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Growth hormone

Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in human development. GH also stimulates production of Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and increases the concentration of glucose and free fatty acids. It is a type of mitogen which is specific only to the receptors on certain types of cells. GH is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored and secreted by somatotropic cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland.

A recombinant form of HGH called somatropin (INN) is used as a prescription drug to treat children's growth disorders and adult growth hormone deficiency. In the United States, it is only available legally from pharmacies by prescription from a licensed health care provider. In recent years in the United States, some health care providers are prescribing growth hormone in the elderly to increase vitality. While legal, the efficacy and safety of this use for HGH has not been tested in a clinical trial. Many of the functions of HGH remain unknown.

In its role as an anabolic agent, HGH has been used by competitors in sports since at least 1982 and has been banned by the IOC and NCAA. Traditional urine analysis does not detect doping with HGH, so the ban was not enforced until the early 2000s, when blood tests that could distinguish between natural and artificial HGH were starting to be developed. Blood tests conducted by WADA at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, targeted primarily HGH. Use of the drug for performance enhancement is not currently approved by the FDA.

GH has been studied for use in raising livestock more efficiently in industrial agriculture and several efforts have been made to obtain governmental approval to use GH in livestock production. These uses have been controversial. In the United States, the only FDA-approved use of GH for livestock is the use of a cow-specific form of GH called bovine somatotropin for increasing milk production in dairy cows. Retailers are permitted to label containers of milk as produced with or without bovine somatotropin.

Nomenclature
The names somatotropin (STH) or somatotropic hormone refer to the growth hormone produced naturally in animals and extracted from carcasses. Hormone extracted from human cadavers is abbreviated hGH. The main growth hormone produced by recombinant DNA technology has the approved generic name (INN) somatropin and the brand name Humatrope and is properly abbreviated rhGH in the scientific literature. Since its introduction in 1992, Humatrope has been a banned sports doping agent and in this context is referred to as HGH.

The term growth hormone has been incorrectly applied to refer to anabolic sex hormones in the European beef hormone controversy, which initially restricts the use of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, melengestrol acetate and trenbolone acetate.

Gene
Genes for human growth hormone, known as growth hormone 1 (somatotropin; pituitary growth hormone) and growth hormone 2 (placental growth hormone; growth hormone variant), are localized in the q22-24 region of chromosome 17  and are closely related to human chorionic somatomammotropin (also known as placental lactogen) genes. GH, human chorionic somatomammotropin, and prolactin belong to a group of homologous hormones with growth-promoting and lactogenic activity.

Structure
The major isoform of the human growth hormone is a protein of 191 amino acids and a molecular weight of 22,124 daltons. The structure includes four helices necessary for functional interaction with the GH receptor. It appears that, in structure, GH is evolutionarily homologous to prolactin and chorionic somatomammotropin. Despite marked structural similarities between growth hormone from different species, only human and Old World monkey growth hormones have significant effects on the human growth hormone receptor.

Several molecular isoforms of GH exist in the pituitary gland and are released to blood. In particular, a variant of approximately 20 kDa originated by an alternative splicing is present in a rather constant 1:9 ratio, while recently an additional variant of ~ 23-24 kDa has also been reported in post-exercise states at higher proportions. This variant has not been identified, but it has been suggested to coincide with a 22 kDa glycosylated variant of 23 kDa identified in the pituitary gland. Furthermore, these variants circulate partially bound to a protein (growth hormone-binding protein, GHBP), which is the truncated part of the growth hormone receptor, and an acid-labile subunit (ALS).

Regulation
Secretion of growth hormone (GH) in the pituitary is regulated by the neurosecretory nuclei of the hypothalamus. These cells release the peptides growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH or somatocrinin) and growth hormone-inhibiting hormone (GHIH or somatostatin) into the hypophyseal portal venous blood surrounding the pituitary. GH release in the pituitary is primarily determined by the balance of these two peptides, which in turn is affected by many physiological stimulators (e.g., exercise, nutrition, sleep) and inhibitors (e.g., free fatty acids) of GH secretion.

Somatotropic cells in the anterior pituitary gland then synthesize and secrete GH in a pulsatile manner, in response to these stimuli by the hypothalamus. The largest and most predictable of these GH peaks occurs about an hour after onset of sleep with plasma levels of 13 to 72 ng/mL. Maximal secretion of GH may occur within minutes of the onset of slow-wave (SW) sleep (stage III or IV). Otherwise there is wide variation between days and individuals. Nearly fifty percent of GH secretion occurs during the third and fourth NREM sleep stages. Surges of secretion during the day occur at 3- to 5-hour intervals. The plasma concentration of GH during these peaks may range from 5 to even 45 ng/mL. Between the peaks, basal GH levels are low, usually less than 5 ng/mL for most of the day and night. Additional analysis of the pulsatile profile of GH described in all cases less than 1 ng/ml for basal levels while maximum peaks were situated around 10-20 ng/mL.

A number of factors are known to affect GH secretion, such as age, sex, diet, exercise, stress, and other hormones. Young adolescents secrete GH at the rate of about 700 μg/day, while healthy adults secrete GH at the rate of about 400 μg/day. Sleep deprivation generally suppresses GH release, particularly after early adulthood.

Stimulators of growth hormone (GH) secretion include:

 * Peptide hormones
 * GHRH (somatocrinin) through binding to the growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor (GHRHR)
 * Ghrelin through binding to growth hormone secretagogue receptors (GHSR)
 * Sex hormones
 * Increased androgen secretion during puberty (in males from testes and in females from adrenal cortex)
 * Testosterone and DHEA
 * Estrogen
 * Clonidine, moxonidine and L-DOPA by stimulating GHRH release
 * α4β2 nicotinic agonists, including nicotine, which also act synergistically with clonidine or moxonidine.
 * Hypoglycemia, arginine, pramipexole, ornitine, lysine, tryptophan, γ-Aminobutyric acid and propranolol by inhibiting somatostatin release

 * Deep sleep

 * Glucagon
 * Sodium oxybate or γ-Hydroxybutyric acid

 * Niacin as nicotinic acid (vitamin B3)
 * Fasting
 * Insulin
 * Vigorous exercise

Inhibitors of GH secretion include:

 * GHIH (somatostatin) from the periventricular nucleus
 * circulating concentrations of GH and IGF-1 (negative feedback on the pituitary and hypothalamus)
 * Hyperglycemia
 * Glucocorticoids
 * Dihydrotestosterone
 * Phenothiazines

In addition to control by endogenous and stimulus processes, a number of foreign compounds (xenobiotics such as drugs and endocrine disruptors) are known to influence GH secretion and function.

Function

Effects of growth hormone on the tissues of the body can generally be described as anabolic (building up). Like most other peptide hormones, GH acts by interacting with a specific receptor on the surface of cells.

Increased height during childhood is the most widely known effect of GH. Height appears to be stimulated by at least two mechanisms:

 * 1) Because polypeptide hormones are not fat-soluble, they cannot penetrate cell membranes. Thus, GH exerts some of its effects by binding to receptors on target cells, where it activates the MAPK/ERK pathway. Through this mechanism GH directly stimulates division and multiplication of chondrocytes of cartilage.
 * 2) GH also stimulates, through the JAK-STAT signaling pathway, the production of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1, formerly known as somatomedin C), a hormone homologous to proinsulin. The liver is a major target organ of GH for this process and is the principal site of IGF-1 production. IGF-1 has growth-stimulating effects on a wide variety of tissues. Additional IGF-1 is generated within target tissues, making it what appears to be both an endocrine and an autocrine/paracrine hormone. IGF-1 also has stimulatory effects on osteoblast and chondrocyte activity to promote bone growth.

In addition to increasing height in children and adolescents, growth hormone has many other effects on the body:

 * Increases calcium retention, and strengthens and increases the mineralization of bone
 * Increases muscle mass through sarcomere hypertrophy
 * Promotes lipolysis
 * Increases protein synthesis
 * Stimulates the growth of all internal organs excluding the brain
 * Plays a role in homeostasis
 * Reduces liver uptake of glucose
 * Promotes gluconeogenesis in the liver
 * Contributes to the maintenance and function of pancreatic islets
 * Stimulates the immune system
 * Increases deiodination of T4 to T3
 * Induces insulin resistance

Biochemistry
GH has a short biological half-life of about 10 to 20 minutes.

Excess
The most common disease of GH excess is a pituitary tumor composed of somatotroph cells of the anterior pituitary. These somatotroph adenomas are benign and grow slowly, gradually producing more and more GH. For years, the principal clinical problems are those of GH excess. Eventually, the adenoma may become large enough to cause headaches, impair vision by pressure on the optic nerves, or cause deficiency of other pituitary hormones by displacement.

