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Æthelberht

Æthelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert is a masculine given name which may refer to:

Æthelberht

 * Æthelberht of Kent (c. 550–616), King of Kent
 * Æthelred and Æthelberht (died c. 669), possibly legendary princes of Kent, saints and martyrs
 * Æthelberht, king of the Hwicce (fl. 692–693)
 * Æthelbert of Sussex (fl. 8th century), King of Sussex
 * Alberht of East Anglia (8th century), also Æthelberht I of East Anglia, ruler of East Anglia
 * Æthelbert II of Kent (725–762), King of Kent
 * Æthelbert of York (died 780), Archbishop of York, scholar and teacher
 * Æthelberht II of East Anglia (died 794), saint and King of East Anglia
 * Æthelberht of Whithorn (died 797), Bishop of Whithorn
 * Æthelberht, King of Wessex (died 865)

Ethelbert

 * Ethelbert Barksdale (1824–1893), American and Confederate politician
 * Ethelbert Blatter (1877–1934), Swiss Jesuit priest and pioneering botanist in British India
 * E. W. Bullinger (1837–1913), Anglican clergyman, biblical scholar and theologian
 * Ethelbert Callahan (1829–1918), American lawyer and politician
 * Ethelbert Nevin (1862–1901), American pianist and composer
 * Ethelbert I. Singley (1888–1967), American politician
 * Ethelbert Stauffer (1902–1979), German Protestant theologian and numismatist
 * Ethelbert Talbot (1848–1928), 15th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church
 * Ethelbert Dudley Warfield (1861–1936), American professor of history and college president
 * Ethelbert Watts (1846–1919), American diplomat in World War I
 * Ethelbert White (1891–1972), English wood engraver and painter

Animals

 * Ethelbert (orca), a whale that swam up the Columbia River

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

title: Æthelberht


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User:DariusMazeika

In the context of WikiPedia, my identity is unimportant.

If you really need to contact me, send me an email to darius_AT_soften.REMOVe.This.Before.Sending.Me.EMAILS.ktu.lt - I will be glad to reply.

As the result of latest wikipedia events and disgust of some people like Jayjg...
 Given the level of dysfunction that has come to prevail on Wikipedia, the most appropriate course for a principled scientist is to withdraw from the project. The bureaucracy should either take corrective steps to fix this situation, or else suffer the eventual loss of huge amounts of valuable talent and volunteered resources. If you agree with this statement, post it to your pages, and pass it on. (discuss this here)

title: User:DariusMazeika


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Kaziuko mugė

Kaziuko mugė or Saint Casimir's Fair is a large annual folk arts and crafts fair in Lithuania, dating to the beginning of the 17th century. The fair is traditionally held in city's markets and streets on the Sunday nearest to 4 March (Feast of St. Casimir), the anniversary of Saint Casimir's death. In Lithuanian, Kaziukas is a diminutive of Casimir. Today, Saint Casimir's fair also features music, dance, theater performances; it attracts tens of thousands of visitors and many craftsmen from across Lithuania as well as from neighbouring countries such as Latvia, Russia, and Poland. In recent years, the fair has expanded into other cities in Lithuania, Belarus, Poland.

History and location
St. Casimir, son of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV, was canonized in 1602. In conjunction with his feast day celebrations, merchants established a fair. In 1827, they received a privilege to hold the fair in the Cathedral Square. In 1901, after a monument to Catherine the Great was unveiled in the Cathedral Square, the fair was moved to Lukiškės Square. During the Soviet era, the fair was held in Kalvarijos Market. In 1991, it returned to the Old Town of Vilnius. It was first held in Pilies Street but has since grown to span Gediminas Avenue, traverse the Cathedral Square, and branch out into Pilies Street, B. Radvilaitės Street, passing St. Anne's Church, and the Orthodox Cathedral of the Theotokos, and into the Tymas' Quarter on the left bank of Vilnia River near Užupis. It is estimated that as of 2013, the fair attracted 2,000 merchants and half a million visitors over three days (Friday to Sunday). In 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fair was held online. Previously, the fair did not take place only during World War II.

In recent years the fair has expanded into other cities in Lithuania, including Kaunas (in Laisvės alėja and Town Hall Square), Alytus, Klaipėda. Similar festivals called Kaziuki are also held in several cities in Poland, e.g. in Lidzbark Warmiński, Olsztyn, Szczecin, Gdańsk and Poznań,  as well as in Hrodna, Belarus, the city where St. Casimir died. A smaller version of the fair is also held by Lithuanian communities abroad, including inside the Lithuanian World Center in Lemont, Illinois.

Features
The arts and crafts at the fair include hand-made goods from local craftsmen, such as woven and knitted clothes, footwear, toys, utensils, pots and jugs, jewelry, souvenirs, and paintings. Traditional foodstuffs include rye bread, bubliks, gingerbread, natural honey, beer, gira, and colorfully wrapped hard candy. Crafts represented include wood carvers, blacksmiths, potters, weavers and knitters, wicker weavers.

Easter palms (verbos, singular: verba) are one of the fair's specialties. They are made of colourful dried wild flowers and herbs (about 150 different varieties of plants are used) tied around a wooden stick. Traditionally, they were taken to churches on Palm Sunday. Verba has become a traditional symbol of spring and Easter. However, it is an endangered craft. Making verba is difficult and time-consuming process. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find flowers and herbs or special dies to color them. The buyers are wary that the dried plants would cause allergic reactions.

Another signature product at the fair is the Casimir's Heart, a heart-shaped gingerbread decorated with sugar patterns and figures (flowers, zigzags, birds, etc.) or popular given names. People buy them to give to their loved ones. It is customary to bring back some these to those who could not attend.

title: Kaziuko mugė


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Northwestern State University

Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSULA) is a public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Johnson and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.

NSU was founded in 1884 as the Louisiana State Normal School. It was the first school in Louisiana to offer degree programs in nursing and business education. NSU, along with numerous other state colleges, gained university status in 1970 during the administration of President Arnold R. Kilpatrick, a Northwestern State alumnus who served from 1966 to 1978. Kilpatrick succeeded the 12-year president, John S. Kyser, a native of El Paso, Illinois.

NSU was one of the first six colleges to enter into NASA's Joint Venture Program. Students worked with NASA scientists to help analyze data and do research for the 1996 Space Shuttle Columbia shuttle mission. NSU also hosts the Louisiana Scholars' College, Louisiana's designated honors college in the liberal arts and sciences. The Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, a state-supported residential high school for sophomores, juniors, and seniors, is also located on the campus. It was a brainchild of former State Representative Jimmy D. Long of Natchitoches, who also attended NSU.

NSU offers more than 50 degree programs. Fall 2018 total enrollment was 11,081, the largest in the university's 133-year history, although the school saw enrollments decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, which hampered recruitment efforts. NSU also claims more than 70,000 alumni.

History
Northwestern State University stands on ground that has been dedicated to learning for well over 100 years. Before the American Civil War, a portion of the present campus was the property of the Bullard family of Natchitoches. As early as 1856, the Bullard mansion was in use as a convent by the Religious Society of the Sacred Heart. The following year, a school building was erected at the convent, and in 1884, the town and parish of Natchitoches purchased the property. Three of the four great white columns that once supported the east gable of the mansion still stand on "The Hill" and serve as the unofficial symbols of the university.

In 1884, the Louisiana State Legislature by Act 51 created the Louisiana State Normal School for the preparation of teachers. Shortly thereafter, a freshman member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, Leopold Caspari of Natchitoches, offered the convent site as a campus for the school with the anticipated approval of the citizens of Natchitoches. The offer was accepted, and from 1885 to 1918, the school offered two years of study for the training of teachers. Baccalaureate programs were inaugurated, and the Louisiana Constitution of 1921 changed the name of the school to Louisiana State Normal College. In 1944, the institution's excellent service in its broader role was accorded formal recognition by Act 326 of the Legislature, which changed its name to Northwestern State College of Louisiana.

Northwestern State maintained and strengthened its tradition of leadership in public service and academic endeavor and became, in 1954, the first college under the jurisdiction of the Louisiana State Board of Education to offer a master's degree. The Specialist in Education degree was first offered in 1966 and the Doctor of Philosophy in Education degrees were authorized in 1967. On June 18, 1970, Governor John J. McKeithen signed a legislative act that brought the old campus its greatest distinction, changing its title to Northwestern State University of Louisiana. In 1980, the old campus quadrangle where the columns stand was entered into the National Register of Historic Places under the title "Normal Hill Historic District."

