h7812.htm, is antiquated nonsense.  No modern scholar talks about "a primitive root"; why should prostration be "reflexive"; and this Hebrew word certainly does not mean "humbly beseech".  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.186.215.227 (talk) 16:19, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

The comments indicating that Lutherans practice "veneration of saints" are incorrect. According to The Augsburg Confession, Article 21 "Lutherans keep the saints, not as saviors or intercessors to God, but rather as examples and inspirations to our own faith and life." Additionally, in response to the question "To whom should we pray?" Martin Luther responds "We should pray to the true God only, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not to idols, saints, or anything God has created." Happyday01 (talk) 09:32, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Lutherans do venerate saints, but not through intercessory prayers. The Magnificat, Liturgical Calendar of Saints (Lutheran), and Books of Saints are all ways in which Lutherans venerate the saints. It is very different than most other forms of Christian veneration, and I wish the article would mention more on the subject. The article needs much improvement. Willthacheerleader18 (talk) 14:44, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church prays to Mary and the saints, see here --Willthacheerleader18 (talk) 03:43, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Different Churches, Different Veneration
I think that the article should be broken up into the different kinds of veneration. I know that catholic, orthodox, anglican, and lutheran veneration all differ. Lutheran Veneration probably needs to be explained better, because unlike Catholics, Anglicans, and Orthodox, Lutherans do not pray to saints, they do however celebrate their feast days, have a calender of saints, and believe the saints pray for them. I think this needs to be explained in the article. 74.167.245.190 (talk) 20:08, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Agreed. --Willthacheerleader18 (talk) 15:47, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Lutheran and Anglican references should be removed unless documentation is cited. Grantmidnight (talk) 13:36, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Removed. A year of challenge is long enough.  Grantmidnight (talk) 20:02, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Mariology
The references sited are not accurate on timetable. Although the conception of Mary was celebrated in the East in the early christian period, the concept of immaculate conception by the Roman Catholic Church was not universal. It was allowed in 1806, and established as dogma in 1854. This is not a 'long' history as indicated.

The Assumption was not established until 1871. And these Roman dogmas are not accepted by most the other Christian religions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.37.171.100 (talk) 00:34, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Angel=Saint?
The article lede currently gives a definition of saint that I'm not finding to be a widespread one in different religions and sects, at least in the neutral and academic reliable sources I'm searching. We currently define saint as ":an angel, or a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness." I'm bringing it here because Elizium23 reverted my removal of "angel" from the definition of "saint." I also notice that the article body mentions "angel" only once, and even then, not to show that angel=saint. The lede "should briefly summarize the most important points covered in an article," so on that count alone it shouldn't be in the lede as the article currently stands (and in the first sentence yet!). Is it possible that Elizium23, and whoever inserted "angel" in the lede previously is not trying to define them as the same thing, but wanting to show that angels are also venerated? If that's the case, then we could simply add a sentence after the first one saying, "Angles are also shown veneration in many religions." By the way, here is how a neutral, very broad-based, academic reliable source introduces the concept of saints: "Historians of religion have liberated the category of sainthood from its narrower Christian associations and have employed the term in a more general way to refer to the state of special holiness that many religions attribute to certain people. The Jewish hasid or tsaddiq, the Muslim waliy, the Zoroastrian fravashi, the Hindu rsi or guru, the Buddhist arahant or bodhisattva, the Daoist shengren, the Shinto kami and others have all been referred to as saints."

The quote is from:

Additionally, our Saint article mentions "angel" once, and only then to state that angels are not saints ("By this definition, Adam and Eve, Moses, the various prophets, except for the angels and archangels are all given the title of "Saint".) First Light (talk) 16:37, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I am the one who originally inserted the word, and I would not object to rephrasing as you propose to avoid the 'angel=saint' assertion and show that they are also shown veneration. However, the quote you give from the Saint article is referring to the Eastern Orthodox, which are at variance with Catholic tradition which does give the title of 'Saint' to the angels and archangels, and considers them as members of the communion of saints. Here is an article in the Catholic Encyclopedia which I hope will explain things to your satisfaction. Elizium23 (talk) 19:56, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I understand after reading that quote, and used it because it was the only mention, however peripheral, in that article. As you can see, I'm trying to give the broadest perspective in the lede, and then allow for the views of different branches and religions in the main body of the article. And thanks for that link — I'm neither Catholic or Orthodox, so this is all an education for me :-). First Light (talk) 20:16, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Sikh Veneration
Perhaps a subcategory regarding Sikh veneration could be added on...? How about Baha'iveneration...?--Splashen (talk) 23:15, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 16 October 2016