Prolonged GH excess thickens the bones of the jaw, fingers and toes, resulting in heaviness of the jaw and increased size of digits, referred to as acromegaly. Accompanying problems can include sweating, pressure on nerves (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome), muscle weakness, excess sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), insulin resistance or even a rare form of type 2 diabetes, and reduced sexual function.

GH-secreting tumors are typically recognized in the fifth decade of life. It is extremely rare for such a tumor to occur in childhood, but, when it does, the excessive GH can cause excessive growth, traditionally referred to as pituitary gigantism.

Surgical removal is the usual treatment for GH-producing tumors. In some circumstances, focused radiation or a GH antagonist such as pegvisomant may be employed to shrink the tumor or block function. Other drugs like octreotide (somatostatin agonist) and bromocriptine (dopamine agonist) can be used to block GH secretion because both somatostatin and dopamine negatively inhibit GHRH-mediated GH release from the anterior pituitary.

Deficiency
The effects of growth hormone (GH) deficiency vary depending on the age at which they occur. Alterations in somatomedin can result in growth hormone deficiency with two known mechanisms; failure of tissues to respond to somatomedin, or failure of the liver to produce somatomedin. Major manifestations of GH deficiency in children are growth failure, the development of a short stature, and delayed sexual maturity. In adults, somatomedin alteration contributes to increased osteoclast activity, resulting in weaker bones that are more prone to pathologic fracture and osteoporosis. However, deficiency is rare in adults, with the most common cause being a pituitary adenoma. Other adult causes include a continuation of a childhood problem, other structural lesions or trauma, and very rarely idiopathic GHD.

Adults with GHD "tend to have a relative increase in fat mass and a relative decrease in muscle mass and, in many instances, decreased energy and quality of life".

Diagnosis of GH deficiency involves a multiple-step diagnostic process, usually culminating in GH stimulation tests to see if the patient's pituitary gland will release a pulse of GH when provoked by various stimuli.

Quality of life
Several studies, primarily involving patients with GH deficiency, have suggested a crucial role of GH in both mental and emotional well-being and maintaining a high energy level. Adults with GH deficiency often have higher rates of depression than those without. While GH replacement therapy has been proposed to treat depression as a result of GH deficiency, the long-term effects of such therapy are unknown.

Cognitive function
GH has also been studied in the context of cognitive function, including learning and memory. GH in humans appears to improve cognitive function and may be useful in the treatment of patients with cognitive impairment that is a result of GH deficiency.

Replacement therapy
GH is used as replacement therapy in adults with GH deficiency of either childhood-onset or adult-onset (usually as a result of an acquired pituitary tumor). In these patients, benefits have variably included reduced fat mass, increased lean mass, increased bone density, improved lipid profile, reduced cardiovascular risk factors, and improved psychosocial well-being. Long acting growth hormone (LAGH) analogues are now available for treating growth hormone deficiency both in children and adults. These are once weekly injections as compared to conventional growth hormone which has to be taken as daily injections. LAGH injection 4 times a month has been found to be as safe and effective as daily growth hormone injections.

Other approved uses
GH can be used to treat conditions that produce short stature but are not related to deficiencies in GH. However, results are not as dramatic when compared to short stature that is solely attributable to deficiency of GH. Examples of other causes of shortness often treated with GH are Turner syndrome, Growth failure secondary to chronic kidney disease in children, Prader–Willi syndrome, intrauterine growth restriction, and severe idiopathic short stature. Higher ("pharmacologic") doses are required to produce significant acceleration of growth in these conditions, producing blood levels well above normal ("physiologic").

One version of rHGH has also been FDA approved for maintaining muscle mass in wasting due to AIDS.

Off-label use
Off-label prescription of HGH is controversial and may be illegal.

Claims for GH as an anti-aging treatment date back to 1990 when the New England Journal of Medicine published a study wherein GH was used to treat 12 men over 60. At the conclusion of the study, all the men showed statistically significant increases in lean body mass and bone mineral density, while the control group did not. The authors of the study noted that these improvements were the opposite of the changes that would normally occur over a 10- to 20-year aging period. Despite the fact the authors at no time claimed that GH had reversed the aging process itself, their results were misinterpreted as indicating that GH is an effective anti-aging agent. This has led to organizations such as the controversial American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine promoting the use of this hormone as an "anti-aging agent".

A Stanford University School of Medicine meta-analysis of clinical studies on the subject published in early 2007 showed that the application of GH on healthy elderly patients increased muscle by about 2 kg and decreased body fat by the same amount. However, these were the only positive effects from taking GH. No other critical factors were affected, such as bone density, cholesterol levels, lipid measurements, maximal oxygen consumption, or any other factor that would indicate increased fitness. Researchers also did not discover any gain in muscle strength, which led them to believe that GH merely let the body store more water in the muscles rather than increase muscle growth. This would explain the increase in lean body mass.

GH has also been used experimentally to treat multiple sclerosis, to enhance weight loss in obesity, as well as in fibromyalgia, heart failure, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and burns. GH has also been used experimentally in patients with short bowel syndrome to lessen the requirement for intravenous total parenteral nutrition.

In 1990, the US Congress passed an omnibus crime bill, the Crime Control Act of 1990, that amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, that classified anabolic steroids as controlled substances and added a new section that stated that a person who "knowingly distributes, or possesses with intent to distribute, human growth hormone for any use in humans other than the treatment of a disease or other recognized medical condition, where such use has been authorized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services" has committed a felony.

The Drug Enforcement Administration of the US Department of Justice considers off-label prescribing of HGH to be illegal, and to be a key path for illicit distribution of HGH. This section has also been interpreted by some doctors, most notably the authors of a commentary article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005, as meaning that prescribing HGH off-label may be considered illegal. And some articles in the popular press, such as those criticizing the pharmaceutical industry for marketing drugs for off-label use (with concern of ethics violations) have made strong statements about whether doctors can prescribe HGH off-label: "Unlike other prescription drugs, HGH may be prescribed only for specific uses. U.S. sales are limited by law to treat a rare growth defect in children and a handful of uncommon conditions like short bowel syndrome or Prader-Willi syndrome, a congenital disease that causes reduced muscle tone and a lack of hormones in sex glands." At the same time, anti-aging clinics where doctors prescribe, administer, and sell HGH to people are big business. In a 2012 article in Vanity Fair, when asked how HGH prescriptions far exceed the number of adult patients estimated to have HGH-deficiency, Dragos Roman, who leads a team at the FDA that reviews drugs in endocrinology, said "The F.D.A. doesn't regulate off-label uses of H.G.H. Sometimes it's used appropriately. Sometimes it's not."

Side effects
Injection site reactions are common. More rarely, patients can experience joint swelling, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and an increased risk of diabetes. In some cases, the patient can produce an immune response against GH. GH may also be a risk factor for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

One survey of adults that had been treated with replacement cadaver GH (which has not been used anywhere in the world since 1985) during childhood showed a mildly increased incidence of colon cancer and prostate cancer, but linkage with the GH treatment was not established.

Performance enhancement
The first description of the use of GH as a doping agent was Dan Duchaine's "Underground Steroid handbook" which emerged from California in 1982; it is not known where and when GH was first used this way.

Athletes in many sports have used human growth hormone in order to attempt to enhance their athletic performance. Some recent studies have not been able to support claims that human growth hormone can improve the athletic performance of professional male athletes. Many athletic societies ban the use of GH and will issue sanctions against athletes who are caught using it. However, because GH is a potent endogenous protein, it is very difficult to detect GH doping. In the United States, GH is legally available only by prescription from a medical doctor.

Dietary supplements
To capitalize on the idea that GH might be useful to combat aging, companies selling dietary supplements have websites selling products linked to GH in the advertising text, with medical-sounding names described as "HGH Releasers". Typical ingredients include amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and/or herbal extracts, the combination of which are described as causing the body to make more GH with corresponding beneficial effects. In the United States, because these products are marketed as dietary supplements, it is illegal for them to contain GH, which is a drug. Also, under United States law, products sold as dietary supplements cannot have claims that the supplement treats or prevents any disease or condition, and the advertising material must contain a statement that the health claims are not approved by the FDA. The FTC and the FDA do enforce the law when they become aware of violations.

Agricultural use
In the United States, it is legal to give a bovine GH to dairy cows to increase milk production, and is legal to use GH in raising cows for beef; see article on Bovine somatotropin, cattle feeding, dairy farming and the beef hormone controversy.

