text:
Buzkashi

Buzkashi is the national sport of Afghanistan. It is a traditional sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to place a goat carcass in a goal. Similar games are known as kokpar, kupkari, and ulak tartysh in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

History
Buzkashi began among the nomadic Asian tribes who came from farther north and east spreading westward from China and Mongolia between the 10th and 15th centuries in a centuries-long series of migrations that ended only in the 1930s. From Scythian times until recent decades, buzkashi has remained a legacy of that bygone era.

Distribution
Games similar to buzkashi are played today by several Central Asian ethnic groups such as the Kyrgyz, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, Hazaras, Tajiks, Wakhis and Pashtuns. In the West, the game is also played by Kyrgyz who migrated to Ulupamir village in the Van district of Turkey from the Pamir region. In western China, there is not only horse-back buzkashi, but also yak buzkashi among the Tajiks of Xinjiang.

Afghanistan
Buzkashi is the national sport and a "passion" in Afghanistan where it is often played on Fridays and matches draw thousands of fans. Whitney Azoy notes in his book Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan that "leaders are men who can seize control by means foul and fair and then fight off their rivals. The buzkashi rider does the same". Traditionally, games could last for several days, but in its more regulated tournament version, it has a limited match time.

During the first reign of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, buzkashi was banned as they considered the game immoral. After the Afghan Taliban was ousted in 2001, the sport resumed. When the Taliban regained power in 2021, they allowed the sport to continue.

Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's first National Kokpar Association was registered in 2000. The association has been holding annual kokpar championships among adults since 2001 and youth kokpar championships since 2005. All 14 regions of Kazakhstan have professional kokpar teams. The regions with the biggest number of professional kokpar teams are Southern Kazakhstan with 32 professional teams, Jambyl region with 27 teams and Akmola region with 18 teams. Kazakhstan's national kokpar team currently holds a title of Eurasian kokpar champions.

Kyrgyzstan
A photograph documents kokboru players in Kyrgyzstan around 1870; however, Kyrgyzstan's kokboru rules were first officially defined and regulated in 1949. Starting from 1958 kokboru began being held in hippodromes. The size of a kokboru field depends on the number of participants.

Tajikistan
The buzkashi season in Tajikistan generally runs from November through April. High temperatures often prevent matches from taking place outside of this period, though isolated games might be found in some cooler mountain areas.

In Tajikistan and among the Tajik people of Tashkorgan in China's Xinjiang region, buzkashi games are particularly popular in relation to weddings as the games are sponsored by the father of the bride as part of the festivities.

Pakistan
In Pakistan, buzkashi has traditionally been very popular in the areas bordering Afghanistan. Although the sport is dying, it is still played by the Wakhi people of Hunza in Gilgit Baltistan and by the Pashtuns including Afghan refugees in parts of Balochistan.

United States
Buzkashi was brought to the U.S. by a descendant from the Afghan Royal Family, the family of King Amanullah and King Zahir Shah. A mounted version of the game has also been played in the United States in the 1940s. Young men in Cleveland, Ohio, played a game they called kav kaz. The men – five to a team – played on horseback with a sheepskin-covered ball. The Greater Cleveland area had six or seven teams. The game was divided into three "chukkers", somewhat like polo. The field was about the size of a football field and had goals at each end: large wooden frameworks standing on tripods, with holes about two feet square. The players carried the ball in their hands, holding it by the long-fleeced sheepskin. A team had to pass the ball three times before throwing it into the goal. If the ball fell to the ground, the player had to reach down from his horse to pick it up. One player recalls, "Others would try to unseat the rider as he leaned over. They would grab you by the shoulder to shove you off. There weren't many rules."

Mounted team-based potato races, a popular pastime in early 20th-century America, bore some resemblance to buzkashi, although on a much smaller and tamer scale.

Rules and variations
Competition is typically fierce. Prior to the establishment of official rules by the Afghan Olympic Federation, the sport was mainly conducted based upon rules such as not whipping a fellow rider intentionally or deliberately knocking him off his horse. Riders usually wear heavy clothing and head protection to protect themselves against other players' whips and boots. For example, riders in the former Soviet Union often wear salvaged Soviet tank helmets for protection. The boots usually have high heels that lock into the saddle of the horse to help the rider lean on the side of the horse while trying to pick up the goat. Games can last for several days, and the winning team receives a prize, not necessarily money, as a reward for their win. Top players, such as Aziz Ahmad, are often sponsored by wealthy Afghans.

A buzkashi player is called a Chapandaz; it is mainly believed in Afghanistan that a skilful Chapandaz is usually in his forties. This is based on the fact that the nature of the game requires its player to undergo severe physical practice and observation. Similarly, horses used in buzkashi also undergo severe training and due attention. A player does not necessarily own the horse. Horses are usually owned by landlords and highly rich people wealthy enough to look after and provide training facilities for such horses. However, a master Chapandaz can choose to select any horse and the owner of the horse usually wants his horse to be ridden by a master Chapandaz as a winning horse also brings pride to the owner.

The game consists of two main forms: Tudabarai and Qarajai. Tudabarai is considered to be the simpler form of the game. In this version, the goal is simply to grab the goat and move in any direction until clear of the other players. In Qarajai, players must carry the carcass around a flag or marker at one end of the field, then throw it into a scoring circle (the "Circle of Justice") at the other end. The riders will carry a whip to fend off opposing horses and riders. When the rider's hands are occupied, the whip is typically carried in the teeth.

The calf in a buzkashi game is normally beheaded and disembowelled and has two limbs cut off. It is then soaked in cold water for 24 hours before play to toughen it. Occasionally sand is packed into the carcass to give it extra weight. Though a goat is used when no calf is available, a calf is less likely to disintegrate during the game. While players may not strap the calf to their bodies or saddles, it is acceptable—and common practice—to wedge the calf under one leg in order to free up the hands.

Afghanistan
These rules are strictly observed only for contests in Kabul.
 * 1) The ground has a square layout with each sidelong.
 * 2) Each team consists of 10 riders.
 * 3) Only five riders from each team can play in a half.
 * 4) The total duration of each half is 45 minutes.
 * 5) There is only one 15 minute break between the two halves.
 * 6) The game is supervised by a referee.

Kyrgyzstan

Rules of kokboru have undergone several changes throughout history. Modernized rules of kokboru are:
 * 1) There are two teams with 12 participants each.
 * 2) Only 4 players a team are allowed to play on the field at any given time.
 * 3) Teams are allowed to substitute players or their horses.
 * 4) The game is played on a field 200 meters long and 70 meters wide.
 * 5) Two kazans – big goals with a 4.4 meters in diameter and 1.2 meters high are placed on opposite sides of a field.
 * 6) The total duration of three periods is 60 minutes.
 * 7) There is a 10-minute break between each period.
 * 8) A goal is scored each time a ulak (goat carcass) is placed in an opponent's kazan.
 * 9) A kokboru is brought to centre of the field after scoring a goal.

It is also prohibited to ride towards the spectators or receive spectators' assistance or to start a kokboru game without giving an oath to play justly.

Tajikistan
In Tajikistan, buzkashi is played in a variety of ways. The most common iteration is a free-form game, often played in a mountain valley or other natural arena, in which each player competes individually to seize the buz and carry it to a goal. Forming unofficial teams or alliances does occur, but is discouraged in favor of individual play. Often, dozens of riders will compete against one another simultaneously, making the scrum to retrieve a fallen buz a chaotic affair. Tajik buzkashi games typically consist of many short matches, with a prize being awarded to each player who successfully scores a point.

In books and film adaptations
Buzkashi is portrayed in several books, both fiction and non-fiction. It is shown in Steve Berry's book The Venetian Betrayal. Buzkashi was the subject of a book called Horsemen of Afghanistan by French photojournalists Roland and Sabrina Michaud. Gino Strada wrote a book named after the sport (with the spelling Buskashì) in which he tells about his life as surgeon in Kabul in the days after the 9-11 strikes. P.J. O'Rourke also mentions the game in discussions about Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Foreign Policy section of Parliament of Whores, and Rory Stewart devotes a few sentences to it in The Places in Between.

Two books have been written about buzkashi which were later turned into films. The game is the subject of a novel by French novelist Joseph Kessel titled Les Cavaliers (aka Horsemen), which then became the basis of the film The Horsemen (1971). The film was directed by John Frankenheimer with Omar Sharif in the lead role, and U.S. actor and accomplished horseman Jack Palance as his father, a legendary retired chapandaz. This film shows Afghanistan and its people the way they were before the wars that wracked the country, particularly their love for the sport of buzkashi.