Although primarily a regional institution, Northwestern State also offers an opportunity for education at satellite locations, including Leesville, Shreveport, and Alexandria. The Nursing Education Center, located in Shreveport, provides the educational environment for nursing majors enrolled in clinical courses, as well as general education courses. A large piece of limestone, known as "The Rock" was placed on campus in 2006 at a major intersection for registered student organizations to paint designs promoting their groups. The list of student organizations available grows every semester.

In 2021, Marcus Jones became the first African-American President in the university's 137-year history after he was unanimously approved by the Louisiana Board of Supervisors. Four years later, in 2024, he was succeeded by Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice James Genovese.

Vic the Demon
On November 8, 1922, by proclamation of President V. L. Roy and Coach H. Lee Prather, all athletic teams became known as the Demons. The name was decided upon by a contest open to all students, with a grand prize of $10. A committee was appointed by the president to narrow down the names submitted by the student body. The final selection was decided by a vote of the students. The two most popular choices were Braves and Demons. Among other names submitted by students were Sharks, Daredevils, Musketeers, Pelicans, Prather's Ground Hogs, Bloodhounds, Cyclops, and Serpents. The official winners were Aileen Ritter and Truett Scarborough.

On September 22, 1984, the Demon received his official given name using another contest sponsored by the athletic department. The contest was open to faculty, staff, and students. The objective was to find a name for the Demon. Over 300 entries were submitted to the committee. The grand prize was an all-expenses-paid weekend at the Louisiana State Fair Classic. Ray Carney, an alumnus of the university, was the official winner with "Vic", which is short for "Victory".

Jim Croce
Singer-songwriter Jim Croce died in a plane crash hours after finishing a 1973 concert on the NSU campus.

Newspaper and yearbook
Northwestern's online news source with occasional printed special editions, The Current Sauce, was founded in 1914. In 2021, the newspaper and campus radio station, KNWD, merged their news operations into a shared digital platform, "Purple Media Network." Its annual student-run yearbook is called The Potpourri.

Radio and television
The student-run radio station is The Demon (KNWD 91.7 FM) and a faculty-administered and student-operated local television station is NSU22, on which can be found biweekly student-produced newscasts.

Literary magazine
NSU's literary magazine is called The Argus. It is student-run and published during the spring semester. The magazine content is provided by competitions in various fields of writing and artwork.

Music
The Spirit of Northwestern marching band features over 300 members each year, with membership open to any major and classification of student. Their uniforms are purple and white with a thin orange stripe. Other bands at Northwestern are the Pep Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Symphony, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, numerous chamber groups, and the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra.

Athletics
The Northwestern State athletic teams go by the Demons, with women's athletic teams generally called the Lady Demons, and its mascot is Vic the Demon. The university is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and competes in the Southland Conference at the NCAA Division I level. Northwestern State sponsors 12 varsity athletic teams, five men's teams and seven women's teams. The official list of sports changes by semester as new groups are approved.

Archive
NSU maintains an archive through the Cammie G. Henry Research Center. Collections cover a diversity of individuals and topics. Materials may be accessed on such figures as Ethma Odum, the pioneering woman television personality at KALB-TV in Alexandria; James B. Aswell, Kate Chopin, Robert DeBlieux, Caroline Dormon, and the Cane River.

Notable faculty and administrators

 * James B. Aswell, president of NSU and U.S. representative for Louisiana's 8th congressional district
 * Medford Bryan Evans, english professor and conservative activist
 * Mike Johnson, professor of law & Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
 * Julie Kane, poet
 * Ralph L. Ropp, professor of speech and head of the forensics department, president of Louisiana Tech

title: Northwestern State University


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Green politics

Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. It began taking shape in the western world in the 1970s; since then green parties have developed and established themselves in many countries around the globe and have achieved some electoral success.

The political term green was used initially in relation to die Grünen (German for "the Greens"), a green party formed in the late 1970s. The term political ecology is sometimes used in academic circles, but it has come to represent an interdisciplinary field of study as the academic discipline offers wide-ranging studies integrating ecological social sciences with political economy in topics such as degradation and marginalization, environmental conflict, conservation and control and environmental identities and social movements.

Supporters of green politics share many ideas with the conservation, environmental, feminist and peace movements. In addition to democracy and ecological issues, green politics is concerned with civil liberties, social justice, nonviolence, sometimes variants of localism and tends to support social progressivism. Green party platforms are largely considered left in the political spectrum. The green ideology has connections with various other ecocentric political ideologies, including ecofeminism, eco-socialism and green anarchism, but to what extent these can be seen as forms of green politics is a matter of debate. As the left-wing green political philosophy developed, there also came into separate existence opposite movements on the right-wing that include ecological components such as eco-capitalism and green conservatism.

Influences
Adherents to green politics tend to consider it to be part of a higher worldview and not simply a political ideology. Green politics draws its ethical stance from a variety of sources, from the values of indigenous peoples, to the ethics of Mahatma Gandhi, Baruch Spinoza, and Jakob von Uexküll. These people influenced green thought in their advocacy of long-term seventh generation foresight, and on the personal responsibility of every individual to make moral choices.

Unease about adverse consequences of human actions on nature predates the modern concept of environmentalism. Social commentators as far apart as ancient Rome and China complained of air, water and noise pollution.

The philosophical roots of environmentalism can be traced back to enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau in France, and later the author and naturalist Thoreau in America. Organised environmentalism began in late 19th-century Europe and the United States, as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution with its emphasis on unbridled economic expansion.

"Green politics" first began as conservation and preservation movements, such as the Sierra Club, founded in San Francisco in 1892.

Left-green platforms of the form that make up the green parties today draw terminology from the science of ecology, and policy from environmentalism, deep ecology, feminism, pacifism, anarchism, libertarian socialism, libertarian possibilism, social democracy, eco-socialism, and/or social ecology or green libertarianism. In the 1970s, as these movements grew in influence, green politics arose as a new philosophy which synthesized their goals. The Green Party political movement is not to be confused with the unrelated fact that in some far-right and fascist parties, nationalism has on occasion been tied into a sort of green politics which promotes environmentalism as a form of pride in the "motherland" according to a minority of authors.

Early development
In June 1970, a Dutch group called Kabouters won 5 of the 45 seats on the Amsterdam Gemeenteraad (City Council), as well as two seats each on councils in The Hague and Leeuwarden and one seat apiece in Arnhem, Alkmaar and Leiden. The Kabouters were an outgrowth of Provo's environmental White Plans and they proposed "Groene Plannen" ("Green Plans"). The first political party to be created with its basis in environmental issues was the United Tasmania Group, founded in Australia in March 1972 to fight against deforestation and the creation of a dam that would damage Lake Pedder; whilst it only gained three percent in state elections, it inspired the creation of Green parties all over the world. In May 1972, a meeting at Victoria University of Wellington launched the Values Party, the world's first countrywide green party to contest Parliamentary seats nationally. In November 1972, Europe's first green party, PEOPLE in the UK came into existence.

The German Green Party was not the first Green Party in Europe to have members elected nationally but the impression was created that they had been, because they attracted the most media attention: The German Greens, contended in their first national election in the 1980 federal election. They started as a provisional coalition of civic groups and political campaigns which, together, felt their interests were not expressed by the conventional parties. After contesting the 1979 European elections they held a conference which identified Four Pillars of the Green Party which all groups in the original alliance could agree as the basis of a common Party platform: welding these groups together as a single Party. This statement of principles has since been utilised by many Green Parties around the world. It was this party that first coined the term "Green" ("Grün" in German) and adopted the sunflower symbol. The term "Green" was coined by one of the founders of the German Green Party, Petra Kelly, after she visited Australia and saw the actions of the Builders Labourers Federation and their green ban actions. In the 1983 federal election, the Greens won 27 seats in the Bundestag.

Further developments
The first Canadian foray into green politics took place in the Maritimes when 11 independent candidates (including one in Montreal and one in Toronto) ran in the 1980 federal election under the banner of the Small Party. Inspired by Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, the Small Party candidates ran for the expressed purpose of putting forward an anti-nuclear platform in that election. It was not registered as an official party, but some participants in that effort went on to form the Green Party of Canada in 1983 (the Ontario Greens and British Columbia Greens were also formed that year). Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May was the instigator and one of the candidates of the Small Party and she was eventually elected as a member of the Green Party in 2011 Canadian federal election.