The use of GH in poultry farming is illegal in the United States. Similarly, no chicken meat for sale in Australia is administered hormones.

Several companies have attempted to have a version of GH for use in pigs (porcine somatotropin) approved by the FDA but all applications have been withdrawn.

Drug development history
Genentech pioneered the use of recombinant human growth hormone for human therapy, which was approved by the FDA in 1985.

Prior to its production by recombinant DNA technology, growth hormone used to treat deficiencies was extracted from the pituitary glands of cadavers. Attempts to create a wholly synthetic HGH failed. Limited supplies of HGH resulted in the restriction of HGH therapy to the treatment of idiopathic short stature. Very limited clinical studies of growth hormone derived from an Old World monkey, the rhesus macaque, were conducted by John C. Beck and colleagues in Montreal, in the late 1950s. The study published in 1957, which was conducted on "a 13-year-old male with well-documented hypopituitarism secondary to a crainiophyaryngioma," found that: "Human and monkey growth hormone resulted in a significant enhancement of nitrogen storage ... (and) there was a retention of potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and sodium. ... There was a gain in body weight during both periods. ... There was a significant increase in urinary excretion of aldosterone during both periods of administration of growth hormone. This was most marked with the human growth hormone. ... Impairment of the glucose tolerance curve was evident after 10 days of administration of the human growth hormone. No change in glucose tolerance was demonstrable on the fifth day of administration of monkey growth hormone." The other study, published in 1958, was conducted on six people: the same subject as the Science paper; an 18-year-old male with statural and sexual retardation and a skeletal age of between 13 and 14 years; a 15-year-old female with well-documented hypopituitarism secondary to a craniopharyngioma; a 53-year-old female with carcinoma of the breast and widespread skeletal metastases; a 68-year-old female with advanced postmenopausal osteoporosis; and a healthy 24-year-old medical student without any clinical or laboratory evidence of systemic disease.

In 1985, unusual cases of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease were found in individuals that had received cadaver-derived HGH ten to fifteen years previously. Based on the assumption that infectious prions causing the disease were transferred along with the cadaver-derived HGH, cadaver-derived HGH was removed from the market.

In 1985, biosynthetic human growth hormone replaced pituitary-derived human growth hormone for therapeutic use in the U.S. and elsewhere.

As of 2005, recombinant growth hormones available in the United States (and their manufacturers) included Nutropin (Genentech), Humatrope (Lilly), Genotropin (Pfizer), Norditropin (Novo), and Saizen (Merck Serono). In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a version of rHGH called Omnitrope (Sandoz). A sustained-release form of growth hormone, Nutropin Depot (Genentech and Alkermes) was approved by the FDA in 1999, allowing for fewer injections (every 2 or 4 weeks instead of daily); however, the product was discontinued by Genentech/Alkermes in 2004 for financial reasons (Nutropin Depot required significantly more resources to produce than the rest of the Nutropin line ).

title: Growth hormone


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Moruya, New South Wales

Moruya is a town located on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Moruya River. The Princes Highway runs through the town that is about 305 km south of Sydney and 175 km from Canberra. At the, Moruya had a population of 4,295. Its built-up area had a population of 2,762. The town relies predominantly on agriculture, aquaculture, and tourism. Moruya is administered by the Eurobodalla Shire Council and the shire chambers are located in the town.

History
The South Coast region of New South Wales is the traditional home of the Yuin people, with the area in and around Moruya home to the Bugelli-Manji clan.

The name "Moruya" is derived from an Aboriginal Tharawal word () believed to mean "home of the black swan", although this is not probable and not verifiable. Black swans can be seen in the lakes and rivers around Moruya, and the black swan is used locally as an emblem.

European settlement commenced in the 1820s following the extension of the limits of location in 1829, although the coast from Batemans Bay to Moruya was surveyed the previous year by surveyor Thomas Florance. The first European settler was Francis Flanagan, a tailor from Ireland, who was granted title to 4 sqmi on the north bank of the river at Shannon View in 1829. In 1830, the next settler, John Hawdon, set up a squat at Bergalia, but being beyond the limits, could not gain title to the land. In 1831, though, he was granted land on the north bank of the river, upstream from Flanagan. He called the property Kiora, and it also occupied 4 sqmi. A village named after the property soon grew.

In 1835, across the river from Flanagan, William Morris squatted a block he called Gundary. William Campbell took up as a manager there and eventually bought the place himself in 1845. The town centre was surveyed in 1850 by surveyor Parkinson and the town was gazetted in 1851. It centred about the track opposite where the road from Broulee terminated at the river bank, the two being linked by a punt. As a blacksmith was on that track, it was named Vulcan Street. Campbell Street owed its name to the squatter, Queen Street to patriotism, and Church Street to the Catholic Church's presence there; a Catholic church was later completed in 1887. Land sales commenced in 1852. Moruya was proclaimed a municipality in 1891. Local industries were timber logging, gold mining, dairying, and quarrying for granite. The first bridge across the Moruya River was erected in 1876, though frequent flooding caused new bridges to be erected in 1900, 1945, and most recently in 1966.

During World War II, Moruya aerodrome was used as an advanced operational base. The trawler Dureenbee was attacked offshore between Moruya and Batemans Bay by a Japanese submarine on 3 August 1942. On 25 December 1944, the US liberty ship USS Robert J. Walker was torpedoed off Moruya by the German submarine U-862, sinking the next day between Moruya and Bega. Casualties were two dead, with 67 survivors.

Rural areas around Moruya were affected by the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.

Heritage listings
Moruya has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
 * Moruya and District Historical Society, 85 Campbell Street: Abernethy and Co Stonemason's Lathe
 * 13 Page Street: Moruya Mechanics' Institute

Moruya granite
Moruya is known for its granite stone that was used to build significant Australian landmarks, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The granite used in the Harbour Bridge pylons was quarried in the area. The proximity of the quarries to the water meant it could be easily transported to Sydney. Quarrying for granite commenced in the district in the late 1850s by brothers Joseph and John Flett Louttit, who were from the Orkney Islands. Their quarry on the south side of the river produced stone for many Sydney landmarks, including the columns of the General Post Office in Martin Place, and the base of the Captain Cook statue in Hyde Park.

The Moruya Quarry, also known as the Government Quarry, opened in 1876 on the northern bank of the Moruya River. From 1925 to 1932, the Harbour Bridge works had 250 stonemasons employed and relocated to Moruya by the contractor to produce 20000 cuyd of dimension stone for the bridge pylons, 173,000 blocks, and 200,000 yards of crushed stone that was used as aggregate for concrete. Moruya granite was also used for the Sydney Cenotaph in Martin Place. During the seven years of this work, a small town of about 70 houses grew up near the quarry called Granitetown; little remains of the town today. The quarry had a tramway that closed in 1931. The wharf that was used by the quarry stood until around 2008, but was pulled down and replaced by a fishing platform.

The Moruya Quarry is operated by the New South Wales Department of Infrastructure, Planning, and Natural Resources. A third quarry west of the Moruya Quarry was operated by the Ziegler family.

Retail
Moruya has various retailers, banks, and services located on the high street, whilst supermarkets are located on the side streets. Harris Scarfe has a store in the town, it being a former branch of Goulburn retailer Allen's. Moruya has two supermarkets; one is a 10-aisle Woolworths (opened in 2000) and an IGA (opened in 2013). The former eight-aisle Franklins, which opened on 28 June 2011, ceased trading in February 2013.

Moruya is also home to the regional telecommunications company, Southern Phone. The Tuesday afternoon and Saturday markets and fruit and vegetable markets are popular with local people and visitors.

Landmarks
Moruya Airport (code MYA) is located on the north side of Moruya Heads. The strip adjoins the beachfront, and flights to Moruya offer a slow and picturesque descent along the coastline. Rex Airlines flies mostly Saab 340B aircraft from Moruya to Sydney and Moruya to Merimbula, with connecting flights to Melbourne.

Climate
Moruya has a mild oceanic climate (Cfb) with warm, wet summers and cool, moderately drier winters. The drier winters are owed to the foehn effect from the Great Dividing Range, which blocks rainfall from the westerly cold fronts that arrive from the Southern Ocean. The town features 121.2 clear days annually.