The game is also a key element in the book Caravans by James Michener and the film of the same name (1978) starring Anthony Quinn. A scene from the film featuring the king of Afghanistan watching a game included the real-life king at the time, Mohammed Zahir Shah. The whole sequence of the game being witnessed by the king was filmed on the Kabul Golf Course, where the national championships were played at the time the film was made.

In Ken Follett's book, Lie Down with Lions (1986), the game is mentioned being played, but instead of a goat, a live Russian soldier is used.

In The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini, the protagonist, Amir returns to Afghanistan from the United States several years later, when the Taliban has taken over the government. He attends a game of Buzkashi, in which the audience was forced by the Taliban authorities circling the stadium to remain silent during the match. During the break, a Taliban leader, who is later revealed to be Amir's childhood enemy Assef, brings prisoners convicted of breaking the Sharia law in the stadium to be executed by stoning. The Taliban authorities, who were forcing the audience to be silent during the match, begin forcing everyone to cheer the stoning of the criminals.

In film
A number of films also reference the game. La Passe du Diable, a French 1956 film by Jacques Dupont and Pierre Schoendoerfer, concerns Buzkashi players. The Horsemen (1971) starring Jack Palance and Omar Sharif as father and son is centered on the game. Both La Passe du Diable and The Horseman are based on a novel by Joseph Kessel. In Rambo III (1988), directed by Peter MacDonald, John Rambo (played by Sylvester Stallone) was shown in a sequence playing and scoring in a buzkashi with his mujahideen friends when suddenly they were attacked by Soviet forces. The Tom Selleck film High Road to China (1983) features a spirited game of buzkashi. Buzkashi is described at length in Episode 2, "The Harvest of the Seasons", of the documentary The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski. It is put in the context of the development, by the Mongols, of warfare using the horse and its effect on agricultural settlements. The film includes several scenes from a game in Afghanistan. The opening scenes of the Indian film Khuda Gawah (1992), which was filmed in Afghanistan and India, show actors Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi engaged in the game. The game also shown in other Indian films like Kabul Express (2006) and Sahasam (2013).

The 2012 joint international-Afghan short film Buzkashi Boys depicts a fictional story centered on the game, and has won awards at several international film festivals. On January 10, 2013, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Buzkashi Boys for an Oscar in the category of Short Film (Live Action) for the 85th Academy Awards.

Venerated Buzkashi (ulak tartysh in Kyrgyz) player, 82 year old veteran school teacher Khamid Boronov stars in 2016 feature documentary film Letters from the Pamirs by Janyl Jusupjan. Famed Buzkashi players of Jaylgan village Shamsidin and Kazyke appear in a sequence to show the elements of Buzkashi to kids from a town. A spirited Buzkashi match is one of the last episodes of the film made in Jerge-Tal Kyrgyz region in Tajikistan's north.

title: Buzkashi


text:
Frontinus

Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. 40 – 103 AD) was a prominent Roman civil engineer, author, soldier and senator of the late 1st century AD. He was a successful general under Domitian, commanding forces in Roman Britain, and on the Rhine and Danube frontiers. A novus homo, he was consul three times. Frontinus ably discharged several important administrative duties for Nerva and Trajan. However, he is best known to the post-Classical world as an author of technical treatises, especially De aquaeductu, dealing with the aqueducts of Rome.

Family
Due to a lack of either a titulus honorarius or sepulcralis, there is no outline of Frontinus' life, the names of his parents, or of his wife. Some details can be inferred from chance mentions: He is thought to be of Narbonese origins, and originally of the equestrian class. From the nomenclature of the name of Publius Calvisius Ruso Julius Frontinus (consul c. 84), it is likely Frontinus had a sister, who was the other's mother. Frontinus had at least one daughter, the wife of Quintus Sosius Senecio (cos. 99, II 107) and mother of Sosia Polla.

Career
In AD 70, Frontinus participated in the suppression of the Rhineland revolt, and later recorded that he received the surrender of 70,000 Lingones. Between that date and being appointed governor of Britain to succeed Quintus Petillius Cerialis a few years later, Frontinus was appointed suffect consul. While governor of Britain, he subjugated the Silures of South Wales and is thought to have likewise campaigned against the Brigantes. He was succeeded by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the father-in-law of the famous historian Tacitus, in 77. Birley believes it "is fair to speculate" that Frontinus was with Domitian during the German campaign of 83. An inscription at Hieropolis in Phrygia, as well as a number of coins of Smyrna, attests that he was proconsul of Asia in AD 86.

In 97, he was appointed curator aquarum (supervisor of the aqueducts) by the emperor Nerva, an office only conferred upon persons of very high standing. In this capacity, he followed another distinguished Roman statesman, Agrippa, the friend, ally and son-in-law of Augustus, who organised in 34 BC a campaign of public repairs and improvements, including renovation of the aqueduct Aqua Marcia and an extension of its pipes to cover more of the city.

The following year Frontinus held a second consulship as suffect in February, with Trajan as his colleague, and two years later he was made consul ordinarius with Trajan. Birley notes, "This exceptional honour underlines the high regard in which he [Frontinus] was held, and suggests, further, that Trajan had a debt to repay." He was also a member of the College of Augurs. He died in 103 or 104, a date based on Pliny the Younger writing to his friends that he was elected to the college of augurs to fill the vacancy Frontinus' death had created.

Aqueducts of Rome
Frontinus's chief work is De aquaeductu, in two books, an official report to the emperor on the state of the aqueducts of Rome. It presents a history and description of the water-supply of Rome, including the laws relating to its use and maintenance. He provides the history, sizes and discharge rates of all of the nine aqueducts of Rome at the time at which he was writing at the turn of the 1st century AD: the Aqua Marcia, Aqua Appia, Aqua Alsietina, Aqua Tepula, Anio Vetus, Anio Novus, Aqua Virgo, Aqua Claudia and Aqua Augusta. Frontinus describes the quality of water delivered by each, mainly depending on their source, be it river, lake, or spring.

Fraud and theft
One of the first jobs he undertook when he was appointed water commissioner was to prepare maps of the system so that he could assess their condition before undertaking their maintenance. He says that many had been neglected and were not working at their full capacity. He was especially concerned by diversion of the supply by unscrupulous farmers and tradesmen, among many others. They would insert pipes into the channel of the aqueducts to tap the supply. He, therefore, made a meticulous survey of the intake and the supply of each line, and then investigated the discrepancies. Lead pipe stamps bearing the name of the owner were also used to prevent such water theft. He was well aware of the seminal work De architectura by Vitruvius, which mentions aqueduct construction and maintenance published in the previous century; Frontinus refers to the possible influence of Vitruvius on the plumbers.

Distribution system
Distribution of the water depended in a complex way on its height entering the city, the quality of the water, and its rate of discharge. Thus, poor-quality water would be sent for irrigation, gardens, or flushing, while only the best would be reserved for drinking water. Intermediate-quality water would be used for the many baths and fountains. However, Frontinus criticized the practice of mixing supplies from different sources, and one of his first decisions was to separate the waters from each system.

Maintenance
He was very concerned by leaks in the system, especially those in the underground conduits, which were difficult to locate and mend, a problem still faced by water engineers today. The aqueducts above ground needed care to ensure that the masonry was kept in good condition, especially those running on arched superstructures. It was, he said, essential to keep trees at a distance so that their roots would not damage the structures. He reviewed the existing law governing the state aqueducts, as well as the need for enforcement of those statutes.

Military tactics
Frontinus also wrote a theoretical treatise on military science, which is lost. His extant work on military matters, the Stratagems (Latin: Strategemata), is a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, for the use of generals. He draws on his own experience as a general in Germania under Domitian, but similarities between the anecdotes he records and versions of other Roman authors like Valerius Maximus and Livy suggest that he drew mainly on literary sources. The authenticity of the fourth book has been challenged. One example he gives of control of river water during a siege reads: "Lucius Metellus, when fighting in Hither Spain, diverted the course of a river and directed it from a higher level against the camp of the enemy, which was located on low ground. Then, when the enemy were in a panic from the sudden flood, he had them slain by men whom he had stationed in ambush for this very purpose."

De aquaeductu

 * The standard edition of the Latin text of Frontinus' major work, with extensive commentary in English, is now R.H. Rodgers, Frontinus: De aquaeductu urbis Romae (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
 * Rodgers has published his English translation online
 * An English translation by Charles E. Bennet, edited by Mary B. McElwain, has been published in the Loeb Classical Library.
 * A translation by Herschel is useful for his commentary on the engineering aspects of the De aquaeductu.