In Finland, the Green League became the first European Green Party to form part of a state-level Cabinet in 1995. The German Greens followed, forming a government with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (the "Red-Green Alliance") from 1998 to 2005. In 2001, they reached an agreement to end reliance on nuclear power in Germany, and agreed to remain in coalition and support the German government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the 2001 Afghan War. This put them at odds with many Greens worldwide, but demonstrated that they were capable of difficult political tradeoffs.

In Latvia, Indulis Emsis, leader of the Green Party and part of the Union of Greens and Farmers, an alliance of a Nordic agrarian party and the Green Party, was Prime Minister of Latvia for ten months in 2004, making him the first Green politician to lead a country in the history of the world. In 2015, Emsis' party colleague, Raimonds Vējonis, was elected President of Latvia by the Latvian parliament. Vējonis became the first green head of state worldwide.

In the German state of Baden-Württenburg, the Green Party became the leader of the coalition with the Social Democrats after finishing second in the 2011 Baden-Württemberg state election. In the following state election, 2016, the Green Party became the strongest party for the first time in a German Landtag.

In 2016, the former leader of the Austrian Greens (1997 to 2008), Alexander Van der Bellen, officially running as an independent, won the 2016 Austrian presidential election, making him the second green head of state worldwide and the first directly elected by popular vote. Van der Bellen placed second in the election's first round with 21.3% of the vote, the best result for the Austrian Greens in their history. He won the second-round run-off against the far-right Freedom Party's Norbert Hofer with 53.8% of the votes, making him the first President of Austria who was not backed by either the People's Party or the Social Democratic Party.

Core tenets
According to Derek Wall, a prominent British green proponent, there are four pillars that define green politics:
 * Ecological wisdom
 * Social justice
 * Grassroots democracy
 * Nonviolence

In 1984, the Green Committees of Correspondence in the United States expanded the Four Pillars into Ten Key Values, which further included:
 * Decentralization
 * Community-based economics
 * Post-patriarchal values (later translated to ecofeminism and Ethics of care)
 * Respect for diversity
 * Global responsibility
 * Future focus

In 2001, the Global Greens were organized as an international green movement. The Global Greens Charter identified six guiding principles:
 * Ecological wisdom
 * Social justice
 * Participatory democracy
 * Nonviolence
 * Sustainability
 * Respect for diversity

Economics
Green economics focuses on the importance of the health of the biosphere to human well-being. Consequently, most Greens distrust conventional capitalism, as it tends to emphasize economic growth while ignoring ecological health; the "full cost" of economic growth often includes damage to the biosphere, which is unacceptable according to green politics. Green economics considers such growth to be "uneconomic growth"— material increase that nonetheless lowers the overall quality of life. Green economics inherently takes a longer-term perspective than conventional economics, because such a loss in quality of life is often delayed. According to green economics, the present generation should not borrow from future generations, but rather attempt to achieve what Tim Jackson calls "prosperity without growth". Some Greens refer to productivism, consumerism and scientism as "grey", as contrasted with "green", economic views. "Grey" approaches focus on behavioral changes.

Therefore, adherents to green politics advocate economic policies designed to safeguard the environment. Greens want governments to stop subsidizing companies that waste resources or pollute the natural world, subsidies that Greens refer to as "dirty subsidies". Some currents of green politics place automobile and agribusiness subsidies in this category, as they may harm human health. On the contrary, Greens look to a green tax shift that are seen to encourage both producers and consumers to make ecologically friendly choices.

Many aspects of green economics could be considered anti-globalist. According to many left-wing greens, economic globalization is considered a threat to well-being, which will replace natural environments and local cultures with a single trade economy, termed the global economic monoculture. This is not a universal policy of greens, as green liberals and green conservatives support a regulated free market economy with additional measures to advance sustainable development.

Since green economics emphasizes biospheric health and biodiversity, an issue outside the traditional left-right spectrum, different currents within green politics incorporate ideas from socialism and capitalism. Greens on the Left are often identified as eco-socialists, who merge ecology and environmentalism with socialism and Marxism and blame the capitalist system for environmental degradation, social injustice, inequality and conflict. eco-capitalists, on the other hand, believe that the free market system, with some modification, is capable of addressing ecological problems. This belief is documented in the business experiences of eco-capitalists in the book, The Gort Cloud that describes the gort cloud as the green community that supports eco-friendly businesses.

Participatory democracy
Since the beginning, green politics has emphasized local, grassroots-level political activity and decision-making. According to its adherents, it is crucial that citizens play a direct role in the decisions that influence their lives and their environment. Therefore, green politics seeks to increase the role of deliberative democracy, based on direct citizen involvement and consensus decision making, wherever it is feasible.

Green politics also encourages political action on the individual level, such as ethical consumerism, or buying things that are made according to environmentally ethical standards. Indeed, many green parties emphasize individual and grassroots action at the local and regional levels over electoral politics. Historically, green parties have grown at the local level, gradually gaining influence and spreading to regional or provincial politics, only entering the national arena when there is a strong network of local support.

In addition, many greens believe that governments should not levy taxes against strictly local production and trade. Some Greens advocate new ways of organizing authority to increase local control, including urban secession, bioregional democracy, and co-operative/local stakeholder ownership.

Other issues
Although Greens in the United States "call for an end to the 'War on Drugs'" and "for the decriminalization of victimless crimes", they also call for developing "a firm approach to law enforcement that directly addresses violent crime, including trafficking in hard drugs".

In Europe, some green parties have tended to support the creation of a democratic federal Europe, while others have opposed European integration.

In the spirit of nonviolence, green politics oppose the war on terrorism and the curtailment of civil rights, focusing instead on nurturing deliberative democracy in war-torn regions and the construction of a civil society with an increased role for women.

In keeping with their commitment to the preservation of diversity, greens are often committed to the maintenance and protection of indigenous communities, languages, and traditions. An example of this is the Irish Green Party's commitment to the preservation of the Irish Language. Some of the green movement has focused on divesting in fossil fuels. Academics Stand Against Poverty states "it is paradoxical for universities to remain invested in fossil fuel companies". Thomas Pogge says that the fossil fuel divestment movement can increase political pressure at events like the international climate change conference (COP). Alex Epstein of Forbes notes that it is hypocritical to ask for divestment without a boycott and that a boycott would be more effective. Some institutions that are leading by example in the academic area are Stanford University, Syracuse University, Sterling College and over 20 more. A number of cities, counties and religious institutions have also joined the movement to divest.

Green politics mostly opposes nuclear fission power and the buildup of persistent organic pollutants, supporting adherence to the precautionary principle, by which technologies are rejected unless they can be proven to not cause significant harm to the health of living things or the biosphere.

Green platforms generally favor tariffs on fossil fuels, restricting genetically modified organisms, and protections for ecoregions or communities.

The Green Party supports phasing out of nuclear power, coal, and incineration of waste. However, the Green Party in Finland has come out against its previous anti-nuclear stance and has stated that addressing global warming in the next 20 years is impossible without expanding nuclear power. These officials have proposed using nuclear-generated heat to heat buildings by replacing the use of coal and biomass to reach zero-emission outputs by 2040.

Local movements
Green ideology emphasizes participatory democracy and the principle of "thinking globally, acting locally." As such, the ideal Green Party is thought to grow from the bottom up, from neighborhood to municipal to (eco-)regional to national levels. The goal is to rule by a consensus decision making process.

Strong local coalitions are considered a prerequisite to higher-level electoral breakthroughs. Historically, the growth of Green parties has been sparked by a single issue where Greens can appeal to ordinary citizens' concerns. In Germany, for example, the Greens' early opposition to nuclear power won them their first successes in the federal elections.

Global organization
There is a growing level of global cooperation between Green parties. Global gatherings of Green Parties now happen. The first Planetary Meeting of Greens was held 30–31 May 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, immediately preceding the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held there. More than 200 Greens from 28 nations attended. The first formal Global Greens Gathering took place in Canberra, in 2001, with more than 800 Greens from 72 countries in attendance. The second Global Green Congress was held in São Paulo, Brazil, in May 2008, when 75 parties were represented.

Global Green networking dates back to 1990. Following the Planetary Meeting of Greens in Rio de Janeiro, a Global Green Steering Committee was created, consisting of two seats for each continent. In 1993 this Global Steering Committee met in Mexico City and authorized the creation of a Global Green Network including a Global Green Calendar, Global Green Bulletin, and Global Green Directory. The Directory was issued in several editions in the next years. In 1996, 69 Green Parties from around the world signed a common declaration opposing French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, the first statement of global greens on a current issue. A second statement was issued in December 1997, concerning the Kyoto climate change treaty.