Notable residents

 * Sarah Andrewsformer cricket player; represented Australia
 * Josh Cunninghammusician with The Waifs
 * Charles Harpurpoet; a former goldfields commissioner in the Eurobodalla area; a farmer at Eurobodalla
 * Jarrad Kennedyformer rugby league football player
 * Norm Ryanpolitician; represented Labor
 * Michael Weymanformer rugby league football player; played with the Kangaroos
 * Richie Williamsformer rugby league player
 * Teig Wiltonrugby league player
 * Bill Woodstelevision sports presenter
 * Stevie Wrightlead vocalist with The Easybeats
 * Jane Duren Aboriginal Activist in 1920s South Coast

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

title: Moruya, New South Wales


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Starwisp

Starwisp is a hypothetical unmanned interstellar probe design proposed by the late Robert L. Forward. It is propelled by a microwave sail, similar to a solar sail in concept, but powered by microwaves from a human-made source. It would fly through the target system without slowing down.

Description
"Starwisp" is a concept for an ultra-low-mass interstellar probe pushed by a microwave beam. It was proposed by scientist and author Robert L. Forward in 1985, and further work was published by Geoffrey A. Landis in 2000. The proposed device uses beam-powered propulsion in the form of a high-power microwave antenna pushing a sail. The probe itself would consist of a mesh of extremely fine carbon wires about 100 m across, with the wires spaced the same distance apart as the 3 mm wavelength of the microwaves that will be used to push it.

Forward proposed that the wires would incorporate nanoscale computer circuitry, sensors, microwave power collection systems and microwave radio transmitters fabricated on the wire surfaces, giving the probe data collection and transmission capability. Being distributed across the entire sail, no "rigging" is needed, as would be the case if the mission electronics were placed in a separate probe that was pulled by the sail.

The original Starwisp concept assumed that the microwaves would be efficiently reflected, with the wire mesh surface acting as a superconductor and nearly perfectly efficient mirror. This assumption is not valid. Landis showed that a grid will absorb a significant fraction of the power incident on it, and therefore cannot stay cool enough to be superconducting. The design is thermally limited, hence the use of carbon as the material in Landis's concept.

Low mass was the key feature of the Starwisp probe. In Landis's calculations, the mesh has a density of only 100 kg/km2, for a total mass of 1 kg, plus a payload of 80 grams.

Although the diffraction limit severely constrains the range of the transmitting antenna, the probe is designed to have an acceleration of 24 m/s2, so that it can reach a significant fraction of the speed of light within a very short distance, before passing out of range. The antenna uses a microwave lens 560 km in diameter, would transmit 56 GW of power, and would accelerate the probe to 10% of the speed of light.

The probe would cruise without power for decades until it finally approached the target star, at which point the antenna which launched it would again target its beam on Starwisp. This would be done when the Starwisp was about 80% of the way to its destination, so that the beam and Starwisp would arrive there at the same time. At such extreme long range the antenna would be unable to provide any propulsion, but Starwisp would be able to use its wire sail to collect and convert some of the microwave energy into electricity to operate its sensors and transmit the data it collects back home. Starwisp would not slow down at the target star, performing a high-speed flyby mission instead.

Since the antenna is only required for a few days at Starwisp's launch and again for another few days several decades later to power it while it passes its target, Starwisp probes might be mass-produced and launched by the maser every few days. In this manner, a continuous stream of data could be collected about distant solar systems even though any given Starwisp probe only spends a few days travelling through it. Alternatively, the launching transmitter could be used in the interim to transmit power to Earth for commercial use, as with a solar power satellite.

Possible methods of fabrication
Constructing such a delicate probe would be a significant challenge. One proposed method would be to "paint" the probe and its circuitry onto an enormous sheet of plastic which degrades when exposed to ultraviolet light, and then wait for the sheet to evaporate away under the assault of solar UV after it has been deployed in space.

Another proposed method noted that the Starwisp probe wires were of the same physical scale as wires and circuit elements on modern computer microchips and could be produced by the same photolithographic fabrication technologies as those of computer chips. The probe would have to be built in sections the size of current chip fabrication silicon wafers and then connected together.

Technical problems
A major problem this design would face would be the radiation encountered en route. Travelling at 20% of light speed, ordinary interstellar hydrogen would become a significant radiation hazard, and the Starwisp would be without shielding and likely without active self-repair capability. Another problem would be keeping the acceleration of the Starwisp uniform enough across its sail area so that its delicate wires would not tear or be twisted out of shape. Distorting the shape of the Starwisp even slightly could result in a runaway catastrophe, since one portion of the Starwisp would be reflecting microwaves in a different direction than the other portion and be thrust even farther out of shape. Such delicate and finely-balanced control may prove impossible to realize.

The possibility of using a dusty plasma sail in which a dusty substance that is maintained as a plasma within space is responsible for the reflection of electromagnetic radiation could circumvent problems associated with radiation damage to the medium responsible for the transfer of radiation pressure (the dusty plasma sail might not be as easy to damage as a thin film or the like). Dusty plasma sails can also adapt their three-dimensional structure in real time to ensure reflection perpendicular to any incident light/microwave beam.

In fiction

 * In a science fiction story Forward suggested that the beam from a solar power satellite could be used to push a Starwisp probe while the solar power satellite was being tested after construction.

title: Starwisp


text:
NSW (disambiguation)

NSW is a short form name for New South Wales, an Australian state.

NSW may also refer to:

 * King of Egypt
 * National Herbarium of New South Wales, by Index Herbariorum code
 * Naval Strike Wing of the UK's Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm
 * Navut language of Vanuatu
 * Newman–Shanks–Williams prime, a class of number in mathematics
 * Nintendo Switch, a hybrid (home and handheld) video gaming console
 * United States Naval Special Warfare Command, a military commando force

title: NSW (disambiguation)


text:
Mae West

Mary Jane "Mae" West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned over seven decades. Considered a sex symbol, she was known for her breezy sexual independence and her lighthearted bawdy double entendres, often delivered in a husky contralto voice. She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to begin a career in the film industry.

West was one of the most controversial movie stars of her day; she encountered problems especially with censorship. She once quipped, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it." She bucked the studio system by making comedy out of conventional beliefs, and the Depression-era audience admired her for it. When her film career ended, she wrote books and plays, continued to perform in Las Vegas and London and on radio and television, and recorded rock and roll albums. In 1999, the American Film Institute posthumously voted her the 15th-greatest female screen legend of classic American cinema.

Early life
Mary Jane West was born in either the Greenpoint or Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn on August 17, 1893, before New York City was consolidated. She was delivered at home by an aunt who was a midwife. She was the eldest surviving child of Mathilde Delker (originally "Doelger" and later Americanized to "Delker" or "Dilker") West, a corset and fashion model, and John Patrick "Battlin' Jack" West, a prizefighter who later worked as a "special policeman" and created his own private investigations agency. Her German-born mother, who went by the nicknames "Tillie" and "Matilda", had emigrated from Bavaria in 1886 with her five siblings and their parents, Christiana (née Brüning) and Jakob Doelger. Her paternal grandmother after whom she was named, Mary Jane (née Copley), was of Irish descent. Her paternal grandfather, John Edwin West, was of English and Scottish descent.

West's parents married in Brooklyn on January 18, 1889, to the pleasure of the groom's parents and the displeasure of the bride's, and raised their children as Protestants. Her eldest sister, Katie, died in infancy. Her remaining siblings were a sister named Mildred Katherine "Beverly" West and a brother named John Edwin West II (sometimes inaccurately called "John Edwin West, Jr."). During her childhood, the family moved to various parts of Woodhaven, Queens, as well as the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn. At Neir's Social Hall in Woodhaven, West supposedly first performed professionally.

Beginning of stage career
West was five when she first entertained a crowd at a church social, and she started appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She often won prizes at local talent contests. She began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907 at the age of 14. As a young child, West had first performed under the stage name "Baby Mae" (the baby may behave like this), and a bit later tried various personas, including a male impersonator.

She used the alias "Jane Mast" early in her career. Her trademark walk was said to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were famous during the Pansy Craze. Her first appearance in a Broadway show, at age 18, was in a 1911 revue A La Broadway put on by her former dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn. The show folded after eight performances, but West was discovered and singled out for praise by a New York Times reviewer, who wrote that a "girl named Mae West, hitherto unknown, pleased by her grotesquerie and snappy way of singing and dancing". West next appeared in a show called Vera Violetta, whose cast featured Al Jolson. In 1912, she appeared in the opening performance of A Winsome Widow as a "baby vamp" named La Petite Daffy.