Other works

 * The latest edition of the Stratagems is by R. I. Ireland (Teubner, 1990 ISBN 3-322-00746-4) ; English translation in Loeb Classical Library (translated by Charles Bennet and edited by Mary B. McElwain), 1925. ISBN 9780674991927
 * Extracts from a treatise on land surveying ascribed to Frontinus are preserved in B. Campbell (2000), The Writings of the Roman Land Surveyors: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary, London.
 * The Stratagems and The Aqueducts of Rome, translated by Charles E. BENNETT (1858 - 1921), available on Librivox as an audiobook.

In fiction
He appears as a fictionalised character in the Marcus Didius Falco novels The Silver Pigs, Shadows in Bronze, Three Hands in the Fountain, and The Jupiter Myth. He also appears as a character in The Centurions novels Barbarian Princess and The Emperor's Games.

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

title: Frontinus


text:
Silures

The Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe or tribal confederation of ancient Britain, occupying what is now south east Wales and perhaps some adjoining areas. They were bordered to the north by the Ordovices; to the east by the Dobunni; and to the west by the Demetae.

Origins
According to Tacitus's biography of Agricola, the Silures usually had a dark complexion and curly hair. Due to their appearance, Tacitus believed they had crossed over from Spain at an earlier date."The dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former date crossed over and occupied these parts."

Jordanes, in his Origins and Deeds of the Goths, describes the Silures. "The Silures have swarthy features and are usually born with curly black hair, but the inhabitants of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies. They are like the Gauls or the Spaniards."

The Iron Age hillfort at Llanmelin near Caerwent has sometimes been suggested as a pre-Roman tribal centre. But some archaeologists believe that the people who became known as the Silures were a loose network of groups with some shared cultural values, rather than a centralised society. Although the most obvious physical remains of the Silures are hillforts such as those at Llanmelin and Sudbrook, there is also archaeological evidence of roundhouses at Gwehelog, Thornwell (Chepstow) and elsewhere, and evidence of lowland occupation notably at Goldcliff.

Etymology
The Latin word Silures is of Celtic origin, perhaps derived from the Common Celtic root *sīlo-, 'seed'. Words derived from this root in Celtic languages (for example Old Irish síl, Welsh hil) are used to mean 'blood-stock, descendants, lineage, offspring', as well as 'seed' in the vegetable sense. Silures might therefore mean 'kindred, stock', perhaps referring to a tribal belief in a descent from an originating ancestor. Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel hypothesises that the Silures were originally referred to as silo-riks, 'rich in grain'.

Fierce resistance to Roman forces
The Silures fiercely resisted Roman conquest about AD 48, with the assistance of Caratacus, a military leader and prince of the Catuvellauni, who had fled from further east after his own tribe was defeated.

The first attack on the Welsh tribes was by the legate Publius Ostorius Scapula about AD 48. Ostorius first attacked the Deceangli in the north-east of what is now Wales, however little else is known or recorded of this conflict. He spent several years campaigning against the Silures and the Ordovices. Their resistance was led by Caratacus, who had fled from the south-east (of what is now England) when it was conquered by the Romans. He first led the Silures, then moved to the territory of the Ordovices, where he was defeated by Ostorius in AD 51.

The Silures were not subdued, however, and waged effective guerrilla warfare against the Roman forces. Ostorius had announced that they posed such a danger that they should be either exterminated or transplanted. His threats only increased the Silures' determination to resist. They surrounded and attacked a large legionary force occupied in building Roman forts in their territory; it was rescued by others only with difficulty and considerable loss. The Silures also took Roman prisoners as hostages and distributed them amongst their neighbouring tribes in order to bind them together and encourage resistance.

Ostorius died with the Silures still unconquered. After his death, they defeated the Second Legion. It remains unclear whether the Silures were militarily defeated or simply agreed to come to terms, but Roman sources suggest rather opaquely that they were eventually subdued by Sextus Julius Frontinus in a series of campaigns ending about AD 78. The Roman Tacitus wrote of the Silures: non atrocitate, non clementia mutabatur – the tribe "was changed neither by cruelty nor by clemency".

Romanization
To aid the Roman administration in keeping down local opposition, a legionary fortress (Isca, later Caerleon) was planted in the midst of tribal territory.

The town of Venta Silurum (Caerwent, six miles west of Chepstow) was established in AD 75. It became a Romanized town, not unlike Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester), but smaller. An inscription shows that, under the Roman Empire, it was the capital of the Silures, whose ordo (local council) provided local government for the district. Its massive Roman walls still survive, and excavations have revealed a forum, a temple, baths, amphitheatre, shops, and many comfortable houses with mosaic floors, etc. In the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, the Silures were given some nominal independence and responsibility for local administration. As was standard practice, as revealed by inscriptions, the Romans matched their deities with local Silurian ones, and the local deity Ocelus was identified with Mars, the Roman god of war.

Caerwent seems to have continued in use in the post-Roman period as a religious centre. The territory of the Silures later developed as the 5th-century Welsh kingdoms of Gwent, Brycheiniog, and Gwynllŵg. Some theories concerning King Arthur make him a leader in this area. There is evidence of cultural continuity throughout the Roman period, from the Silures to the kingdom of Gwent in particular, as shown by leaders of Gwent using the name "Caradoc" in remembrance of the British hero Caratacus.

The term "Silurian"
Reference is occasionally made to this period of Celtic history by the use of terms such as "Silurian". The poet Henry Vaughan called himself a "Silurist", by virtue of his roots in South Wales.

The geological period Silurian was first described by Roderick Murchison in rocks located in the original lands of the Silures, hence the name. That period postdates the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, whose names are also derived from ancient Wales.

title: Silures


text:
Talk:Jelly Roll Morton

New York City subsection
In the New York City subsection, it is stated that "Morton generally had trouble finding musicians who wanted to play his style of jazz" followed by a list of great musicians who palyed and recorded with him, and "His New York sessions failed to produce a hit." These are cited to Reich and Gaines, a source I consider to be extremely problematic. In Jazz: A History of the New York Scene (1984), p. 236, Samuel Charters and Len Kunstadt, two very well respected jazz scholars write, "He [Morton] wanted to get into the New York publishing scene and he wanted to continue recording with New York musicians. . . . and in June 1928 made a number of recordings with a small pickup band, which were almost as successful as his Chicago recordings had been." The section also says that JRM came to NY after he married in November 1928, but he actually came in February 1928. Tom Reedy (talk) 22:17, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Jelly Roll Morton


text:
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that involved a dispute of whether preferential treatment for minorities could reduce educational opportunities for whites without violating the Constitution. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. However, the court ruled that specific racial quotas, such as the 16 out of 100 seats set aside for minority students by the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, were impermissible.

Although the Supreme Court had outlawed segregation in schools by the Brown v. Board of Education decision and had ordered school districts to take steps to assure integration, the question of the legality of voluntary affirmative action programs initiated by universities remained unresolved. Proponents deemed such programs necessary to make up for past discrimination, while opponents believed they were illegal and a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. An earlier case that the Supreme Court had taken in an attempt to address the issue, DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974), was dismissed on procedural grounds.

Allan P. Bakke, an engineer and former Marine officer, sought admission to medical school but was rejected for admission partly because of his age — Bakke was in his early 30s while applying, which at least two institutions considered too old. After twice being rejected by the University of California, Davis, he brought suit in state court challenging the constitutionality of the school's affirmative-action program. The California Supreme Court struck down the program as violative of the rights of white applicants and ordered Bakke admitted. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted the case amid wide public attention.

The ruling on the case was highly fractured. The nine justices issued a total of six opinions. The judgment of the court was written by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.; two different blocs of four justices joined various parts of Powell's opinion. Finding diversity in the classroom to be a compelling state interest, Powell opined that affirmative action in general was allowed under the Constitution and the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nevertheless, UC Davis's program went too far for a majority of justices; it was struck down and Bakke was admitted. The practical effect of Bakke was that most affirmative action programs continued without change. Questions about whether the Bakke case was merely a plurality opinion or binding precedent were addressed in 2003 when the court upheld Powell's position in the majority opinion of Grutter v. Bollinger. However, in 2023, the Supreme Court reversed that position, finding that affirmative action in student admissions impermissibly violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.