At the 2001 Canberra Global Gathering delegates for Green Parties from 72 countries decided upon a Global Greens Charter which proposes six key principles. Over time, each Green Party can discuss this and organize itself to approve it, some by using it in the local press, some by translating it for their web site, some by incorporating it into their manifesto, some by incorporating it into their constitution. This process is taking place gradually, with online dialogue enabling parties to say where they are up to with this process.

The Gatherings also agree on organizational matters. The first Gathering voted unanimously to set up the Global Green Network (GGN). The GGN is composed of three representatives from each Green Party. A companion organization was set up by the same resolution: Global Green Coordination (GGC). This is composed of three representatives from each Federation (Africa, Europe, The Americas, Asia/Pacific, see below). Discussion of the planned organization took place in several Green Parties prior to the Canberra meeting. The GGC communicates chiefly by email. Any agreement by it has to be by unanimity of its members. It may identify possible global campaigns to propose to Green Parties worldwide. The GGC may endorse statements by individual Green Parties. For example, it endorsed a statement by the US Green Party on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Thirdly, Global Green Gatherings are an opportunity for informal networking, from which joint campaigning may arise. For example, a campaign to protect the New Caledonian coral reef, by getting it nominated for World Heritage Status: a joint campaign by the New Caledonia Green Party, New Caledonian indigenous leaders, the French Green Party, and the Australian Greens. Another example concerns Ingrid Betancourt, the leader of the Green Party in Colombia, the Green Oxygen Party (Partido Verde Oxigeno). Ingrid Betancourt and the party's Campaign Manager, Claire Rojas, were kidnapped by a hard-line faction of FARC on 7 March 2002, while travelling in FARC-controlled territory. Betancourt had spoken at the Canberra Gathering, making many friends. As a result, Green Parties all over the world have organized, pressing their governments to bring pressure to bear. For example, Green Parties in African countries, Austria, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, France, Scotland, Sweden and other countries have launched campaigns calling for Betancourt's release. Bob Brown, the leader of the Australian Greens, went to Colombia, as did an envoy from the European Federation, Alain Lipietz, who issued a report. The four Federations of Green Parties issued a message to FARC. Ingrid Betancourt was rescued by the Colombian military in Operation Jaque in 2008.

Global Green meetings
Separately from the Global Green Gatherings, Global Green Meetings take place. For instance, one took place on the fringe of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Green Parties attended from Australia, Taiwan, Korea, South Africa, Mauritius, Uganda, Cameroon, Republic of Cyprus, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, the US, Mexico and Chile.

The Global Green Meeting discussed the situation of Green Parties on the African continent; heard a report from Mike Feinstein, former Mayor of Santa Monica, about setting up a web site of the GGN; discussed procedures for the better working of the GGC; and decided two topics on which the Global Greens could issue statements in the near future: Iraq and the 2003 WTO meeting in Cancun.

Green federations
Affiliated members in Asia, Pacific and Oceania form the Asia-Pacific Green Network. The member parties of the Global Greens are organised into four continental federations:
 * Federation of Green Parties of Africa
 * Federation of the Green Parties of the Americas / Federación de los Partidos Verdes de las Américas
 * Asia-Pacific Green Network
 * European Green Party

The European Federation of Green Parties formed itself as the European Green Party on 22 February 2004, in the run-up to European Parliament elections in June 2004, a further step in trans-national integration.

Green political parties
Green movements are calling for social change to reduce the misuse of natural resources. These include grassroots non-governmental organizations like Greenpeace and green parties:
 * Alliance 90/The Greens
 * Australian Greens
 * Austrian Green Party
 * Belarusian Green Party
 * Democratic Renewal of Macedonia
 * Dialogue for Hungary, LMP – Hungary's Green Party
 * Ecologist Greens
 * Europe Ecology – The Greens (France)
 * Federation of the Greens
 * Green League (Finland)
 * Greens of Andorra
 * Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
 * Green Party of Armenia
 * Green Party (Brazil)
 * Green Party of Canada
 * Green Party (Czech Republic)
 * Green Party of England and Wales
 * Green Party (Ireland)
 * Green Party (Israel)
 * Green Party of Lebanon
 * Green Party (Norway)
 * Green Party (Sweden)
 * Green Party (Romania)
 * Green Party of Taiwan
 * Green Party (Turkey)
 * Green Party of the United States
 * Groen, Ecolo
 * GroenLinks
 * Hariyali Nepal Party
 * Latvian Green Party
 * Left-Green Movement
 * Meretz (Israel)
 * Red–Green Alliance (Denmark)
 * Scottish Green Party
 * Socialist People's Party (Denmark)
 * The Alternative (Denmark)

title: Green politics


text:
Environmental full-cost accounting

Environmental full-cost accounting (EFCA) is a method of cost accounting that traces direct costs and allocates indirect costs by collecting and presenting information about the possible environmental costs and benefits or advantages – in short, about the "triple bottom line" – for each proposed alternative. It is one aspect of true cost accounting (TCA), along with Human capital and Social capital. As definitions for "true" and "full" are inherently subjective, experts consider both terms problematic.

Since costs and advantages are usually considered in terms of environmental, economic and social impacts, full or true cost efforts are collectively called the "triple bottom line". Many standards now exist in this area including Ecological Footprint, eco-labels, and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives' approach to triple bottom line using the ecoBudget metric. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has several accredited standards useful in FCA or TCA including for greenhouse gases, the ISO 26000 series for corporate social responsibility coming in 2010, and the ISO 19011 standard for audits including all these.

Because of this evolution of terminology in the public sector use especially, the term full-cost accounting is now more commonly used in management accounting, e.g. infrastructure management and finance. Use of the terms FCA or TCA usually indicate relatively conservative extensions of current management practices, and incremental improvements to GAAP to deal with waste output or resource input.

These have the advantage of avoiding the more contentious questions of social cost.

Concepts
Full-cost accounting embodies several key concepts that distinguish it from standard accounting techniques. The following list highlights the basic tenets of FCA.

Accounting for:
 * 1) Costs rather than outlays (see explanation below);
 * 2) Hidden costs and externalities;
 * 3) Overhead and indirect costs;
 * 4) Past and future outlays;
 * 5) Costs according to lifecycle of the product.

Costs rather than outlays
Expenditure of cash to acquire or use a resource. A cost is the cash value of the resource as it is used. For example, an outlay is made when a vehicle is purchased, but the cost of the vehicle is incurred over its active life (e.g., ten years). The cost of the vehicle must be allocated over a period of time because every year of its use contributes to the depreciation of the vehicle's value.

Hidden costs
The value of goods and services is reflected as a cost even if no cash outlay is involved. One community might receive a grant from a state, for example, to purchase equipment. This equipment has value, even though the community did not pay for it in cash. The equipment, therefore, should be valued in an FCA analysis.

Government subsidies in the energy and food production industries keep true costs low through artificially cheap product pricing. This price manipulation encourages unsustainable practices and further hides negative externalities endemic to fossil fuel production and modern mechanized agriculture.

Overhead and indirect costs
FCA accounts for all overhead and indirect costs, including those that are shared with other public agencies. Overhead and indirect costs might include legal services, administrative support, data processing, billing, and purchasing. Environmental costs as indirect costs include the full range of costs throughout the life-cycle of a product (Life cycle assessment), some of which even do not show up in the firm's bottom line. It also contains fixed overhead, fixed administration expense etc.

Past and future outlays
Past and future cash outlays often do not appear on annual budgets under cash accounting systems. Past (or upfront) costs are initial investments necessary to implement services such as the acquisition of vehicles, equipment, or facilities. Future (or back-end) outlays are costs incurred to complete operations such as facility closure and postclosure care, equipment retirement, and post-employment health and retirement benefits.

Waste management
The State of Florida uses the term full-cost accounting for its solid waste management. In this instance, FCA is a systematic approach for identifying, summing, and reporting the actual costs of solid waste management. It takes into account past and future outlays, overhead (oversight and support services) costs, and operating costs.