West developed her career in vaudeville, appearing in such circuits (or "wheels") as that run by Gus Sun of Ohio, which was considered bottom of the barrel but gave her experience. She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that anything Mae did was fantastic. Other family members were less encouraging, including an aunt and her paternal grandmother. They are all reported as having disapproved of her career and her choices. In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, opposite Ed Wynn. Her character Mayme danced the shimmy and her photograph appeared on an edition of the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now".

Broadway star and jail
Eventually, West began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in a 1926 play entitled Sex, which she wrote, produced, and directed. Although conservative critics panned the show, ticket sales were strong. The production did not go over well with city officials, who had received complaints from some religious groups, and the theater was raided and West arrested along with the cast. She was taken to the Jefferson Market Court House (now Jefferson Market Library), where she was prosecuted on morals charges, and on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to 10 days for "corrupting the morals of youth". Though West could have paid a fine and been let off, she chose the jail sentence for the publicity it would garner. While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife; she told reporters that she had worn her silk panties while serving time, in lieu of the "burlap" the other girls had to wear. West got great mileage from this jail stint. She served eight days with two days off for "good behavior". Following her release, West told reporters that her play was "a work of art". Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong".

Her next play, The Drag, dealt with homosexuality, and was what West called one of her "comedy-dramas of life". After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, West announced she would open the play in New York. However, The Drag never opened on Broadway, owing to efforts by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to ban any attempt by West to stage it. West explained, "The city fathers begged me not to bring the show to New York because they were not equipped to handle the commotion it would cause." West was an early supporter of the women's liberation movement, but said she was not a "burn your bra" type of feminist. Since the 1920s, she was also an early supporter of gay rights, and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. She adopted a then "modern" psychological explanation that gay men were women's souls in men's bodies, and hitting a gay man was akin to hitting a woman. In her 1959 autobiography Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, a memoir compiled by ghostwriter Stephen Longstreet, West strongly objects to hypocrisy while also disparaging homosexuality:

"I have always hated the two-faced, the smoother-over folk—the people who preach loudly one way of life, and then do something in private that they're against in public. In many ways homosexuality is a danger to the entire social system of western civilization. Certainly a nation should be made aware of its presence—without moral mottoes—and its effects on children recruited to it in their innocence. I had no objections to it as a cult of jaded inverts, or special groups of craftsmen, shrill and involved only with themselves. It was its secret anti-social aspects I wanted to bring into the sun."

This perspective, never elaborated upon by West in other books or interviews, seems inconsistent with the Mae West persona, for in her 1975 book Mae West: Sex, Health, and ESP, writing:

"I believe that the world owes male and female homosexuals more understanding than we've given them. Live and let live is my philosophy on the subject, and I believe everybody has the right to do his or her own thing or somebody else's—as long as they do it all in private!'"

Between the late 1920s and early 1930s, West continued to write plays, including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man, and The Constant Sinner. Her productions predictably aroused controversy, which ensured that she stayed in the news and often resulted in packed houses at her performances. Her 1928 play Diamond Lil, a story about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. This show had an enduring popularity and West successfully revived it many times throughout the course of her career.

Three years after the initial success of Diamond Lil, West portrayed another sexually charged character, Babe Gordon, in The Constant Sinner, which opened on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on September 14, 1931. The influential drama critic for The New York Times, J. Brooks Atkinson, was among many reviewers at the time who bashed the play's storyline as well as West's performance. Atkinson's "scathing" assessment of her three-act production was published in The Times the day after the dramedy's premiere:

"...The Constant Sinner commits one of the major sins in the theatre; it is dull. This is a sin which is common to all of Miss West's wonderworks except Diamond Lil, but because of the luridness of the hokum plot and the highly colored melodramatic backgrounds of the new piece, it has seldom been more in evidence...'The Constant Sinner' is also, as might be expected, vile as to speech.... Seldom, come to think about it, has fouler talk been heard on the Broadway stage, even in these frank and forward times... However creditable an impersonator of scarlet roles Miss West may be, variety of attack is not among her qualifications as an actress.... Her peculiar slouching about the stage, which seems to provide firsthand evidence that, as the program says, she originated the shimmy dance, her vocal stunts, her exploitation of blond buxomness—all these grow pretty tiresome through repetition...."

Other prominent reviewers in 1931, like Atkinson, roundly criticized the stage production, calling it a "clumsy drama", "deliberately outlandish", and labeling West herself as an "atrocious playwright". Ultimately, the elaborate play closed on Broadway after just eight weeks and 64 performances. When compared to Diamond Lil, which had run for nine months with 323 performances, The Constant Sinner was critically, financially, and personally a disappointment for West. Nevertheless, its notoriety and even its negative reviews further enhanced her public image as a daring, sensational performer and brought her additional widespread media attention. During that time, in the months after the play closed, West decided to put her stage career on hold and to accept a short-term but lucrative contract offer from Paramount Pictures to perform in a feature film in Hollywood.

Motion pictures and censorship
In June 1932, after signing a two-month contract with Paramount that provided her a weekly salary of $5,000 ($110,000 in 2023), West left New York by train for California. The veteran stage performer was by then nearly 40 years old, an unusually late age to begin a film career, especially for women, although Paramount certainly never had the slightest intention of casting her as an ingénue. She nonetheless managed to keep her age ambiguous for some time. She made her film debut in the role of Maudie Triplett in Night After Night (1932) starring George Raft, who had suggested West for the part. She did not like her small supporting role in the drama at first, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite portions of her character's dialogue. One of several revisions she made is in her first scene in Night After Night, when a hat-check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds", and West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is reported to have said, "She stole everything but the cameras."

For her next role for Paramount, West brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed "Lady Lou", to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film was one of Cary Grant's early major roles, which boosted his career. West claimed she spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead. She claimed to have told a Paramount director, "If he can talk, I'll take him!" The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The success of the film saved Paramount from bankruptcy, grossing over $2 million, the equivalent of $46 million in 2023. Paramount recognizes that debt of gratitude today, with a building on the lot named after West.

Her next release, I'm No Angel (1933), teamed her again with Grant. The film was also a box-office hit and was the most successful of her entire screen career. In the months after its release, references to West could be found almost everywhere, from the song lyrics of Cole Porter, to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural of San Francisco's newly built Coit Tower, to She Done Him Right, a Pooch the Pup cartoon, to My Dress Hangs There, a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, paid his own tribute: "West is the most wonderful machine for living I have ever known—unfortunately on the screen only." To F. Scott Fitzgerald, West was especially unique: "The only Hollywood actress with both an ironic edge and a comic spark." As Variety put it, "Mae West's films have made her the biggest conversation-provoker, free-space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler."

By 1933, West was one of the largest box-office draws in the United States and, by 1935, she was also the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst). Hearst invited West to Hearst Castle, his massive estate in San Simeon, California, where Hollywood celebrities and prominent political and business figures frequently gathered to socialize. "I could'a married him," West later commented, "but I got no time for parties. I don't like those big crowds." On July 1, 1934, the censorship guidelines of the film industry's Production Code began to be meticulously enforced. As a result, West's scripts were subjected to more editing. She, in turn, would often intentionally place extremely risqué lines in her scripts, knowing they would be cut by the censors. She hoped they would then not object as much to her other less suggestive lines. Her next film was Belle of the Nineties (1934). The original title, It Ain't No Sin, was changed because of censors' objections. Despite Paramount's early objections regarding costs, West insisted the studio hire Duke Ellington and his orchestra to accompany her in the film's musical numbers. Their collaboration was a success; the classic "My Old Flame" (recorded by Duke Ellington) was introduced in this film. Her next film, Goin' to Town (1935), received mixed reviews, as censorship continued to take its toll by preventing West from including her best lines.

Her following effort, Klondike Annie (1936), dealt, as best it could given the heavy censorship, with religion and hypocrisy. Some critics called the film her magnum opus, but not everyone agreed. Press baron and film mogul William Randolph Hearst, ostensibly offended by an off-handed remark West made about his mistress, Marion Davies, sent a private memo to all his editors stating, "That Mae West picture Klondike Annie is a filthy picture... We should have editorials roasting that picture, Mae West, and Paramount... DO NOT ACCEPT ANY ADVERTISING OF THIS PICTURE." At one point, Hearst asked aloud, "Isn't it time Congress did something about the Mae West menace?" Paramount executives felt they had to tone down the West characterization or face further recrimination. "I was the first liberated woman, you know. No guy was going to get the best of me. That's what I wrote all my scripts about." Around the same time, West played opposite Randolph Scott in Go West, Young Man (1936). In this film, she adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay. Directed by Henry Hathaway, Go West, Young Man is considered one of West's weaker films of the era, because of the censor's cuts.