State of the law
In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled segregation by race in public schools to be unconstitutional. In the following fifteen years, the court issued landmark rulings in cases involving race and civil liberties, but left supervision of the desegregation of Southern schools mostly to lower courts. Among other progressive legislation, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI of which forbids racial discrimination in any program or activity receiving federal funding. By 1968, integration of public schools was well advanced. In that year, the Supreme Court revisited the issue of school desegregation in Green v. County School Board, ruling that it was not enough to eliminate racially discriminatory practices; state governments were under an obligation to actively work to desegregate schools. The school board in Green had allowed children to attend any school, but few chose to attend those dominated by another race. In 1970, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the Supreme Court expanded the equitable powers of the district courts by upholding a district court order for busing of students as an appropriate remedy to desegregate a school system.

Although public universities were integrated by court decree, selective colleges and graduate programs, and the professions which stemmed from them, remained almost all white. Many African Americans had attended inferior schools and were ill-prepared to compete in the admissions process. This was unsatisfactory to many activists of the late 1960s, who protested that given the African American's history of discrimination and poverty, some preference should be given to minorities. This became a commonly held liberal position, and large numbers of public and private universities began affirmative action programs. Among these were the University of California, Davis School of Medicine (UC Davis or "the university"), which was founded in 1968 and had an all-white inaugural class. The faculty was concerned by this, and the school began a special admissions program "to compensate victims of unjust societal discrimination". The application form contained a question asking if the student wished to be considered disadvantaged, and, if so, these candidates were screened by a special committee, on which more than half the members were from minority groups. Initially, the entering class was 50 students, and eight seats were put aside for minorities; when the class size doubled in 1971, there were 16 seats that were to be filled by candidates recommended by the special committee. While nominally open to whites, no one of that race was admitted under the program, which was unusual in that a specific number of seats were to be filled by candidates through this program.

The first case taken by the Supreme Court on the subject of the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education was DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974). Marco DeFunis, a white man, had twice been denied admission to the University of Washington School of Law. The law school maintained an affirmative-action program, and DeFunis had been given a higher rating by admissions office staff than some admitted minority candidates. The Washington state trial court ordered DeFunis admitted, and he attended law school while the case was pending. The Washington Supreme Court reversed the trial court, but the order was stayed, and DeFunis remained in school. The U.S. Supreme Court granted review and the case was briefed and argued, but by then, DeFunis was within months of graduation. The law school stated in its briefs that, even if it won, it would not dismiss him. After further briefing on the question of mootness, the Supreme Court dismissed the case, 5–4, holding that as DeFunis had almost completed his studies, there was no longer a case or controversy to decide. Justice William Brennan, in an opinion joined by the other three members of the minority, accused the court of "sidestepping" the issues, which "must inevitably return to the federal courts and ultimately again to this court".

Allan Bakke
Allan Paul Bakke (born 1940), a white male, applied to twelve medical schools in 1973. He had been a National Merit Scholar at Coral Gables Senior High School in Coral Gables, Florida. Bakke attended the University of Minnesota for his undergraduate studies, deferring tuition costs by joining the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1963 with a 3.51 GPA. In order to fulfill his ROTC requirements, he joined the Marine Corps and served four years, including a seven-month tour of duty in Vietnam as a commanding officer of an anti-aircraft battery. In 1967, having achieved the rank of captain, he was granted an honorable discharge. Bakke then worked as an engineer at NASA. He stated that his interest in medicine started in Vietnam, and increased at NASA, as he had to consider the problems of space flight and the human body there. But twelve medical schools rejected his application for admission.

Bakke had applied first to the University of Southern California and Northwestern University, in 1972, and both rejected him, making a point of his age, with Northwestern writing that it was above their limit. Medical schools at the time openly practiced age discrimination.

Bakke applied late to UC Davis in 1973 because his mother-in-law was ill. This delay may well have cost him admission: although his credentials were outstanding even among applicants not part of the special program, by the time that his candidacy was considered under the school's rolling admissions process, there were few seats left. His application reflected his anxiety about his age, referring to his years of sacrifice for his country as a cause of his interest in medicine.

Bakke received 468 points out of a possible 500 on the admissions committee's rating scale in 1973. Earlier in the year, a rating of 470 had won automatic admission, with some promising applicants being admitted with lower scores. Bakke had a science GPA of 3.44 and an overall GPA of 3.46 after taking science courses at night to qualify for medical school. On the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), Bakke scored in the 97th percentile in scientific knowledge, the 96th percentile in verbal ability, the 94th percentile in quantitative analysis, and the 72nd percentile in general knowledge. Bakke's MCAT score overall was 72; the average applicant to UC Davis scored a 69 and the average applicant under the special program a 33. In March 1973, Bakke was invited to UC Davis for an interview. Dr. Theodore West, who met with him, described Bakke as “a well-qualified candidate for admission whose main hardship is the unavoidable fact that he is now 33. … On the grounds of motivation, academic records, potential promise, endorsement by persons capable of reasonable judgments, personal appearance and decorum, maturity, and probable contribution to balance in the class, I believe Mr. Bakke must be considered as a very desirable applicant and I shall so recommend him.” About two months later in May 1973, Bakke received notice of his rejection.

Bakke complained to Dr. George Lowrey, chairman of the admissions committee at the medical school, about the special admissions program. At Lowrey's request, Assistant Dean Peter Storandt told Bakke that his candidacy had come close and encouraged him to reapply. If he was not accepted the second time, "he could then research the legal question. He had been a good candidate. I thought he'd be accepted and that would end the matter." Storandt also gave Bakke the names of two lawyers interested in the issue of affirmative action. The general counsel for the University of California said, "I don't think Storandt meant to injure the university. It's simply an example of a non-lawyer advising on legal matters." Storandt stated, "I simply gave Allan the response you'd give an irate customer, to try and cool his anger. I realized the university might be vulnerable to legal attack because of its quota, and I had the feeling by then that somebody somewhere would sue the school, but I surely didn't know this would be the case." Storandt was demoted and later left the university. According to Bernard Schwartz in his account of the Bakke case, Storandt was fired.

Allan Bakke applied to UC Davis medical school again in 1974. He was interviewed twice: once by a student interviewer, who recommended his admission, and once by Dr. Lowrey, who in his report stated that Bakke "had very definite opinions which were based more on his personal viewpoints than on a study of the whole problem … He was very unsympathetic to the concept of recruiting minority students." Lowrey gave Bakke a poor evaluation, the only part of his application on which he did not have a high score. He was rejected again, although minorities were admitted in both years with significantly lower academic scores through the special program. Not all minority applicants whose admission was recommended under the program gained entry—some were rejected by the admissions committee. This, however, did not affect the number of minority students to be admitted, sixteen. Although 272 white people between 1971 and 1974 had applied under this program, none had been successful; in 1974, the special admissions committee summarily rejected all white students who asked for admission under the program. Only one black student and six Latinos were admitted under the regular admissions program in that time period, though significant numbers of Asian students were given entry.

According to a 1976 Los Angeles Times article, the dean of the medical school sometimes intervened on behalf of daughters and sons of the university's "special friends" in order to improve their chances. Among those who benefitted by Dean C. John Tupper's interventions (about five per year) was the son of an influential state assemblyman, who had not even filed an application. The special picks were ended by order of University of California President David S. Saxon in 1976. Bakke's lawyer deemed it impossible to tell if these picks caused Bakke not to be admitted, but, according to an attorney who filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the National Urban League in support of affirmative action, the practice of dean's picks made the university reluctant to go into detail about its admission practices at trial, affecting its case negatively.

Lower court history
On June 20, 1974, following his second rejection from UC Davis, Bakke brought suit against the university's governing board in the Superior Court of California, Yolo County. He sought an order admitting him on the ground that the special admission programs for minorities violated the U.S. and California constitutions, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. UC Davis's counsel filed a request that the judge, F. Leslie Manker, find that the special program was constitutional and legal, and argued that Bakke would not have been admitted even if there had been no seats set aside for minorities. On November 20, 1974, Judge Manker found the program unconstitutional and in violation of Title VI, "no race or ethnic group should ever be granted privileges or immunities not given to every other race." Manker ordered the medical school to disregard race as a factor, and to reconsider Bakke's application under a race-free system. After Manker entered final judgment in the case on March 7, 1975, both parties appealed, the university on March 20 because the program was struck down, and Bakke on April 17 because he was not ordered admitted.