Integrated solid waste management systems consist of a variety of municipal solid waste (MSW) activities and paths. Activities are the building blocks of the system, which may include waste collection, operation of transfer stations, transport to waste management facilities, waste processing and disposal, and sale of byproducts. Paths are the directions that MSW follows in the course of integrated solid waste management (i.e., the point of generation through processing and ultimate disposition) and include recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, and landfill disposal. The cost of some activities is shared between paths. Understanding the costs of MSW activities is often necessary for compiling the costs of the entire solid waste system, and helps municipalities evaluate whether to provide a service itself or contract out for it. However, in considering changes that affect how much MSW ends up being recycled, composted, converted to energy, or landfilled, the analyst should focus the costs of the different paths. Understanding the full costs of each MSW path is an essential first step in discussing whether to shift the flows of MSW one way another.

Benefits

 * Identify the costs of MSW management : When municipalities handle MSW services through general tax funds, the costs of MSW management can get lost among other expenditures. With FCA, managers can have more control over MSW costs because they know what the costs are.

 * See through the peaks and valleys in MSW cash expenditures : Using techniques such as depreciation and amortization, FCA produces a more accurate picture of the costs of MSW programs, without the distortions that can result from focusing solely on a given year's cash expenditures.

 * Explain MSW costs to citizens more clearly : FCA helps you collect and compile the information needed to explain to citizens what solid waste management actually costs. Although some people might think that solid waste management is free (because they are not billed specifically for MSW services), others might overestimate its cost. FCA can result in "bottom line" numbers that speak directly to residents. In addition, public officials can use FCA results to respond to specific public concerns.

 * Adopt a business-like approach to MSW management : By focusing attention on costs, FCA fosters a more businesslike approach to MSW management. Consumers of goods and services increasingly expect value, which means an appropriate balance between quality and cost of service. FCA can help identify opportunities for streamlining services, eliminating inefficiencies, and facilitating cost-saving efforts through informed planning and decision-making.

 * Develop a stronger position in negotiating with vendors : When considering privatization of MSW services, solid waste managers can use FCA to learn what it costs (or would cost) to do the work. As a result, FCA better positions public agencies for negotiations and decision-making. FCA also can help communities with publicly run operations determine whether their costs are competitive with the private sector.

 * Evaluate the appropriate mix of MSW services : FCA gives managers the ability to evaluate the cost of each element of their solid waste system, such as recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, and landfilling. FCA can help managers avoid common mistakes in thinking about solid waste management, notably the error of treating avoided costs as revenues.

 * Fine-tune MSW programs : As more communities use FCA and report the results, managers might be able to "benchmark" their operations to similar communities or norms. This comparison can suggest options for "re-engineering" current operations. Furthermore, when cities, counties, and towns know what it costs to manage MSW independently, they can better identify any savings that might come from working together.

Food and Agriculture
Over the last ten years there has been considerable attention on Full Cost Accounting (FCA) or True Cost Accounting (TCA) in the field of food and agriculture. In 2013 and 2016, the Sustainable Food Trust organised two conferences on True Cost Accounting in food and farming, in the UK and the USA respectively. The FAO published two studies in 2014 and 2015 with a TCA-analysis of the impact of food wastage ("Food wastage footprint: full cost accounting" ) and another TCA-analysis of the total impact of world food production on Natural Capital ("Natural Capital Impacts in Agriculture" ). In the first report, the FAO came to the conclusion that the yearly hidden impact of food wastage on Natural Capital amounted to USD 700 billion while the hidden impact on social capital amounted to USD 900 billion dollars. In the second report, the FAO estimated the environmental damage of the world food production at USD 2330 billion per year.

Motives for adoption
Various motives for adoption of FCA/TCA have been identified. The most significant of which tend to involve anticipating market or regulatory problems associated with ignoring the comprehensive outcome of the whole process or event accounted for. In green economics, this is the major concern and basis for critiques of such measures as GDP. The public sector has tended to move more towards longer term measures to avoid accusations of political favoritism towards specific solutions that seem to make financial or economic sense in the short term, but not longer term.

Corporate decision makers sometimes call on FCA/TCA measures to decide whether to initiate recalls, practice voluntary product stewardship (a form of recall at the end of a product's useful life). This can be motivated as a way to reduce future liabilities arising from those who are negatively affected by the waste a product becomes. Advanced theories of FCA, such as Natural Step, focus firmly on these. According to Ray Anderson, who instituted a form of FCA/TCA at Interface Carpet, used it to rule out decisions that increase Ecological Footprint and focus the company more clearly on a sustainable marketing strategy.

The urban ecology and industrial ecology approaches inherently advocate FCA — treating the built environment as a sort of ecosystem to minimize its own wastes.

title: Environmental full-cost accounting


text:
Natchitoches

Natchitoches may refer to:

 * Natchitoches people, an American Indian people
 * Natchitoches meat pie

Places and jurisdictions

 * Natchitoches, Louisiana, a city
 * the former, now titular, Latin Catholic Roman Catholic Diocese of Natchitoches, with see in the above Louisiana town
 * Natchitoches (YTB-799), a naval tugboat named for the parish Seat
 * Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
 * Natchitoches Regional Airport

title: Natchitoches


text:
Thomas Townsend Brown

Thomas Townsend Brown (March 18, 1905 – October 27, 1985) was an American inventor whose research into odd electrical effects led him to believe he had discovered a type of anti-gravity caused by strong electric fields. Instead of being an anti-gravity force, what Brown observed has generally been attributed to electrohydrodynamics, the movement of charged particles that transfer their momentum to surrounding neutral particles in the air, also called "ionic drift" or "ionic wind". For most of Brown's life, he attempted to develop devices based on his ideas, trying to promote them for use by industry and the military. The phenomena came to be called the "Biefeld–Brown effect" and "electrogravitics".

Brown's research influenced some amateur experimenters who build "ionic propulsion lifters" powered by high voltage. There are still claims that Brown discovered anti-gravity, an idea popular with the unidentified flying object (UFO) community and spawning many conspiracy theories.

Biography
Thomas Townsend Brown was born into a wealthy construction family in Zanesville, Ohio in 1905. His parents were Lewis K. and Mary Townsend Brown. Thomas was interested in electronics from early childhood. His wealthy parents indulged their son's interests, buying him experimental equipment. Brown started a lifelong series of experiments with electrical phenomena and began investigating what he thought was an electro-gravity phenomenon while still in high school.

For two years, in 1922 and 1923, Brown attended Doane Academy, a preparatory school associated with Granville, Ohio's Denison University, graduating in June 1923. In the fall of 1923, he entered the California Institute of Technology. Brown struggled with the required curriculum of a first-year student, and to help Thomas in his school work, his parents set up a fully provisioned private laboratory in the family home in Pasadena, California. He demonstrated his ideas on electricity and gravity to guests such as the physicist and Nobel laureate, Robert A. Millikan. Millikan told the first-year student his ideas were impossible and advised him to complete his college education before trying to develop such theories. Brown left Caltech after his first year. In 1924, he attended Denison University but left there after a year.

In September 1928, Brown married Josephine Beale, daughter of the Zanesville, Ohio, resident Clifford Beale.

In 1930, Brown enlisted in the United States Navy as an apprentice seaman. After completing basic training, based on his background in experimental electrical research, he was ordered to report to duty at the United States Naval Research Laboratory on March 16, 1931. He performed the dual roles of a rank-and-file sailor and a research assistant on the Navy submarine S-48 in the 1932 Navy-Princeton gravity expedition to the West Indies. In 1933, he was assigned to the yacht Caroline (loaned to the Smithsonian Institution for scientific work by Eldridge R. Johnson) to operate a sonic-sounding device during the Johnson-Smithsonian Deep Sea Expedition to the Puerto Rico Trench in 1933. Brown was assigned from the Naval Research Laboratory with the primary duties of sonar and radio operator and had little involvement in scientific work. In 1933 Brown lost his job at the Naval Research Lab due to Depression era budget cutbacks so he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve.

During the 1930s, Brown worked as a soil engineer for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and then as an administrator for the Ohio Civilian Conservation Corps. Brown and Josephine were divorced briefly in 1937, remarrying in September 1940. Also in 1937, Brown re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

In 1938, Brown was promoted to lieutenant; in 1939, he was assigned for a few months as a material engineer for the Navy's flying boats built at the Glenn L. Martin Company in Maryland. He was engaged in magnetic and acoustic mine-sweeping research and development under the Bureau of Ships in Washington, D.C., from October 1940 to March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet Radar School in Norfolk, Virginia, in May 1942. In October 1942, Brown was discharged from Navy service with Brown requesting to resign "for the good of the naval service to escape trial by General Court Martial" and with his official discharge exam listing "no comment" as to the reasons why. After 1944, Brown worked as a radar consultant to the Lockheed-Vega Aircraft Corporation.