West next starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association came to an end. The film performed below its goal. Censorship had made West's sexually suggestive brand of humor impossible for the studios to distribute. West, along with other stellar performers, was put on a list of actors called "Box Office Poison" by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners Association. Others on the list were Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río, Katharine Hepburn and Kay Francis. The attack was published as a paid advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter, and was taken seriously by the fearful studio executives. The association argued that these stars' high salaries and extreme public popularity did not affect their ticket sales, thus hurt the exhibitors. This did not stop producer David O. Selznick, who next offered West the role of the sage madam Belle Watling, the only woman ever to truly understand Rhett Butler, in Gone with the Wind, after Tallulah Bankhead rejected the role. West also turned down the part, claiming it was too small for an established star and that she would need to rewrite her lines to suit her own persona. The role eventually went to Ona Munson. In 1939, Universal Studios approached West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields. The studio was eager to duplicate the success of Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart, with a comic vehicle starring West and Fields. Having left Paramount 18 months earlier and looking for a new film, West accepted the role of Flower Belle Lee in the film My Little Chickadee (1940). Despite the stars' intense mutual dislike, Fields's very real drinking problems and fights over the screenplay, My Little Chickadee was a box office hit, outgrossing Fields's previous film, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) and the later The Bank Dick (1940). Despite this, religious leaders condemned West as a negative role model, taking offense at lines such as "When I'm caught between two evils, I generally like to take the one I never tried".

West's next film was Columbia Pictures' The Heat's On (1943). Initially, she did not want to do the film, but after actor, director and friend Gregory Ratoff (producer Max Fabian in All About Eve) pleaded with her and claimed he would go bankrupt if she could not help, West relented as a personal favor. Censors curtailed the sexual burlesque of the West characterization. The studio had orders to raise the neck lines and clean up the double entendres. This was the only film for which West was virtually not allowed to write her own dialogue and, as a result, the film suffered.

Perhaps the most critical, ongoing challenge facing West in her career was censorship of her dialogue. As on Broadway a decade before, by the mid-1930s her risqué and ribald dialogue could no longer be allowed. The Heat's On opened to poor reviews and weak performance at the box office. West was so distraught after the experience and by her years of struggling with the strict Hays Code censorship office, that she would not attempt another film role for the next quarter-century. Instead, West pursued a successful and record-breaking career in top nightclubs, Las Vegas, nationally in theater and on Broadway, where she was allowed, even welcomed, to be herself.

Radio and censorship
On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour. By the second half of the 1930s, West's popularity was affected by her dialogue being severely censored. She went on the show eager to promote Every Day's a Holiday. Appearing as herself, West flirted with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, using her usual brand of wit and risqué sexual references. West referred to Charlie as "all wood and a yard long" and commented, "Charles, I remember our last date, and have the splinters to prove it!" West was on the verge of being banned from radio.

More outrageous still was an NBC sketch written by Arch Oboler, starring Don Ameche and West as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. She tells Ameche to "get me a big one... I feel like doin' a big apple!" This ostensible reference to the then-current dance craze was one of the many double entendres in the dialogue. Days after the broadcast, the studio received letters calling the show "immoral" and "obscene". Several conservative women's clubs and religious groups admonished the show's sponsor, Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company, for "prostituting" their services for allowing "impurity [to] invade the air".

Under pressure, the Federal Communications Commission later deemed the broadcast "vulgar and indecent" and "far below even the minimum standard which should control in the selection and production of broadcast programs". Some debate existed regarding the reaction to the skit. Conservative religious groups took umbrage far more swiftly than the mainstream. These groups found it easy to make West their target. They took exception to her outspoken use of sexuality and sexual imagery, which she had employed in her career since at least the pre-Code films of the early 1930s and for decades before on Broadway, but which was now being broadcast into American living rooms on a popular family-friendly radio program. The groups reportedly warned the sponsor of the program they would protest her appearance.

NBC Radio scapegoated West for the incident and banned her (and the mention of her name) from their stations. They claimed it was not the content of the skit, but West's tonal inflections that gave it the controversial context, acting as though they had hired West knowing nothing of her previous work, nor had any idea of how she would deliver the lines written for her by Oboler. West would not perform in radio for a dozen years, until January 1950, in an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club, which was hosted by Perry Como. Ameche's career did not suffer any serious repercussions, however, as he was playing the "straight" guy. Nonetheless, Mae West went on to enjoy a record-breaking success in Las Vegas, swank nightclubs such as Lou Walters's The Latin Quarter, Broadway, and London.

Middle years
After appearing in The Heat's On in 1943, West returned to a very active career on stage and in clubs. Among her popular new stage performances was the title role in Catherine Was Great (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd (Around The World in 80 Days) and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour.

When Mae West revived her 1928 play Diamond Lil, bringing it back to Broadway in 1949, The New York Times labeled her an "American Institution—as beloved and indestructible as Donald Duck. Like Chinatown, and Grant's Tomb, Mae West should be seen at least once." In the 1950s, West starred in her own Las Vegas stage show at the newly opened Sahara Hotel, singing while surrounded by bodybuilders. The show stood Las Vegas on its head. "Men come to see me, but I also give the women something to see: wall to wall men!" West explained. Jayne Mansfield met and later married one of West's muscle men, former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay.

When casting about for the role of Norma Desmond for the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder offered West the role. Still smarting from the censorship debacle of The Heat's On, and the constraints placed on her characterization, she declined. The theme of the Wilder film, she noted, was pure pathos, while her brand of comedy was always "about uplifting the audience". Mae West had a unique comic character that was timeless, in the same way Charlie Chaplin did. After Mary Pickford also declined the role, Gloria Swanson was cast.

In subsequent years, West was offered the role of Vera Simpson, opposite Frank Sinatra, in the 1957 film adaptation of Pal Joey, which she turned down, with the role going to Rita Hayworth. In 1964, West was offered a leading role in Roustabout, starring Elvis Presley. She turned the role down, and Barbara Stanwyck was cast in her place. West was also approached for roles in Federico Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits and Satyricon, but rejected both offers.

Television, and the next generations
On March 26, 1958, West appeared at the live televised Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson, which received a standing ovation. In 1959, she released an autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, which became a best-seller. West guest-starred on television, including The Dean Martin Variety Show in 1959 and The Red Skelton Show in 1960, to promote her autobiography, and a lengthy interview on Person to Person with Charles Collingwood in 1959, which never aired. CBS executives felt members of the television audience were not ready to see a nude marble statue of West, which rested on her piano. In 1964, she made a guest appearance on the sitcom Mister Ed. Much later, in 1976, she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and sang two songs on his "Back Lot U.S.A." special on CBS.

Recording career
West's recording career started in the early 1930s with releases of her film songs on shellac 78 rpm records. Most of her film songs were released as 78s, as well as sheet music. In 1955, she recorded her first album, The Fabulous Mae West. In 1965, she recorded two songs, "Am I Too Young" and "He's Good for Me", for a 45 rpm record released by Plaza Records. She recorded several tongue-in-cheek songs, including "Santa, Come Up to See Me", on the album Wild Christmas, which was released in 1966 and reissued as Mae in December in 1980. Demonstrating her willingness to keep in touch with the contemporary scene, in 1966 she recorded Way Out West, the first of her two rock-and-roll albums. The second, released in 1972 on MGM Records and titled Great Balls of Fire, covered songs by The Doors, among others, and had songs written for West by English songwriter-producer Ian Whitcomb.

Later years
Mae West's likeness was used on the front cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When approached for permission, West initially refused and asked, "What would I be doing in a Lonely Heart's Club?" She changed her mind after the band wrote her a personal letter declaring themselves great fans of her. After a 27-year absence from motion pictures, West appeared as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck in a small part. The movie was intended to be deliberately campy sex change comedy, but had serious production problems, resulting in a botched film that was both a box-office and critical failure. Author Vidal, at great odds with inexperienced and self-styled "art film" director Michael Sarne, later called the film "an awful joke". Though Mae West was given star billing to attract ticket buyers, her scenes were truncated by the inexperienced film editor, and her songs were filmed as though they were merely side acts. Mae West's counterculture appeal (she was dubbed "the queen of camp"), included the young and hip, and by 1971, the student body of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) voted Mae West "Woman of the Century" in honor of her relevance as a pioneering advocate of sexual frankness and courageous crusader against censorship.

In 1975, West released the books Sex, Health, and ESP (William Allen & Sons, publisher) and Pleasure Man (Dell publishers) based on her 1928 play of the same name. Her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was also updated and republished in the 1970s.