Because of the important issues presented, the Supreme Court of California on June 26, 1975, ordered the appeal transferred to it, bypassing the intermediate appeals court. On March 19, 1976, the case was argued before the state supreme court. Nine amicus curiae briefs were filed by various organizations, the majority in support of the university's position. The California Supreme Court was considered one of the most liberal appellate courts, and it was widely expected that it would find the program to be legal. Nevertheless, on September 16, 1976, the court, in an opinion by Justice Stanley Mosk, upheld the lower-court ruling, 6–1. Mosk wrote that "no applicant may be rejected because of his race, in favor of another who is less qualified, as measured by standards applied without regard to race". Justice Matthew O. Tobriner dissented, stating that Mosk's suggestion that the state open more medical schools to accommodate both white and minority was unrealistic due to cost: "It is a cruel hoax to deny minorities participation in the medical profession on the basis of such fanciful speculation." The court barred the university from using race in the admissions process and ordered it to provide evidence that Bakke would not have been admitted under a race-neutral program. When the university conceded its inability to do so in a petition for rehearing, the court on October 28, 1976, amended its ruling to order Bakke's admission and denied the petition.

Certiorari and amicus curiae briefs
The university requested that the U.S. Supreme Court stay the order requiring Bakke's admission pending its filing of a petition asking for a review. U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, as circuit justice for the Ninth Circuit (California is within the Ninth Circuit) granted the stay for the court in November 1976.

The university filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in December 1976. The papers of some of the justices who participated in the Bakke case reveal that the case was three times considered by the court in January and February 1977. Four votes were needed for the court to grant certiorari, and it had at least that number each time; however, it was twice put over for reconsideration at the request of one of the justices. A number of civil rights organizations filed a joint brief as amicus curiae, urging the court to deny review, on the grounds that the Bakke trial had failed to develop the issues fully as the university had not introduced evidence of past discrimination or of bias in the MCAT. On February 22, the court granted certiorari, with the case to be argued in its October 1977 term.

The parties duly filed their briefs. The university's legal team was now headed by former U.S. Solicitor General and Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. Cox wrote much of the brief, and contended in it that "the outcome of this controversy will decide for future generations whether blacks, Chicanos, and other insular minorities are to have meaningful access to higher education and real opportunities to enter the learned professions". The university also took the position that Bakke had been rejected because he was unqualified. Reynold Colvin, for Bakke, argued that his client's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to equal protection of the laws had been violated by the special admission program.

Fifty-eight amicus curiae briefs were filed, establishing a record for the Supreme Court that would stand until broken in the 1989 abortion case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. Future justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg signed the ACLU's brief supporting reversal in favor of the Regents; Marco deFunis, the petitioner in the 1974 case dismissed for mootness, wrote the brief for Young Americans for Freedom supporting affirmation in favor of Bakke.

In addition to the various other amici curiae, the United States filed a brief through the Solicitor General, as it may without leave of court under the Supreme Court's rules. When consideration of Bakke began in the new administration of President Jimmy Carter, early drafts of the brief both supported affirmative action and indicated that the program should be struck down and Bakke admitted. This stance reflected the mixed support of affirmative action at that time by the Democrats. Minorities and others in that party complained, and, in late July 1977, Carter announced that the government's brief would firmly support affirmative action. That document, filed October 3, 1977 (nine days before the oral argument), stated that the government supported programs tailored to make up for past discrimination, but opposed rigid set-asides. The United States urged the court to remand the case to allow for further fact-finding (a position also taken by civil rights groups in their amicus curiae briefs).

While the case was awaiting argument, another white student, Rita Clancy, sued for admission to UC Davis Medical School on the same grounds as Bakke had. In September 1977, she was ordered admitted pending the outcome of the Bakke case. After Bakke was decided, the university dropped efforts to oust her, stating that, as she had successfully completed one year of medical school, she should remain.

Argument and deliberation
Oral argument in Bakke took place on October 12, 1977. There was intense public interest in the case; prospective attendees began to line up the afternoon before. The court session took two hours, with Cox arguing for the university, Colvin for Bakke, and Solicitor General Wade H. McCree for the United States. Colvin was admonished by Justice Lewis Franklin Powell for arguing the facts, rather than the Constitution. Cox provided one of the few moments of levity during the argument when Justice Harry A. Blackmun wondered whether the set-aside seats could be compared to athletic scholarships. Cox was willing to agree but noted that he was a Harvard graduate, and as for sporting success, "I don't know whether it's our aim, but we don't do very well." Deliberation began with the justices lobbying each other through written memorandum. At a conference held among justices on October 15, 1977, they decided to request further briefing from the parties on the applicability of Title VI. The supplemental brief for the university was filed on November 16, and argued that Title VI was a statutory version of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and did not allow private plaintiffs, such as Bakke, to pursue a claim under it. Bakke's brief, submitted by Colvin, claimed that Bakke did have a private right of action and that his client did not want the university to suffer the remedy prescribed under Title VI for discriminatory institutions, that is the loss of federal funding, and that he wanted to be admitted to the medical school.

In November, Justice Blackmun absented himself to have prostate surgery at the Mayo Clinic. On November 22, Justice Lewis Powell submitted a memo that analyzed the university's minority admissions program under the strict scrutiny standard which is often applied when the government treats some citizens differently based on a suspect classification such as race. He concluded that the program did not meet the standard and must be struck down. Powell's memorandum stated that affirmative action was permissible under some circumstances; this view eventually formed much of his final opinion.

On December 9, at a conference, with Blackmun still absent, the justices considered the case. Four justices (Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, and Justices Potter Stewart, Rehnquist, and John Paul Stevens) favored affirming the California Supreme Court's decision. Three justices (Brennan, White, and Thurgood Marshall) wanted to uphold the program. Powell stated his views, after which Brennan, hoping to cobble together a five-justice majority to support the program, or at least to support the general principle of affirmative action, suggested to Powell that applying Powell's standard meant that the lower court decision would be affirmed in part and reversed in part. Powell agreed.

When Blackmun returned in early 1978. he was slow to make his position on Bakke known. On May 1, he circulated a memorandum to his colleagues indicating that he would join Brennan's bloc in support of affirmative action and the university's program. This meant that Powell's vote would decide the majority opinion. Over the following eight weeks, Powell fine-tuned his opinion to secure the willingness of each group to join part of it. The other justices began work on opinions that would set forth their views.

Decision
The Supreme Court's decision in Bakke was announced on June 28, 1978. The justices penned six opinions; none of them, in full, had the support of a majority of the court. In a plurality opinion, Justice Powell delivered the judgment of the court. Four justices (Burger, Stewart, Rehnquist, and Stevens) joined with him to strike down the minority admissions program and admit Bakke. The other four justices (Brennan, White, Marshall, and Blackmun) dissented from that portion of the decision, but joined with Powell to find affirmative action permissible under some circumstances, though subject to an intermediate scrutiny standard of analysis. They also joined with Powell to reverse that portion of the judgment of the California Supreme Court that forbade the university to consider race in the admissions process.

Powell's opinion
Justice Powell based a significant portion of his diversity rationale in the decision on the First Amendment, which has been significantly emphasized by later scholars. Justice Powell, after setting forth the facts of the case, discussed and found it unnecessary to decide whether Bakke had a private right of action under Title VI, assuming that was so for purposes of the case. He then discussed the scope of Title VI, opining that it barred only those racial classifications forbidden by the Constitution.

Turning to the program itself, Powell determined that it was not simply a goal, as the university had contended, but a racial qualification—assuming that UC Davis could find sixteen minimally qualified minority students, there were only 84 seats in the freshman class open to white students, whereas minorities could compete for any spot in the 100-member class. He traced the history of the jurisprudence under the Equal Protection Clause, and concluded that it protected all, not merely African Americans or only minorities. Only if it served a compelling interest could the government treat members of different races differently.

Powell noted that the university, in its briefs, had cited decisions where there had been race-conscious remedies, such as in the school desegregation cases, but found them inapposite as there was no history of racial discrimination at the University of California-Davis Medical School to remedy. He cited precedent that when an individual was entirely foreclosed from opportunities or benefits provided by the government and enjoyed by those of a different background or race, this was a suspect classification. Such discrimination was only justifiable when necessary to a compelling governmental interest. He rejected assertions by the university that government had a compelling interest in boosting the number of minority doctors, and deemed too nebulous the argument that the special admissions program would help bring doctors to underserved parts of California—after all, that purpose would also be served by admitting white applicants interested in practicing in minority communities. Nevertheless, Powell opined that government had a compelling interest in a racially diverse student body.