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. It's not even completely clear what the eventual move proposal was, let alone who !voted on what, but it's clear that there is no possibility of a consensus to move based on this muddled RM. So strongly suggest discuss informally on the various talk pages, starting with the several suggestions raised below to improve the articles, and raise another RM only if a considered direction emerges that needs a renaming. Andrewa (talk) 02:05, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

 * Veneration → Veneration of Christian saints
 * Veneration of the dead → Veneration of the dead

– Wikipedia is not the Catholic Encyclopedia or any other Christian work, there 's no dab page, and if you're in this particular religion (Catholic/Orthodox), veneration can refer to Veneration of the dead instead, or other things. This should be replaced by a disambiguation page. -- 65.94.171.217 (talk) 05:47, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

Survey

 * Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with  or  , then sign your comment with  . Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

 * Support I am the nominator. Indeed the Veneratioo nof Christian Saints can easily be seen as a subtopic of veneration of the dead, since all Saints are dead, and they are being venerated. -- 65.94.171.217 (talk) 05:48, 16 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Oppose currently the article covers Buddhism and Islam too In ictu oculi (talk) 07:03, 16 October 2016 (UTC)
 * With the way the lede is written, this appears to supposed to be a Christian article, with the other religions being coatracked onto the Christian topic. (hence the need for a disambiguation page, and refactor of this page) -- 65.94.171.217 (talk) 07:57, 17 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Oppose – I don't see the OP's point; the concept of veneration is not limited to Christianism and the article correctly addresses this. If you think there is too much emphasis on one religion, that's a content discussion to be held on this very talk page. — JFG talk 14:45, 16 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Then veneration of saints (with the mix of religious content, but with a rewritten lede, since it implies a Christian article). Though it still remains that those being venerated are dead, and still as such should be a subtopic of veneration of the dead -- 65.94.171.217 (talk) 07:59, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Any additional comments:

 * I'm confused. (1) Why is yes used in the requested move in this section as it appears the suggestion is that only this article be renamed and that Veneration of the dead be left unchanged? (2) Why is an article with non-Christian content being proposed for renaming to a title which is specific to Christianity? YBG (talk) 06:08, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

 * Comment - What a mess.
 * If this article is named Veneration it should not have the current Christian undue weight in the lede. This is a content issue. I don't think this article needs to be stripped back to a disambig, but it does need an overhaul to be more balanced. For sections that are addressed more fully in already-existing-articles, the usual, brief overview with a link to the full article is the thing to do.
 * If you want more content for Veneration of Christian Saints than is already in this article, sure, make another article and, as above, brief summation with See main article link.
 * I don't suggest merging Veneration of the dead and the Saints stuff, as the former covers all sorts of non-Christian religions and I'm not sure the approaches would fit well together. But if you want to try, YMMV. Meanwhile, I'm adjusting the template over at that article, as a request to move the article to where it already is... well, I don't think that's really helping. - Co rb ie V    ☊ ☼ 23:07, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requested move 29 April 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the page at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 18:50, 6 May 2018 (UTC)

Veneration → Veneration of saints – For precision and natural disambiguation with Veneration of the dead per WP:PRECISION. Rreagan007 (talk) 22:52, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Support clearly |Veneration_of_Mary_in_the_Catholic_Church|Veneration no primary topic, so move Veneration (disambiguation) to base line. In ictu oculi (talk) 20:21, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I also support moving Veneration (disambiguation) to Veneration. Rreagan007 (talk) 18:27, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Some venerate angels.  The term "saint" varies across religions and even denominations.  Suggest splitting the article by religion and shrinking this page considerably to a WP:CONCEPTDAB.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 06:52, 3 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose and rewrite per SmokeyJoe. There is a general concept of veneration which should have an article. bd2412  T 21:49, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Miracle
Scant mention through the entire article and no link whatsoever to the article on Miracle from here? Surely, the reason all these people are performing veneration deserves some mention (with a direct link) somewhere in the lead section. — Llywelyn II   05:39, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Sorry to object, but the reason why "these people" are venerated is because they were either martyrs or lived lifes of heroic virtue (or even both).--Medusahead (talk) 08:08, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Veneration


text:
Talk:Box–Muller transform

the C++ code
I don't understand why epsilon need be brought in. The test for u1 being less than or equal to epsilon could be replaced by a test for u1 being greater than 0. Keep it simple! Jswd (talk) 05:53, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