After leaving Lockheed, Brown moved to Hawaii where he was temporarily a consultant to the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard due to Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral Arthur W. Radford's interest in Brown's ideas on Gravitor devices. However, the work was looked at more as a curiosity than any workable device. In 1952, Brown moved to Cleveland, hoping to sell his Gravitor device to the military establishment, but little interest was in it. In 1955, Brown went to England, then to France. In research testing for the Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Ouest (SNCASO), Brown demonstrated what he thought was an anti-gravity effect in a vacuum with his device. Funding was cut off when SNCASO was merged with SNCASE, forcing Brown to return to the United States in 1956.

Brown became involved in the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and, in 1956, helped found the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), although he was forced out as director in 1957 with allegations that Brown was using funds to further anti-gravity research.

In 1958, Brown worked as a research and development consultant for Agnew Bahnson's Whitehall Rand Project, an anti-gravity venture at the Bahnson Company of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. That same year, Brown set up an anti-gravity corporation, Rand International Limited. He filed several patents, but his ideas were met with little success. In the early 1960s, he worked as a physicist for Electrokinetics Inc., of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. He then went into semi-retirement, living in California. Brown died on October 27, 1985.

Anti-gravity research
In 1921, while experimenting in the lab his parents had set up for him while he was still in high school, Brown discovered an unusual effect while experimenting with a Coolidge tube (hot cathode tube), a type of X-ray vacuum tube with two asymmetrical electrodes. Placing it on a balance scale with the tube's positive electrode facing up, the tube's mass seemed to decrease when the power was on. When the tube's electrode was facing down, the tube's mass seemed to increase. Brown was convinced that he had managed to influence gravity electrically. At Caltech in 1923, Brown tried to convince his instructors about his theories by inviting them to his home laboratory, but they showed little interest. He also invited the press, and the May 26, 1924 edition Los Angeles Evening Express ran a story on Brown titled "Claims Gravity is a Push, not a Pull." After quitting Caltech, Brown studied one year at Denison University, where he claimed that he did a series of experiments with professor of astronomy Paul Alfred Biefeld although the present day Denison University claims they have no record of such experiments being carried out, or of any association between Brown and Biefeld.

Working in his home lab, Brown developed an electrical device he called a "gravitor" or "gravitator", consisting of a block of insulating or dielectric material with electrodes at either end. He received a British patent for it in November 1928. In demonstrations, Brown would mount the unit as a pendulum and apply electrical power, causing the unit to move in one direction. In 1929, Brown published How I Control Gravitation  in Science and Invention, claiming these devices produced a mysterious force that interacted with the pull of gravity. He envisioned a future where, if his device could be scaled up, "Multi-impulse gravitators weighing hundreds of tons may propel the ocean liners of the future" or even "fantastic 'space cars'" to Mars.

Brown spent the rest of his life working in his spare time and sometimes on funded projects, trying to prove his ideas on electricity's effect on gravity. He proposed his gravitator as propulsion to General Motors executives in 1930 and as ship propulsion while he was at the Naval Research Laboratory in 1932. After World War II, Brown sought to develop and sell his inventions as a means of propulsion for aircraft and spacecraft. At some point, the phenomenon was given the name "Electrogravitics" based on his belief this was an electricity/gravity phenomenon. At some point, it also gained the moniker "Biefeld–Brown effect", probably coined by Brown to claim Biefeld as his mentor and co-experimenter.

Brown refined his invention over the years and eventually devised designs consisting of metal plates or disks charged with 25,000 to 200,000 volts that would produce a propulsive force, which he continued to claim was an anti-gravity force.

Brown demonstrated a working apparatus to an audience of scientists and military officials in the US, England, and France. Research in the phenomenon was popular in the mid-1950s, at one point the Glenn L. Martin Company placed advertisements looking for scientists who were "interested in gravity", but rapidly declined in popularity thereafter (see United States gravity control propulsion research).

A physicist invited to observe Brown's disk device in the early 1950s noted during the demonstration that its motivation force was the well-known phenomenon of "electric wind" and not anti-gravity, saying, "I'm afraid these gentlemen played hooky from their high school physics classes...." Scientists who have since studied Brown's devices have not found any anti-gravity effect, and have attributed the noticed motive force to the more well-understood phenomenon of ionic drift or "ion wind" from the air particles, some of which remained even when Brown put his device inside a vacuum chamber. More recent studies at NASA, held at high voltages and proper vacuum conditions, showed no generated force.

Legacy
In 1979, the author Charles Berlitz and ufologist William L. Moore published The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility, which purported to be a factual account about the Philadelphia Experiment where a United States Navy experiment accidentally teleported the warship USS Eldridge. Chapter 10 of the book was titled "The Force Fields of Townsend Brown", a retelling of Brown's early work, claiming he was involved in the experiment and implying Brown's electrogravitics was the propulsion used by UFOs. Electrogravitics is also popular with other conspiracy theorists with claims that it is powering the B-2 Stealth Bomber and UFOs and that it may have become a classified subject by 1957. There are further claims that it can be used to generate "free energy".

Brown's research and the "Biefeld–Brown effect" have since become popular pursuits around the world. Amateur experimenters replicate his early experiments in the form of "ionic propulsion lifters" powered by high voltage.

References and external articles
Patents
 * GB300311 — A method of and an apparatus or machine for producing force or motion (accepted 1928-11-15)
 * — Electrostatic motor (1934-09-25)
 * — Electrokinetic apparatus (1960-08-16)
 * — Electrokinetic transducer (1962-01-23)
 * — Electrokinetic generator (1962-02-20)
 * — Electromagnetic apparatus (1965-06-01)
 * — Electric generator (1965-07-20)

Websites
 * http://ttbrown.com/. Maintained by Paul Schatzkin, author of "Defying Gravity: The Parallel Universe of T. Townsend Brown"

title: Thomas Townsend Brown


text:
User:Ginshirou

Noah larms & nosuh prizes, pleese.

title: User:Ginshirou


text: Wikipedia:MediaWiki future directions

title: Wikipedia:MediaWiki future directions


text:
Blue John

Blue John or Bluejohn may refer to:
 * Blue John, Kentucky, United States
 * Blue John (mineral), a form of fluorite mined in Derbyshire, England
 * Blue John Cavern, a cavern in Castleton, Derbyshire where fluorite is mined
 * Bluejohn Canyon, a canyon in Utah, United States, site of the Aron Ralston accident
 * Blue John (album), an album by organist John Patton
 * Lance-Constable Bluejohn, a character in the Discworld series, a member of Ankh-Morpork City Watch
 * Blue John Gap, a fictional location in Arthur Conan Doyle's short story The Terror of Blue John Gap

title: Blue John


text:
Genital wart

Genital warts are a sexually transmitted infection caused by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). They may be flat or project out from the surface of the skin, and their color may vary; brownish, white, pale yellow, pinkish-red, or gray. There may be a few individual warts or several, either in a cluster or merged together to look cauliflower-shaped. They can be itchy and feel burning. Usually they cause few symptoms, but can occasionally be painful. Typically they appear one to eight months following exposure. Warts are the most easily recognized symptom of genital HPV infection.

HPV types 6 and 11 are responsible for causing majority of genital warts whereas HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, and 35 are also occasionally found. It is spread through direct skin-to-skin contact, usually during oral, manual, vaginal, or anal sex with an infected partner. Diagnosis is generally based on symptoms and can be confirmed by biopsy. The types of HPV that cause cancer are not the same as those that cause warts.

Some HPV vaccines can prevent genital warts as may condoms. Treatment options include creams such as podophyllin, imiquimod, and trichloroacetic acid. Cryotherapy or surgery may also be an option. After treatment warts often resolve within six months. Without treatment, in up to a third of cases they resolve on their own.

About 1% of people in the United States have genital warts. Many people, however, are infected and do not have symptoms. Without vaccination nearly all sexually active people will get some type of HPV at one point in their lives. The disease has been known at least since the time of Hippocrates in 300 BC.

Signs and symptoms

They may be found anywhere in the anal or genital area, and are frequently found on external surfaces of the body, including the penile shaft, scrotum, or labia majora. They can also occur on internal surfaces like the opening to the urethra, inside the vagina, on the cervix, or in the anus.