In a part of the opinion concurred in by Chief Justice Burger and his allies, Powell found that the program, with its set-aside of a specific number of seats for minorities, did discriminate against Bakke, as less restrictive programs, such as making race one of several factors in admission, would serve the same purpose. Powell offered the example (set out in an appendix) of the admissions program at Harvard University as one he believed would pass constitutional muster—that institution did not set rigid quotas for minorities, but actively recruited them and sought to include them as more than a token part of a racially and culturally diverse student body. Although a white student might still lose out to a minority with lesser academic qualifications, both white and minority students might gain from non-objective factors such as the ability to play sports or a musical instrument. Accordingly, there was no constitutional violation in using race as one of several factors.

Powell opined that, because the university had admitted that it could not prove that Bakke would not have been admitted even had there been no special admissions program, the portion of the California Supreme Court's decision ordering Bakke's admission was proper, and was upheld. Nevertheless, the state was entitled to consider race as one of several factors, and the portion of the California court's judgment that had ordered the contrary was overruled.

Other opinions
Brennan delivered the joint statement of four justices: Marshall, White, Blackmun and himself. In verbally introducing their opinion in the Supreme Court courtroom, Brennan stated that the "central meaning" of the Bakke decision was that there was a majority of the court in favor of the continuation of affirmative action. In the joint opinion, those four justices wrote, "government may take race into account when it acts not to demean or insult any racial group, but to remedy disadvantages cast on minorities by past racial prejudice". They suggested that any admissions program with the intention of remedying past race discrimination would be constitutional, whether that involved adding bonus points for race, or setting aside a specific number of places for them.

White issued an opinion expressing his view that there was not a private right of action under Title VI. Thurgood Marshall also wrote separately, recounting at length the history of discrimination against African Americans, and concluding, "I do not believe that anyone can truly look into America's past and still find that a remedy for the effects of that past is impermissible." Blackmun subscribed to the idea of color consciousness, declaring that, "in order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently. We cannot—we dare not—let the Equal Protection Clause perpetuate racial superiority."

Justice Stevens, joined by Burger, Stewart and Rehnquist, concurring in part and dissenting in part in the judgment, found it unnecessary to determine whether a racial preference was ever allowed under the Constitution. A narrow finding that the university had discriminated against Bakke, violating Title VI, was sufficient, and the court was correct to admit him. "It is therefore perfectly clear that the question whether race can ever be used as a factor in an admissions decision is not an issue in this case, and that discussion of that issue is inappropriate." According to Stevens, "[t]he meaning of the Title VI ban on exclusion is crystal clear: Race cannot be the basis of excluding anyone from a federally funded program". He concluded, "I concur in the Court's judgment insofar as it affirms the judgment of the Supreme Court of California. To the extent that it purports to do anything else, I respectfully dissent."

Reaction
Newspapers stressed different aspects of Bakke, often reflecting their political ideology. The conservative Chicago Sun-Times bannered Bakke's admission in its headline, while noting that the court had permitted affirmative action under some circumstances. The Washington Post, a liberal newspaper, began its headline in larger-than-normal type, "Affirmative Action Upheld" before going on to note that the court had admitted Bakke and curbed quotas. The Wall Street Journal, in a headline, deemed Bakke "The Decision Everybody Won". According to Oxford University Chair of Jurisprudence Ronald Dworkin, the court's decision "was received by the press and much of the public with great relief, as an act of judicial statesmanship that gave to each party in the national debate what it seemed to want most".

Attorney General Griffin Bell, after speaking with President Jimmy Carter, stated, "my general view is that affirmative action has been enhanced", and that such programs in the federal government would continue as planned. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Eleanor Holmes Norton told the media "that the Bakke case has not left me with any duty to instruct the EEOC staff to do anything different".

Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe wrote in 1979, "the Court thus upheld the kind of affirmative action plan used by most American colleges and universities, and disallowed only the unusually mechanical—some would say unusually candid, others would say unusually impolitic—approach taken by the Medical School" of UC Davis. Robert M. O'Neil wrote in the California Law Review the same year that only rigid quotas were foreclosed to admissions officers and even "relatively subtle changes in the process by which applications were reviewed, or in the resulting minority representation, could well produce a different alignment [of justices]". Law professor and future judge Robert Bork wrote in the pages of The Wall Street Journal that the justices who had voted to uphold affirmative action were "hard-core racists of reverse discrimination".

Allan Bakke had given few interviews during the pendency of the case, and, on the day it was decided, went to work as usual in Palo Alto. He issued a statement through attorney Colvin expressing his pleasure in the result and that he planned to begin his medical studies that fall. Most of the lawyers and university personnel who would have to deal with the aftermath of Bakke doubted the decision would change very much. The large majority of affirmative action programs at universities, unlike that of the UC Davis medical school, did not use rigid numerical quotas for minority admissions and could continue. According to Bernard Schwartz in his account of Bakke, the Supreme Court's decision "permits admission officers to operate programs which grant racial preferences—provided that they do not do so as blatantly as was done under the sixteen-seat 'quota' provided at Davis".

Aftermath
Allan Bakke, "America's best known freshman", enrolled at the UC Davis medical school on September 25, 1978. Seemingly oblivious to the questions of the press and the shouts of protesters, he stated only "I am happy to be here" before entering to register. When the university declined to pay his legal fees, Bakke went to court, and on January 15, 1980, was awarded $183,089. Graduating from the UC Davis medical school in 1982 at age 42, he went on to a career as an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic and at the Olmsted Medical Group in Rochester, Minnesota.

In 1996, Californians by initiative banned the state's use of race as a factor to consider in public schools' admission policies. The university's Board of Regents, led by Ward Connerly, voted to end race as a factor in admissions. The regents, to secure a diverse student body, implemented policies such as allowing the top 4% of students in California high schools guaranteed admission to the University of California System —which, it was felt, would aid minority inner-city students.

Dworkin warned in 1978 that "Powell's opinion suffers from fundamental weaknesses, and if the Court is to arrive at a coherent position, far more judicial work remains to be done than a relieved public yet realizes". The Supreme Court continued to grapple with the question of affirmative action in higher education. In the 2003 case of Grutter v. Bollinger, it reaffirmed Justice Powell's opinion in Bakke in a majority opinion, thus rendering moot concerns expressed by lower courts that Bakke might not be binding precedent due to the fractured lineup of justices in a plurality opinion. The court's decision in the 2013 case of Fisher v. University of Texas made alterations to the standards by which courts must judge affirmative action programs, but continued to permit race to be taken into consideration in university admissions, while forbidding outright quotas. In 2023, the Court, in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, reversed its former position, holding that considering race in college admissions violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

The admission to medical school of Patrick Chavis, one of the black doctors admitted under the medical school's affirmative action program instead of Bakke, was widely praised by many notable parties, including Ted Kennedy, The New York Times, and The Nation. As an actual medical doctor, Chavis's many actions of incompetence and negligence were broad and widespread. The large number of patients that he harmed, the amount of pain and suffering that he caused, the video recordings of his many major mistakes, the huge number of malpractice lawsuits against him, and the eventual loss of his medical license, were all reported by the media. Chavis was widely cited by both the supporters, and the opponents, of affirmative action, as a real world example of why they held their respective beliefs.

Notes and references
Notes:

References:


text:
Talk:Rail transport

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 7 external links on Rail transport. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110721083013/http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf to http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf
 * Added tag to http://www.die-tagespost.de/Archiv/titel_anzeige.asp?ID=8916
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070918230754/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RAliverpool.htm to http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RAliverpool.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120603163108/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/transport/data/database to http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/transport/data/database
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130503015110/http://www.networkrail.co.uk/European-rail-study-report.pdf to http://www.networkrail.co.uk/European-rail-study-report.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160310165357/https://www.deutschebahn.com/file/de/2192370/2RLvPOzueXgX19CucGFn4Wofp5E/2267530/data/finanz_eisenbahn_dtl.pdf to https://www.deutschebahn.com/file/de/2192370/2RLvPOzueXgX19CucGFn4Wofp5E/2267530/data/finanz_eisenbahn_dtl.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20151117030418/http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/RoundTables/2014-Railway-Efficiency/Bonnafous-Crozet.pdf to http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/RoundTables/2014-Railway-Efficiency/Bonnafous-Crozet.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130503015110/http://www.networkrail.co.uk/European-rail-study-report.pdf to http://www.networkrail.co.uk/European-rail-study-report.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 23:18, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Rail transport. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120111153436/http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/environmental-issues/ to http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/environmental-issues/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 17:09, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

|PSP SA=yes
I removed |PSP SA=yes which has nothing to do with rail transport, but should any country be mentioned here at all?--Dthomsen8 (talk) 16:30, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