Mae West was a shrewd investor, produced her own stage acts, and invested her money in large tracts of land in Van Nuys, a thriving suburb of Los Angeles. With her considerable fortune, she could afford to do as she liked. In 1976, she appeared on Back Lot U.S.A. on CBS, where she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and sang "Frankie and Johnny" along with "After You've Gone." That same year, she began work on her final film, Sextette (1978). Adapted from a 1959 script written by West, the film's daily revisions and production disagreements hampered production from the beginning. Because of the near-endless last-minute script changes and tiring production schedule, West agreed to have her lines signaled to her through a speaker concealed in her hair piece. Despite the daily problems, West was, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes, determined to see the film through. At 84, her now-failing eyesight made navigating around the set difficult, but she made it through the filming, a tribute to her self-confidence, remarkable endurance, and stature as a self-created star 67 years after her Broadway debut in 1911 at the age of 18. Time magazine wrote an article on the indomitable star entitled "At 84, Mae West Is Still Mae West".

Upon its release, Sextette was not a critical or commercial success. The diverse cast included some of West's first co-stars such as George Raft (Night After Night, 1932), silver screen stars such as Tony Curtis, Timothy Dalton and Walter Pidgeon, plus contemporary pop stars such as Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper, and television favorites such as Dom DeLuise and gossip queen Rona Barrett. It also included cameos of some of the musclemen from her 1950s Las Vegas show, such as the still remarkably fit Reg Lewis. Sextette also reunited Mae West with Edith Head, her costume designer from 1933 in She Done Him Wrong.

For her contribution to the film industry, Mae West has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood. For her contributions as a stage actor in the theater world, she has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Public image
Mae West was noted for her "voluptuous figure". The Mae West look has been described as "a figure-hugging floor-length gown with a very low neckline and the figure to fill it." Noted features were the fishtail train and feather trim.

Personal life
West was married on April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Frank Szatkus (1892–1966), whose stage name was Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she met in 1909. She was 17. She kept the marriage a secret, but a filing clerk discovered the marriage certificate in 1935 and alerted the press. The clerk also uncovered an affidavit in which she had declared herself married, made during the Sex trial in 1927. At first, West denied ever marrying Wallace, but she finally admitted it in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory. The couple never lived together as husband and wife. She insisted that they had separate bedrooms, and she soon sent him away in a show of his own to get rid of him. She obtained a divorce on July 21, 1942, during which Wallace withdrew his request for separate maintenance, and West testified that Wallace and she had lived together for only "several weeks". The final divorce decree was granted on May 7, 1943.

In August 1913, she met Guido Deiro (1886–1950), an Italian-born vaudeville headliner and piano-accordion star. Her affair, and possible 1914 marriage to him, as alleged by Deiro's son Guido Roberto Deiro in his 2019 book Mae West and The Count, went "very deep, hittin' on all the emotions". According to the American Masters documentary Mae West: Dirty Blonde, West aborted Deiro's child on the advice of her mother, the procedure nearly killing her and leaving her infertile. The younger Deiro said that his father was devastated when he learned about the abortion and ended the relationship. West later said, "Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution."

In 1916, when she was a vaudeville actress, West had a relationship with James Timony (1884–1954), an attorney nine years her senior. Timony was also her manager. By the time that she was an established movie actress in the mid-1930s, they were no longer a couple. West and Timony remained extremely close, living in the same building, working together, and providing support for each other until Timony's death in 1954.

West had a relationship with the Cotton Club's Owney Madden, who did not "date" the chorus girls.

West remained close to her family throughout her life and was devastated by her mother's death in 1930. In 1930, she moved to Hollywood and into the penthouse at The Ravenswood apartment building where she lived until her death in 1980. Her sister, brother, and father followed her to Hollywood where she provided them with nearby homes, jobs, and sometimes financial support. Among her boyfriends was boxing champion William Jones, nicknamed Gorilla Jones (1906–1982). The management at her Ravenswood apartment building barred the African American boxer from entering the premises; West solved the problem by buying the building and lifting the ban.

She became romantically involved at age 61 with Chester Rybinski (1923–1999), one of the muscle men in her Las Vegas stage show—a wrestler, former Mr. California, and former merchant sailor. He was 30 years younger than she, and later changed his name to Paul Novak. He moved in with her, and their romance continued until her death in 1980 at age 87. Novak once commented, "I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West." West would sometimes refer to herself in the third person and speak of "Mae West" as the entertainment character she had created.

West was a Presbyterian.

Death
In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall, she was unable to speak and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke. She died three months later on November 22, at the age of 87. Three days after her death, a private service was held at the church in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Her friend, bishop Andre Penachio, officiated at the entombment in the family mausoleum at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, which had been purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother had also been entombed there before her, and her younger sister, Beverly, was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts less than 18 months after West's death.

In popular culture

 * In the 1937 film Stand-In, the stage mother (Anne O'Neal) who has her young daughter (Marianne Edwards) auditioning for Dodd (Leslie Howard) tells her: "Now, do the Mae West number".
 * During World War II, Allied aircrews called their yellow inflatable, vest-like life preserver jackets "Mae Wests" partly from rhyming slang for "breasts" and "life vests" and partly because of the resemblance to her torso. A "Mae West" is also a type of round parachute malfunction (partial inversion) which contorts the shape of the canopy into the appearance of an extraordinarily large brassiere.
 * West has been the subject of songs, including the title song of Cole Porter's Broadway musical Anything Goes and in "You're the Top".
 * Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí painted works entitled Face of Mae West Which May be Used as an Apartment, and the Mae West Lips Sofa, which was also by Dalí and completed in 1938 for Edward James.
 * Several Mae West comedy lines are used in the parody musical Wild Side Story (1973–2004).
 * In 1982 actress Ann Jillian portrayed West in a television bio film, Mae West.
 * In 2000 Dirty Blonde, written by Claudia Shear, opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater.
 * MAE-West – "Metropolitan Area Exchange, West", a former Internet exchange point on the west coast of the United States, with a corresponding MAE-East exchange point.
 * In 2016, Mae West was portrayed by drag star Alaska in the second episode of the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.
 * In 2017, Mae West was the subject of an episode of the TV comedy series Over My Dead Body on Amazon Prime.
 * West was the subject of the 2020 PBS documentary Mae West: Dirty Blonde as part of their American Masters series. The documentary was produced by Bette Midler.
 * A May West is a Canadian dessert cake named after West. In the 1980s the spelling was changed from Mae West to May West. The snack is still very popular in Quebec, Eastern and Southern Ontario.
 * A 52 m sculpture in Munich carries the name Mae West.
 * In the 1935 Laurel and Hardy film Bonnie Scotland, in response to the character, Mrs. Burns saying to Mr. Miggs "the next time you drop down to Glasgow, you must come up and see me some time", Stan comments "It's Mae West".

Discography
Albums: At least 21 singles (78 rpm and 45 rpm) were released from 1933 to 1973.
 * 1956: The Fabulous Mae West; Decca D/DL-79016 (several reissues up to 2006)
 * 1960: W.C. Fields His Only Recording Plus 8 Songs by Mae West; Proscenium PR 22
 * 1966: Way Out West; Tower T/ST-5028
 * 1966: Wild Christmas; Dragonet LPDG-48
 * 1970: The Original Voice Tracks from Her Greatest Movies; Decca D/DL-791/76
 * 1970: Mae West & W.C. Fields Side by Side; Harmony HS 11374/HS 11405
 * 1972: Great Balls of Fire; MGM SE 4869
 * 1974: Original Radio Broadcasts; Mark 56 Records 643
 * 1987/1995: Sixteen Sultry Songs Sung by Mae West Queen of Sex; Rosetta RR 1315
 * 1996: I'm No Angel; Jasmine CD 04980 102
 * 2006: The Fabulous: Rev-Ola CR Rev 181

Written works

 * (the novel on which The Constant Sinner was based)
 * (novelization of play)
 * West, Mae; Tutak, Romain (2023). Mae West – The First Plays (Ruby Ring, The Hussy, The Wicked Age, Frisco Kate. ISBN 979-8856398860
 * West, Mae; Tutak, Romain (2023). Mae West – The First Plays (Ruby Ring, The Hussy, The Wicked Age, Frisco Kate. ISBN 979-8856398860
 * West, Mae; Tutak, Romain (2023). Mae West – The First Plays (Ruby Ring, The Hussy, The Wicked Age, Frisco Kate. ISBN 979-8856398860
 * West, Mae; Tutak, Romain (2023). Mae West – The First Plays (Ruby Ring, The Hussy, The Wicked Age, Frisco Kate. ISBN 979-8856398860
 * West, Mae; Tutak, Romain (2023). Mae West – The First Plays (Ruby Ring, The Hussy, The Wicked Age, Frisco Kate. ISBN 979-8856398860
 * West, Mae; Tutak, Romain (2023). Mae West – The First Plays (Ruby Ring, The Hussy, The Wicked Age, Frisco Kate. ISBN 979-8856398860

title: Mae West


text:
Talk:Gospel of John

"Theology of John" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theology_of_John&redirect=no Theology of John] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Veverve (talk) 07:06, 11 June 2023 (UTC)