They can be as small as 1–5 mm in diameter, but can also grow or spread into large masses in the genital or anal area. In some cases they look like small stalks. They may be hard ("keratinized") or soft. Their color can be variable, and sometimes they may bleed.

In most cases, there are no symptoms of HPV infection other than the warts themselves. Sometimes warts may cause itching, redness, or discomfort, especially when they occur around the anus. Although they are usually without other physical symptoms, an outbreak of genital warts may cause psychological distress, such as anxiety, in some people.

Transmission
HPV is most commonly transmitted through penetrative sex. While HPV can also be transmitted via non-penetrative sexual activity, it is less transmissible than via penetrative sex. There is conflicting evidence about the effect of condoms on transmission of low-risk HPV. Some studies have suggested that they are effective at reducing transmission. Other studies suggest that condoms are not effective at preventing transmission of the low-risk HPV variants that cause genital warts. The effect of condoms on HPV transmission may also be sex-dependent; there is some evidence that condoms are more effective at preventing infection of males than of females.

The types of HPV that cause warts are highly transmissible. Roughly three out of four unaffected partners of patients with warts develop them within eight months. Other studies of partner concordance suggest that the presence of visible warts may be an indicator of increased infectivity; HPV concordance rates are higher in couples where one partner has visible warts.

Latency and recurrence
Although 90% of HPV infections are cleared by the body within two years of infection, it is possible for infected cells to undergo a latency (quiet) period, with the first occurrence or a recurrence of symptoms happening months or years later. Latent HPV, even with no outward symptoms, is still transmissible to a sexual partner. If an individual has unprotected sex with an infected partner, there is a 70% chance that he or she will also become infected.

In individuals with a history of previous HPV infection, the appearance of new warts may be either from a new exposure to HPV, or from a recurrence of the previous infection. As many as one-third of people with warts will experience a recurrence.

Children
Anal or genital warts may be transmitted during birth. The presence of wart-like lesions on the genitals of young children has been suggested as an indicator of sexual abuse. However, genital warts can sometimes result from autoinoculation by warts elsewhere on the body, such as from the hands. It has also been reported from sharing of swimsuits, underwear, or bath towels, and from non-sexual touching during routine care such as diapering. Genital warts in children are less likely to be caused by HPV subtypes 6 and 11 than adults, and more likely to be caused by HPV types that cause warts elsewhere on the body ("cutaneous types"). Surveys of pediatricians who are child abuse specialists suggest that in children younger than 4 years old, there is no consensus on whether the appearance of new anal or genital warts, by itself, can be considered an indicator of sexual abuse.

Diagnosis
The diagnosis of genital warts is most often made visually, but may require confirmation by biopsy in some cases. Smaller warts may occasionally be confused with molluscum contagiosum.

Genital warts, histopathologically, characteristically rise above the skin surface due to enlargement of the dermal papillae, have parakeratosis and the characteristic nuclear changes typical of HPV infections (nuclear enlargement with perinuclear clearing).

DNA tests are available for diagnosis of high-risk HPV infections. Because genital warts are caused by low-risk HPV types, DNA tests cannot be used for diagnosis of genital warts or other low-risk HPV infections.

Some practitioners use an acetic acid solution to identify smaller warts ("subclinical lesions"), but this practice is controversial. Because a diagnosis made with acetic acid will not meaningfully affect the course of the disease, and cannot be verified by a more specific test, a 2007 UK guideline advises against its use.

Prevention
Gardasil (sold by Merck & Co.) is a vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16 and 18. Types 6 and 11 cause genital warts, while 16 and 18 cause cervical cancer. The vaccine is preventive, not therapeutic, and must be given before exposure to the virus type to be effective, ideally before the beginning of sexual activity. The vaccine is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in both males and females as early as 9 years of age.

In the UK, Gardasil replaced Cervarix in September 2012 for reasons unrelated to safety. Cervarix had been used routinely in young females from its introduction in 2008, but was only effective against the high-risk HPV types 16 and 18, neither of which typically causes warts.

Management
There is no cure for HPV. Existing treatments are directed towards the removal of visible warts, but these may also regress on their own without any therapy. There is no evidence to suggest that removing visible warts reduces transmission of the underlying HPV infection. As many as 80% of people with HPV will clear the infection within 18 months.

A healthcare practitioner may offer one of several ways to treat warts, depending on their number, sizes, locations, or other factors. All treatments can cause depigmentation, itching, pain, or scarring.

Treatments can be classified as either physically ablative, or topical agents. Physically ablative therapies are considered more effective at initial wart removal, but like all therapies have significant recurrence rates.

Many therapies, including folk remedies, have been suggested for treating genital warts, some of which have little evidence to suggest they are effective or safe. Those listed here are ones mentioned in national or international practice guidelines as having some basis in evidence for their use.

Physical ablation
Physically ablative methods are more likely to be effective on keratinized warts. They are also most appropriate for patients with fewer numbers of relatively smaller warts.
 * Simple excision, such as with scissors under local anesthesia, is highly effective.
 * Liquid nitrogen cryosurgery is usually performed in an office visit, at weekly intervals. It is effective, inexpensive, safe for pregnancy, and does not usually cause scarring.
 * Electrocauterization (sometimes called "loop electrical excision procedure" or LEEP) is a procedure with a long history of use and is considered effective.
 * Laser ablation has less evidence to suggest its use. It may be less effective than other ablative methods. It is extremely expensive, and often used as a last resort.
 * Formal surgical procedures, performed by a specialist under general anesthesia or spinal anesthesia may be necessary for larger or more extensive warts, intra-anal warts, or warts in children. It carries a greater risk of scarring than other methods.

Topical agents

 * A 0.15–0.5% podophyllotoxin (also called podofilox) solution in a gel or cream. It can be applied by the patient to the affected area and is not washed off. It is the purified and standardized active ingredient of podophyllin (see below). Podofilox is safer and more effective than podophyllin. Skin erosion and pain are more commonly reported than with imiquimod and sinecatechins. Its use is cycled (two times per day for 3 days then 4–7 days off); one review states that it should only be used for four cycles.
 * Imiquimod is a topical immune response cream, applied to the affected area. It causes less local irritation than podofilox but may cause fungal infections (11% in package insert) and flu-like symptoms (less than 5% disclosed in package insert). It does not significantly impact the occurrence of new warts or the systemic reactions.
 * Sinecatechins is an ointment of catechins (55% epigallocatechin gallate ) extracted from green tea and other components. Mode of action is undetermined. It appears to have higher clearance rates than podophyllotoxin and imiquimod and causes less local irritation, but clearance takes longer than with imiquimod.
 * Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) is less effective than cryosurgery, and is not recommended for use in the vagina, cervix, or urinary meatus.
 * Interferon can be used; it is effective, but it is also expensive and its effect is inconsistent.

Discontinued

 * A 5% 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) cream was used, but it is no longer considered an acceptable treatment due to the side-effects.

Podophyllin, podofilox and isotretinoin should not be used during pregnancy, as they could cause birth defects in the fetus.

Oral agents
Isotretinoin taken orally has been shown to treat recalcitrant condylomata acuminata (RCA) of the cervix.

Epidemiology
Genital HPV infections have an estimated prevalence in the US of 10–20% and clinical manifestations in 1% of the sexually active adult population. US incidence of HPV infection has increased between 1975 and 2006. About 80% of those infected are between the ages of 17–33. Although treatments can remove warts, they do not remove the HPV, so warts can recur after treatment (about 50–73% of the time ). Warts can also spontaneously regress (with or without treatment).

Traditional theories postulated that the virus remained in the body for a lifetime. However, studies using sensitive DNA techniques have shown that through immunological response, the virus can either be cleared or suppressed to levels below what polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests can measure. One study testing genital skin for subclinical HPV using PCR found a prevalence of 10%.

Etymology
A condyloma acuminatum is a single genital wart, and condylomata acuminata are multiple genital warts. The word roots mean 'pointed wart' (from Greek κόνδυλος 'knuckle', Greek -ωμα -oma 'disease', and Latin acuminatum 'pointed'). Although similarly named, it is not the same as condyloma latum, which is a complication of secondary syphilis.

title: Genital wart


text:
Talk:Human papillomavirus infection

"Genital cancer"
The "Genital cancer" row in HPV types table is confusing. Does it refer to female genitals, male genitals, or both? The impact of HPV types is quite different.