"Hund"
"The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks.[10]" - more or less nonsense. First, the common name for a mining cart is "Hunt" with T. Second, the connection with dogs only comes from Agricola which is doubted. Third, several alternative and more convincing explanations are given including old measures an a Slovacian word meaning waggon. See also German entry at de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.71.27.233 (talk) 08:03, 10 October 2019 (UTC)
 * What's the source book for this? Lewis' Early wooden railways? It's pretty rare and expensive – I don't have one – but that covers "hunde" fairly well. They were even called that in South Wales. Andy Dingley (talk) 17:51, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Train avatar added to article
I put a train avatar on the page in hopes it will be the hover image of Rail transport links. Have there been any discussions of WikiProject:Trains primary topic and flagship articles? Greetings Paptilian (talk) 17:31, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

 * Thanks, but I've removed it.
 * It's weird. Literally. We don't have these on other pages, so having one here, all on its own, is unusual, unexpected and confusing.
 * It's not even linked to anything. Just what is an "avatar" for?
 * Aren't we winding back all the WP:PORTALS stuff anyway?
 * If there was a trains portal, we might use something like this. But we already have one, it goes somewhere when you click it, and we (broadly) seem to be reducing these rather than expanding them. Andy Dingley (talk) 17:45, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you Andy, I agree, and so you know i want to help in the category dept for the WikiProject Trains, is anyone interested in helping me be conducive with the project? Paptilian (talk) 15:46, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

Files enlarged but footers still don't show

 * Where are the footers? Peter Horn User talk 13:52, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

"Yellowstone Park Railroad" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Yellowstone Park Railroad. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 August 24 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Ost (talk) 16:52, 24 August 2020 (UTC)

New 8 meter vagon width standard in honor of infinity
8 meter width in one way, 8 meter estacade width in other way. 16 meter vagon height in honor of infinity to the degree of infinity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:1370:811D:E339:17F:2B1F:2581:6026 (talk) 14:57, 2 October 2020 (UTC) --ENTITY All (talk) 14:59, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

trains
why are we talking about trains? Haleymiranda1979 (talk) 10:15, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Rail transport


text:
User talk:Paddu/Archive1

Hi Paddu... welcome to Wikipedia!

Re: Hindu mythology, I've found that a lot of the pages (many of them created by Tokerboy) include information that is drawn from various ancient texts, and so may place undue emphasis on aspects of mythological figures that are unfamiliar to modern Hindus, but that may nevertheless be perfectly valid (I haven't read all the Puranas, so I can hardly verify). I don't know how to resolve this discrepancy, but you should be aware of it. Graft

 * I am unable to understand what you said. 'undue emphasis' is a discrepancy from what? But I think I must mention that translating Hindu concepts into English is a bit tricky and results in sentences that don't convey to a Westerner exactly what the author had in his/her mind.

 * Well obviously there would be a hundred and fifty versions of each myth floating around, wouldn't there? So what has currency today might have been unknown to an earlier source. Anyway I think "translating Hindu concepts into English is a bit tricky" is nonsense. -- Arvindn

 * I know you would, but tricky it is for me and that's what it is for others (who talk about Hinduism) I have met according to them. Do you remember eskimos having 20 different words for snow? What's the fun in having many words that have identical meanings? They might have similar meanings but not the same. E.g. snow & ice in English both translate to pani in Tamil (I'm giving this example as Arvindn is a Tamilian, please forgive me). Pani-katti is not ice, it's ice-cube, or it could even be 'snowball'. See? This's because Englishmen are more used to snow than Tamilians, and eskimos are even more used to snow & would like to distinguish between 20 different types of snow/emotions about types of snow/etc.

 * Language certainly produces difficulties. But it just requires some work, that's all :) If there's no particular word that conveys the right meaning, or the word you would normally use is not appropriate, use the Hindu word or whatever (in English characters, of course, and in italics). -- Sam

Hi, I just started WikiProject Hindu Mythology. You're welcome to contribute. -- Arvindn 08:38, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

M07:41 (cur; last). . Paddu (Talk) (encyclopaedia -> encyclopedia)

 * Encyclopaedia comes from the Greek Egiklopaideia and the ae is a descendant of the Greek ai, AFAIK. Optim 05:46, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * I changed it since we are supposed to be using the American spelling everywhere consistently. And this one was linked to from the main page. -- Paddu 06:14, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * Encyclopædia is better. Optim 07:08, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

swatantra, nihshulk, aazaad
Hi, thanks for your comment about Hindi Wikipedia main page. u suggested swatantra which means independent.... aazaad means free I think but I'll see if I can find something at FSF. --Hemanshu 08:45, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks Paddu for providing information on the account, I thought I was a registered member, but that was a long time ago, when the Wiki was still very young and just being developed. Anyhow I am glad you took the time to help me.

Good luck, and have a great day!

Joseph E. Saad (August 5th, 2004)

hi:User Talk:Spundun
Responded to your comment on my talk page on hi:, thanx. --Spundun 17:03, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Chess
On my talk page ✏ Sverdrup 14:51, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Cardiomelanosis
Cardiomelanosis is not a disease - it royally failed the Google test. JFW | T@lk  17:46, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * There was one google hit. And there's nothing to prove that website was a prank/joke/whatever. Melanosis, however passes the google test. Hence I thought it could be made a redirect to melanosis. Or else it could be buried deep. I don't bother much about it. If you want go ahead and remove the entry at WP:RA. I just wasn't sure what the policy was w.r.t. removing articles from WP:RA.

 * Anyways, the page's there just to note that those articles were requested, not that they would eventually be written. Hence it might make sense to mention things that we don't want to have right now (but things may change, and an article currently considered un-encyclopedic may become encyclopedic later) in WP:RA since that handles repeated requests well. When looking for a new article to create from WP:RA such things won't get created, that's all. Due to this possibility I thought it's better to leave the decision of removal of cardiomelanosis from WP:RA to someone else. -- Paddu 18:38, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Multiple Redirects

 * Dear Paddu, Thank you for your answer at en: (this link will not work, maybe, then en:) and the answers to my questions at test:.
 * Why "Multiple Redirects"? Please see Wikipedia talk:Multiple Redirects.
 * Plase take also a look at Invalid article names. Thanks! [[   :Gangleri|Gangleri | T | [ Th]]] 04:30, 2004 Nov 11 (UTC)
 * I tried to get more people involved. See Talk:Norse saga#Characters "Ǫ" == >& # 4 9 0 ;< and "ǫ" == >& # 4 9 1 ;<. Regards [[   :Gangleri|Gangleri | T | [ Th]]] 21:02, 2004 Nov 11 (UTC)

Fact of the Day
Thanks for your suggestion. You could, however, have added it yourself by going to the November archive listed on the project page and click one of the empty links. In fact, I'd really like some facts for the coming 3 days, preferably needy pages. I've added Bond for tomorrow. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 20:39, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks Paddu
''Marie Rowley, -2 and -2 add up to -4, but -2 times -2 is 4. -- Paddu 16:29, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC). Sorry about that I'm not the best math student in the world (LOL), thanks for correcting me though--[[User:Marie Rowley|Marie'' | Talk]] 03:11, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Answer to your question about Chennai
Hi Paddu, I've answered your question at Talk:Chennai. -- Sundar 10:56, Nov 24, 2004 (UTC)

Test
Message for you on http://test.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page -- Tim Starling 07:44, Nov 25, 2004 (UTC)

India Wikipedia bulletin board
Hey Paddu, would you be interested in joining the Indian Wikipedians' notice board? Thanks! Feel free to pass the message on to anyone else you think might be interested. --Improv 17:32, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
 * Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
 * Multi-Licensing Guide
 * Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the " " template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

 * Option 1
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR
 * Option 2
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions to any U.S. state, county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace " " with "  ". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Gujarati Script
Thanks for your reply! It may be a user agent issue: indic scripts are notoriously hard to do. It seems the font I have defined for Gujarat (Chrysanti Unicode) does include the characters (I opened it in a font editor to check). I have now added the image from Gujarati language there. |Anárion|(Pedo!) 14:01, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Chennai photos
I have added all the photos to the commons under GFDL, do with them what you will! Matthewmayer 13:05, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for creating bug entry #1199. Sorry about the late reply. Fredrik | talk 21:03, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

WP:PUI
Hi. When listing an image on Possibly unfree images, please add the to the image page, thanks. Cheers, -- Infrogmation 17:43, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Seeking you support
I am seeking your support and participation for starting the "Indian Collaboration of the Week". Please enlist your support on the page Wikipedia_talk:Indian_wikipedians%27_notice_board if you would like to support. Thanks Arunram 09:01, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

department of fun
pertaining to your concerns listed on the discussion page: if you see something that you deem something inappropriate go ahead and fix it. if someone dissagrees then state your opinions and surely we'll come to a resolution. --Larsie 18:41, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Anthere
Ginette was a friend. Since I was not the author, I was mentionning she was. Nothing else. She offered the pictures to us.