 * On my x86-64 system, epsilon is 2.22045e-16 which you think of as the granularity of 64-bit doubles around 1. The smallest non-zero number usefully available is MUCH smaller - about 1e-308. Attempting to calculate the logarithm of zero will fail. However, 1e-308 has a decimal logarithm of -308 and a natural logarithm of about -710 which can be handled without any error. Jswd (talk) 19:44, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Nice article
Nice article and clearly written. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:4643:E6E3:0:65F3:23E8:7C14:9334 (talk) 13:28, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Untitled
Michael, thanks for catching my mistake regarding phi & varphi. Strange that the html markup & phi should be \varphi in tex. Any ideas on correctly numbering the two methods? --snoyes 22:28 Feb 20, 2003 (UTC)

I wonder wether those two numbers will be linked or independent from each other? May anyone tell? -- Feb 23, 2004

 * they are linked; they both transform a uniform distribution over the unit circle to a gaussian distribution; the difference is that the first is given in polar coordinates, while the second is in cartesian coordinates

 * JeffBobFrank 04:29, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

The second method is typically faster because it uses only one transcendental function instead of three I can only see the need for two transcendental functions in the first method, since $$\sin^2(x)+\cos^2(x)=1$$. I assume ×π doesn't count. --Henrygb 14:36, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The discussion after the formulas says we get out uniformly distributed values, but I thought we wanted normally distributed ones. Also, I still don't quite understand the characteristics of the two formulas. The first seems to go from polar coordinates to... cartesian? More polar coords? The second seems to go from cart -> cart, but what range can I expect? The discussion suggests output values are in a unit circle, but that's not what I get (fortunately, since with a stddev of 1 it'd cut off the tails). Lunkwill 02:18, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * getting the uniformly distributed numbers is one step in both methods. they're then multiplied by the thing in the square root, which gives them a normal distribution. and the first one goes from polar to cart, the second from cart to cart. Frencheigh 02:46, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_mitreESDTe69266ANewMethodofGeneratingGaussianRando_2706065 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.16.159.239 (talk) 01:12, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Be Careful with the Second Method ("Polar form")
Warning: Be very careful with the second Box-Muller method given here ("Polar form"). It may not be correct as written. It would be correct if the quantities labelled as "r" under the square root signs were replaced by r-squared, because r-squared is uniformly distributed in (0,1], x/r is a cosine, and x/r is a sine. TopKatz 22:48, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
 * r is defined here as $$x^2+y^2$$. You were probably expecting $$r$$ to be the norm of $$(x,y)$$. Deco 16:53, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

The Second Paragraph is in Error
The basic method takes points uniformly distributed in the unit square (not circle) and transforms them as given by the formulas listed. The polar method takes points uniformly distributed in the unit circle (note that you throw away all points with a radius or radius squared greater than 1) and transforms them. As noted above, R is the radius-squared, which is uniform (0,1]. The polar coordinates, (r, theta) are not uniformly distributed.  Theta is uniformly distributed, but r is not (r-squared is uniform).  In my previous sentence, I used the standard notation r for radius, not r for a uniform variable as is done in the article.

It might be helpful the write the polar form in a way that corresponds to the basic form, i.e, x/sqrt (R) is the cosine of a uniform angle ( R is the radius-squared again) and sqrt (-2 ln R) is equivalent to sqrt  (-2 ln r), since both R, the radius squared, and r, which has nothing to do with a radius, are uniform (0,1].  The formulas as given should remain; I am suggesting something of the form

z = ( x/ sqrt (b)) * sqrt (c) = a sqrt (b/c)

(I have never edited before and don't feel comfortable editing the article itself)

72.134.75.20 00:49, 21 September 2006 (UTC) Al

correct myself
z = x/ sqrt (b)) * sqrt (c) = x sqrt (c/b)