Jesus Seminar
The Jesus Seminar is WP:FRINGE (it was designed as the opposite pole of Christian fundamentalists). But I think it is true that John the Baptist was famous during his life, which wasn't the case for Jesus. There were plenty of miracle workers, Jesus was by no means special (when alive). tgeorgescu (talk) 21:10, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Why they are so sure of that there was a final form
Since they obviously lack evidence in the first century. Tanengtiong0918 (talk) 20:53, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

Dubious section on gnosticism
The section of gnosticism feels weird in places. What does it mean to "forcefully argue" for example, and is this phrasing that satisfies NPOV? The whole section feels written as if its purpose were to argue against any connection to gnosticism. Not going to change it because maybe there's a good reason for these things, but I'd appreciate a second opinion. Not alexand (talk) 18:24, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gospel of John


text:
The Black Dog (band)

The Black Dog is a British electronic music group, founded in 1989 by Ken Downie along with Ed Handley and Andy Turner. The group are considered pioneering figures of techno's ruminative "home-listening" aesthetic in the early 1990s.

Following several self-released EPs, the group signed to Warp Records in 1993 and released albums such as Bytes (1993) and Spanners (1995). In 1995, Handley and Turner departed to work on their spin-off project Plaid. Downie continued recording under the band name The Black Dog, with Richard and Martin Dust joining. The band's early EPs were collected on the 2007 compilation Book of Dogma.

Early career
In 1989, The Black Dog was unable to find a label to back its releases and started its own, Black Dog Productions, which released four vinyl records including the acclaimed Virtual. These were followed by a number of EPs on the General Production Recordings label. The Black Dog released their first full-length album Bytes on Warp Records on 15 March 1993. The albums Temple of Transparent Balls (GPR) and Spanners (Warp) followed. The music was often produced under a number of different names, such as Close Up Over, Xeper, Atypic, I.A.O., Balil and the Discordian Popes. The group did numerous remixes, notably for Björk, with whom it collaborated on "'Sweet Intuition" (a B-side on the "Army of Me" CD single) and "Charlene" (a b side on the "Isobel" CD single).

In the early 1990s, Downie was also running a bulletin board system called Black Dog Towers.

In 1995, Handley and Turner left to focus on Plaid but Downie continued working as The Black Dog on his own for a while, releasing the solo album Music for Adverts (and Short Films). With new management, and an increased vigour, Downie then teamed up with Steve 'Hotdog' Ash and Ross Knight ("thek1d"). Though they completed over a dozen critically acclaimed remixes during this period, only one album was ever released: Unsavoury Products featured the talents of Parisian beat poet Black Sifichi on vocals.

Current line-up
In 2001, Downie teamed up with Richard and Martin Dust, owners of the label Dust Science Recordings. Since then, they have started to play live again and have released eight EPs and four full-length albums on Dust Science. Their first album, Silenced, was released in 2005. The second, Radio Scarecrow, was released in 2008 and was very well received and nominated for DJ Mag's Best of British 2008.

The follow-up to Radio Scarecrow, Further Vexations, was released in 2009. It was described as having a dark cynicism of Orwellian practices of government and the passivity of the general public. "We’ve helplessly watched with mounting horror, while the government trashed the country, signed away its sovereignty to Brussels (with a flourish of a specially minted silver pen), sold off precious national industries and assets at next to bargain basement prices, and indulged itself with two utterly pointless wars which it couldn’t afford," the group stated on their home page.

In May 2010, the Black Dog teamed with creative agency "Human" to create Music for Real Airports, described by them as "a contemporary reply to Brian Eno's work from the 70s". While Eno's album is well known for being peaceful and sedate, The Black Dog intend theirs to be tense and bittersweet, saying "This record is not necessarily a comfortable listen. But it captures the spectrum of emotions stirred by airports."

Side projects
The initial lineup kept themselves busy with numerous alter-egos and side-projects, including Echo Mike, Close Up Over, Xeper, Atypic, I.A.O., Plaid, Balil and the Discordian Popes. 1993's Bytes compiles an album's worth of tracks by these side projects under the mantle of Black Dog Productions. Of these side-projects, only Plaid continues to be active.

More recently, the current lineup of The Black Dog (Ken Downie with Martin and Richard Dust) have collaborated with Psychick Warriors ov Gaia on a new ambient project called Dadavistic Orchestra. Taking inspiration from the Dada artists of the early 1900s, Dadavistic Orchestra have issued an album and two EPs, offering limited edition gelatin silver prints in homage to avant-garde photographer Man Ray with early copies sold via mail order.

Albums
Ken Downie with Ed Handley and Andy Turner:
 * 1993 Bytes (as Black Dog Productions)
 * 1993 Temple of Transparent Balls
 * 1995 Spanners

Ken Downie solo:
 * 1996 Music for Adverts (and Short Films)

Ken Downie with Steve Ash and Ross Knight:
 * 2002 Unsavoury Products (featuring Black Sifichi)Ken Downie with Martin Dust and Richard Dust:
 * 2005 Silenced
 * 2008 Radio Scarecrow
 * 2009 Further Vexations
 * 2010 Music for Real Airports
 * 2011 Liber Dogma
 * 2013 Tranklements
 * 2015 Neither/Neither
 * 2018 Black Daisy Wheel
 * 2018 Post-Truth
 * 2020 Fragments
 * 2021 Music for Photographers
 * 2023 Music for Airport Lounges
 * 2023 The Grey Album
 * 2023 My Brutal Life
 * 2024 Other, Like Me

EPs
• Ken Downie with Ed Handley and Andy Turner:

• 1989 Virtual

• 1989 Age of Slack

• 1990 Techno Playtime

• 1991 Parallel

• 1992 Vir²l

• 1992 Vanttool

• 1999 Peel Session (recorded 1995)

• Ken Downie solo:

• 1998 Babylon (with Ofra Haza)

• 1998 Plan Black V Dog (with Gustavo Cerati's Plan V)

• Ken Downie with Martin Dust and Richard Dust:

• 2005 Bite Thee Back

• 2005 Trojan Horus

• 2005 Remote Viewing

• 2005 The Remixes

• 2006 Riphead

• 2007 Floods

• 2008 Set to Receive

• 2008 Detroit vs. Sheffield

• 2009 Vexing

• 2009 We Are Sheffield

• 2009 The Vexing Remixes

• 2010 Thee Lounge

• 2010 Subject to Delays

• 2011 Liber Kult (Book 1 ov 3)

• 2011 Liber Temple (Book 2 ov 3)

• 2011 Liber Nox (Book 3 ov 3)

• 2011 Liber Chaos (Book ov Aiwass)

• 2013 The Return ov Bleep

• 2013 Darkhaus Vol. 01

• 2013 Darkhaus Vol. 02

• 2013 The Return Ov Bleep

• 2014 Werk+Play

• 2014 Exhibit 1 & 2

• 2018 Shards Ov Light

• 2020 Allegory 1 (Red)

• 2020 Allegory 2 (Green)

• 2020 Allegory 3 (Blue)

• 2020 Further Fragments

• 2021 Dubs: Volume 1

• 2021 Dubs: Volume 2

• 2021 Dubs: Volume 3

• 2022 Brutal Minimalism

• 2022 Concrete Reasoning

• 2022 Fighting Modernism

• 2023 The Reproduce EP

Compilations and live albums
Ken Downie with Ed Handley and Andy Turner:
 * 1995 Parallel
 * 2007 Book of Dogma
 * 2021 Fragments Live

Ken Downie with Steve Ash and Ross Knight:
 * 2003 Genetically Modified (with Black Sifichi, remixes from Unsavoury Products)Ken Downie with Martin Dust and Richard Dust:
 * 2006 Thee Singles
 * 2008 Thee Singles Volume 2
 * 2010 Final Collected Vexations
 * 2014 Liber Collected – Book Ov Law

title: The Black Dog (band)