I suspect the current content applies to female genitals but doesn't seem to fit very well with penile cancer. For instance, in this study analyzing the role of HPV in penile cancer, HPV-16 was the most frequent HPV type detected in both HPV-positive cancers (68.7%) and HGSILs (79.6%), followed by HPV-6 (3.7%) but in the table HPV-6 isn't even present. Another study found single-viral infection of the following types in patients with penile cancer: 45, 35, 18, 52, 68, 31, 53, 6. All of which (except type 6) are currently present in the table. However I haven't been able to find any reference linking penile cancer with the remaining types (33, 39, 51, 56, 58, 59, 26, 66, 73, 82), perhaps these types are only associated with female genitals? Maybe a good solution would be to split "Genital cancer" in two rows, one for female genitals and one for male genitals. Robert1dB (talk) 22:57, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

"Oropharyngeal cancer"
Apologies if I'm missing something obvious (I'm not an expert in the field or even health/biology for that matter), but based on information I found on the net it would seem there's more to HPV and "Oropharyngeal cancer" than just type 16. Quoting from this meta-study : "The most common HPV type detected in oral cancers is HPV16. A notable outlier is a study from South Africa which detected only HPV18, and not HPV16, in patients with oral cancer. HPV18 was detected in a smaller percentage of oral cancers, some oral carcinomas had dual infections with HPV16/18. Rarer types detected in oral cancers were HPV8, HPV31, HPV38, and HPV66." Robert1dB (talk) 23:07, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Redundant statement
"While cases of warts have been described since the time of ancient Greece, their viral cause was not known until 1907." occurs twice in the article. Mansell (talk) 06:35, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

"Cervical Cancer"
"HPV is necessary for cervical cancer to occur." Looking through the citation linked for this information, there is no information which supports this claim. There are other articles which say HPV negative cervical cancer can occur. Stew240 (talk) 09:38, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Discovered
Why no mention of when HPV was discovered ? 70.190.65.59 (talk) 04:41, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Human papillomavirus infection


text:
Talk:Anatomy

Antonyms words
Create 2409:4043:2513:5105:6F89:6B15:7964:9391 (talk) 06:17, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

"Vertebrate anatomy" listed at Redirects for discussion
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"Male anatomy" listed at Redirects for discussion
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title: Talk:Anatomy


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TI Advanced Scientific Computer

The Advanced Scientific Computer (ASC) is a supercomputer designed and manufactured by Texas Instruments (TI) between 1966 and 1973. The ASC's central processing unit (CPU) supported vector processing, a performance-enhancing technique which was key to its high-performance. The ASC, along with the Control Data Corporation STAR-100 supercomputer (which was introduced in the same year), were the first computers to feature vector processing. However, this technique's potential was not fully realized by either the ASC or STAR-100 due to an insufficient understanding of the technique; it was the Cray Research Cray-1 supercomputer, announced in 1975 that would fully realize and popularize vector processing. The more successful implementation of vector processing in the Cray-1 would demarcate the ASC (and STAR-100) as first-generation vector processors, with the Cray-1 belonging in the second.

History
TI began as a division of Geophysical Service Incorporated (GSI), a company that performed seismic surveys for oil exploration companies. GSI was now a subsidiary of TI, and TI wanted to apply the latest computer technology to the processing and analysis of seismic datasets. The ASC project started as the Advanced Seismic Computer. As the project developed, TI decided to expand its scope. "Seismic" was replaced by "Scientific" in the name, allowing the project to retain the designation ASC.

Originally the software, including an operating system and a FORTRAN compiler, were done under contract by Computer Usage Company, under direction of George R. Trimble, Jr. but later taken over by TI itself. Southern Methodist University in Dallas developed an ALGOL compiler for the ASC.

Architecture
The ASC was based around a single high-speed shared memory, which was accessed by the CPU and eight I/O channel controllers, in an organization similar to Seymour Cray's groundbreaking CDC 6600. Memory was accessed solely under the control of the memory control unit (MCU). The MCU was a two-way, 256-bit per channel parallel network that could support up to eight independent processors, with a ninth channel for accessing "main memory" (referred to as "extended memory"). The MCU also acted as a cache controller, offering high-speed access to a semiconductor-based memory for the eight processor ports, and handling all communications to the 24-bit address space in main memory. The MCU was designed to operate asynchronously, allowing it to work at a variety of speeds and scale across a number of performance points. For instance, main memory could be constructed out of slower but less expensive core memory, although this was not used in practice. At the fastest, it could sustain transfer rates of 80 million 32-bit words per second per port, for a total transfer rate of 640 million words per second. This was well beyond the capabilities of even the fastest memories of the era.

The CPU had a 60 ns clock cycle (16.67 MHz clock frequency) and its logic was built from 20-gate emitter-coupled logic integrated circuits originally developed by TI for the ILLIAC IV supercomputer. The CPU had an extremely advanced architecture and organization for its era, supporting microcoded arithmetic and mathematical instructions that operated on scalars, vectors, or matrices. The vector processing facilities had a memory-to-memory architecture; where the vector operands were read from, and the resulting vector written to, memory. The CPU could have one, two, or four vector lanes, allowing the CPU to produce one to four vector results every cycle, depending on the number of vector lanes installed. The vector lanes were also used for scalar instructions, and each lane could keep up to 12 scalar instructions in-flight simultaneously. The CPU, with four lanes, allowed up to 36 instructions in total across the entire CPU.

The processor had forty-eight 32-bit registers, a huge number for the time. 16 of the registers were used for addressing, 16 for scalar operations, 8 for index offsets, and 8 for specifying the various parameters for vector instructions. Data was moved between the registers and memory by load/store instructions, which could transfer from 4–64 bits (two registers) at a time.

Most vector processors tended to be memory bandwidth-limited, that is, they could process data faster than they could get it from memory. This remains a major problem on modern SIMD designs as well, which is why considerable effort has been put into increasing memory throughput in modern computer designs (although largely unsuccessfully). In the ASC this was improved somewhat with a lookahead unit that predicted upcoming memory accesses and loaded them into the scalar registers invisibly, using a memory interface in the CPU called the memory buffer unit (MBU).

The "Peripheral Processor" was a separate system dedicated entirely to quickly running the operating system and programs running within it, as well as feeding data to the CPU. The PP was built out of eight "virtual processors" (VPs), which were designed to handle instructions and basic integer arithmetic only. Each VP had its own program counter and registers, and the system could thus run eight programs at the same time, limited only by memory accesses. Keeping eight programs running allowed the system to shuffle execution of programs on the CPU depending on what data was available on the memory bus at that time, minimizing "dead time" where the CPU had to wait for data from the memory.

The PP also included a set of sixty-four 32-bit communications registers (CRs). The CRs stored the state required for communication between the various parts of the ASC: the CPU, VPs, and channel controllers.

The ASC instruction set include a bit-reverse instruction that was intended to speed up the calculation of fast Fourier transforms (FFTs). By the time the ASC was in production, better FFT algorithms had been developed that did not require this operation. TI offered a bounty to the first person to come up with a valid use for this instruction, but was never collected.

Market reception
When ASC machines first became available in the early 1970s, they outperformed almost all other machines, including the CDC STAR-100, and under certain conditions matched that of the one-off ILLIAC IV. However, only seven had been installed when the Cray-1 was announced in 1975. The Cray-1 dedicated almost all of its design to sustained high-speed access to memory, including over one million 64-bit words of semiconductor memory and a cycle time that was one-fifth that of the ASC (12.5 ns). Although the ASC was in some ways a more expandable design, in the supercomputer market speed is preferred, and the Cray-1 was much faster. ASC sales ended almost overnight, and although an upgraded ASC had been designed with a cycle time one-fifth that of the original, Texas Instruments decided to exit the market.

Vector processing applications
The ASC #1 prototype was a one pipe system and brought up in Austin, Texas, off site from TI's main plant for proprietary information reasons. It was later upgraded to two pipes and renamed as ASC # 1A. It was then used by TI's GSI division for seismic data processing. ASC #2 was leased to Shell Oil Company in the Netherlands and also used for seismic data processing. ASC #3 was installed at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, for Anti Ballistic Missile Interception technology development. With the SALT Treaty, the system was later redeployed to the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, Mississippi, for dam stress analysis. ASC #4 was used by NOAA at Princeton University for developing weather forecasting models. ASC systems #5 and #6 were installed at TI's main plant in Austin and also used by GSI for seismic data processing. ASC #7 went to the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. for plasma physics studies.

title: TI Advanced Scientific Computer