72.134.75.20 00:57, 21 September 2006 (UTC) Al

Rejection probabiility
Hello,

I screwed up, so reverted, just to clear it uo. The Box-Muller transform has, as the output from 2 uniform deviates (UDs), 2 random numbers (Knuth). The acceptance rate for input UD pairs being pi*r^2 / (2r)^2 = pi/4 therefore the rejection rate is (1-pi/4) = 0.214. The acceptance being pi/4, the numbers generated per output are 4/pi. reverting my bad... User A1 04:53, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Numerically more stable?
The article, in the section on comparing the two forms states: "it is typically faster than the basic method because it is simpler to compute (provided that the random number generator is relatively fast) and is more numerically robust"

I do not believe that Knop's polar method is more numerically stable than the basic transform. The cited reference does not convince me; it is not from a numerical analyst but from someone writing for a general audience of FORTH programmers. It doesn't give a proof or any reference. All it does is just state that the algorithm is more robust.

A hand-wavy argument about why it may be less stable is as follows:

In both forms of the algorithm, the argument of ln is uniformly distributed. Thus it is small with equal probability.

In the polar form, sqrt((-ln s)/s) is multiplied by a number in the interval 0..1. In the original form sqrt(-ln s) is multiplied by a number in the interval 0..1. The only real difference in these two is the difference between ln s/s and ln s. (ln s)/s becomes very negative much faster than ln s as s goes to 0. And it is always true that ln s/s < ln s on the interval (0,1) Thus if a certain value s is too close to 0 in ln s. Then ln s/s will be worse. Further ln s/s has a larger slope meaning that little errors in the input will be more exaggerated in the output.

Neither function should have any problem near 1 since the slope of both ln s/s and ln s is pretty horizontal there, meaning that small errors in the input yield even smaller errors in the output.

Thus, I believe that contrary to the current form of the article that the original box muller is better in terms of stability. The degree of this increase and whether this outweighs (possible) speed trade-offs is an issue the implementer must deal with. But I don't think the article should state "more robust" without some better proof.

BrotherE (talk) 21:58, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Mapping diagram
Hi all, I removed the mapping diagram I made from the intro after receiving the following e-mail about it:
 * If I'm right you are the author of this (File:Box_Muller.svg) picture on Wikipedia. I'm using Box-Muller Transform in my student's project, and at the moment I'm trying to understand how this circles are created. On the first graph you have circles of uniform distribution, so:
 * r=sqrt(u^2+v^2)
 * and r is from 0.1 to 1.0 with step 0.1.
 * s=r^2
 * When we look to the second graph you use this function:
 * R=sqrt(-2*ln(r)/r).
 * Could you tell me why it is so simple? When we look at the equations:
 * z0 = u * sqrt(-2*ln(r)/r)
 * z1 = v * sqrt(-2*ln(r)/r)
 * Because of this, I thought that R should be calculated as:
 * R = sqrt(z0^2 + z1^2) = sqrt(u^2+v^2)*sqrt(-2ln(r)/r))
 * Why we can remove this "first" element = sqrt(u^2+v^2)?

I think they're right, my diagram appears to be incorrect. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure how to correct it. I'd like to somehow visualize the two-dimensional mapping properly. Any suggestions would be welcome. Dcoetzee 05:12, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Incorrect implementation
I don't know who did it but the implementation seems incorrect (unused variables, return with uninitialized variables). I'm not a mathematician so I cannot correct the code myself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.225.160.248 (talk) 16:21, 26 June 2016 (UTC)
 * The thread_locals behave like statics, but are thread local, so nothing's uninitialised, your worries are unfounded. The u1 rejection loop is a bit dumb, one could simply use (rand+1)*U1_SCALE_FACTOR instead, where U1_SCALE_FACTOR would be 1./(1.+RAND_MAX), another static const. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:7D0:8310:5B80:DACB:8AFF:FEA7:FCDD (talk) 07:48, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Value of sigma?
The Basic Method section gives a useful formula, but I'm not clear what the standard deviation of the resulting distribution will be. The link to the standard normal distribution article suggests the standard deviation is 1.0, but I'd rather see the article say this explicitly instead of letting me figure it out. It's been a while since I've looked at these distributions, and my math is very rusty. —MiguelMunoz (talk) 06:16, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Box–Muller transform