As for the coleo images, I have no more comment than I would appreciate Quadell to restore it himself if it is not done by the moment he read his talk page, and I would appreciate he apologies to me. I think it is no longer to drop me a word than to remove a link from my user subpage.

Since this was done before we discuss it with last time deletion, I hope this will not occur any more, otherwise, I might possibly consider asking that Quadell does not delete images any more.

Thanks for telling me Paddu. Anthere

Template:Chess position
Please see my not-so-well-advertised solution at User:Arvindn/Chess. This approach can be used for non-chess games too, like Go, or whatever. -- Paddu 14:52, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * Err... For some reason http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arvindn/Chess?action=edit works but User:Arvindn/Chess doesn't. :( -- Paddu 15:18, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * Hi Paddu. From skimming that page, it doesn't appear you've come to any conclusions.  You didn't end up making a competing template, did you?  As far as Go, see Rules of Go, which now uses Go board 5x5.  I haven't made a 19 by 19 Go template yet: I'm frightened by the prospect of 361 parameters!

 * Hey come on, I'm not competing (as in opposing, etc.) with you. I just made a suggestion. If you like this syntax:

 * or some variant, go ahead and rename images appropriately and start using in chess articles. I don't want to do that myself as I haven't contributed to any chess articles and I don't want to go about messing up articles I don't have much idea about.
 * I'm sure the above syntax is much better than your one-line-full-of-pipes-and-chess-pieces syntax. If you feel some variant would be better I might be able to help on how that could be achieved. Note that in the above the underscores could be replaced with spaces. Also note that we would like to support squares with highlight, an X mark, etc. These are what are indicated by cells like,  , etc. HTH.
 * BTW if you want a "competing" implementation, see User:Sverdrup/test4.

 * One problem I have with the chess board template is that it's hard to put a caption on the board. See Evergreen game for an example.  To fix it will require changing Wikipedia's style sheet.  Do you have any suggestions about that?  dbenbenn | talk 16:02, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * I don't understand. I see that in that article there is a caption for the board. What is stopping from having the code for the caption in the chess board template (or in a chess board template, having another chess board template for boards without caption, etc.) -- Paddu 06:40, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I didn't mean anything by "competing"—I just wondered if there was some other template I should use instead. Anyway, I like your suggestion for laying out the parameters; I've done it at Fork (chess). It didn't require renaming images, though. And I agree that highlighted squares of various types might eventually be useful; but you still won't need to rename the existing images. dbenbenn | talk 19:41, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

idw*
Thanks! You got them all. If I make any more templates, I'll be sure to list them. – Quadell (talk) (sleuth) 15:19, Mar 23, 2005 (UTC)

Your questions on my talk page
Hi Paddu. It seems I have a fan! I welcome your interest in my uploads.

When I uploaded Image:Khalidbinmahfouz.jpg, I do remember being asked for the source. I ignored the warning, figuring it didn't matter. So I know that by April 2004 at the latest, we were asked to give the sources for our images. This was my mistake, but later I corrected my error, tagging the image as fair use. The source is unknown, but as you probably know, it is not necessary to know the source to make a fair use claim. (Citing the source is necessary for making a fair dealing claim.)

The most important part of image tagging is knowing whether the image is usable under a free license (GFDL, PD, cc-by, etc.) or not (fairuse, permission, etc.) The rest is much less important.

Any images I uploaded that are orphans can be deleted, of course. The only reason to have an image on Wikipedia is to use it. If it's a fair-use image that's orphaned, then it must be deleted, since an image must be used for it to be a fair use. Obviously, the only images I've deleted as unverified orphans were unused.

Regarding Perl, leaving him a message at all is largely pointless. Most of the images he has uploaded are not available under a free license, and are not usable under a fair use claim. I've left numerous messages for him under both his Wikipedia accounts, and on Wikibooks. He's never responded. This may not be his fault; he has Asperger's Syndrome and doesn't see person-to-person communication the same way you or I do.

It feels like you're working at finding things to criticize me about. I'm not sure what your goal is. I welcome constructive criticism, however, and I know there are always ways I could improve.

By the way, how is Chennai? Has it mostly recovered from the tsunami yet? Also, are you Tamil? I'm living with a Tamil from Sri Lanka now. (His uncle is in the Tigers, although he's non-political personally.)

Best regards, – Quadell (talk) (sleuth) 14:05, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC)

UOs and deletion
You should probably write to wikien-l@wikipedia.org about it. That's where I wrote about it the other week, and a similar comment from you would help drive the point home. I think there's a lot of support for keeping orphans; we should be able to avoid any trouble if we keep at it. Meanwhile, as you are not from the US or the UK, I'd be very interested to see what you think about the discussion of having an April Fool's day article on the main page. Cheers, +sj +  08:34, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * I voted on this; thanks. — Xiong (talk) 14:23, 2005 Mar 29 (UTC)

Xiong's move templates
I refer to the templates:

 * User:Xiong/Template:Ctmove
 * User:Xiong/Template:Tctmove

I wasted a lot of time trying to make these templates emulate tilde-action; I've simply dropped that now. So, usage is to insert the template (the whole rinky-dink name, enclosed in double braces), followed by four tildes.

I strongly encourage you to move rants on "What Is China" and, worse, metarants about why you moved rants, to the indicated destinations. I have to believe I'm not the only sane one here. — Xiong (talk) 14:23, 2005 Mar 29 (UTC)

 * I would like to clarify to those who are looking up my user-talk to judge my behaviour that I haven't been involved in any of these `rants on "What Is China"' and just pointed out to Xiong that his templates didn't work as he expected. -- Paddu 07:36, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

They work fine now, really; you just need to add your own four-tilde sig to the end. — Xiongtalk 03:33, 2005 Apr 3 (UTC)

Lizard King's images
Hi Paddu. I think it's safe to assume that Image:Newbug.jpg is Lionking's own work. I'm not sure about the other one. Cheers, Tannin 23:07, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Paddu. I'm afraid that the only expertise I have developed in regard to section editing is figuring out how to hack the MediaWiki code in such a way as to turn the damn thing off in the wikis I administer! I have never liked sections - they are really only needed for very high-traffic wikis such as this one, and they do horrible things to the visual presentation of many pages. I don't have any section editing buttons in this skin I use at Wikipedia ... er ... I think it's called 'classic' now ... but maybe that's because I altered my user prefs. But it's good to know these things in any case. You never know when a little fact in the back of your mind will come in handy! Best. Tannin

Assume good faith
Of course you are right; "assume good faith" does not mean going around deleting everything you see that does not have a license attached. But then, I'm biased. If I were the God-King, I'd claim fair use for everything-- this is a reference work, therefore we can refer to anything, and the best reference of an image is a thumbnail of the image. Fair use, blanket coverage, no exceptions, and dare the lawyers to storm the gates.

So, what do you ask of me? — Xiongtalk 03:38, 2005 Apr 3 (UTC)

You specifically cited "Assume good faith in your comment on the Pump. In any case, I'm with you on this. Let me know when you have settled upon a forum in which to voice your concerns and, if appropriate, I'll contribute mine. — Xiongtalk 08:37, 2005 Apr 3 (UTC)

Request to edit MediaWiki messages
Hi, I did one of them (MediaWiki talk:Missingarticle). On looking at the other one (MediaWiki talk:Dberrortext), I had a question, so have not done that one yet - you might want to check out the Talk: page and see what you think. Noel (talk) 22:31, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Chennai photos under GFDL
Excellent work on getting the Central Station and Ripon Building images under GFDL! How did you locate the original location of the images? Also, the excerpt of the email you pasted says "I grant permission to whomever to use my South-India pictures under the GFDL". I would like to use his images of Kapaleeswarar Temple and San Thome Basilica too. How do I quote him allowing the GFDL? Do I link to the Central and Ripon images? -- Brhaspati\talk/contribs 22:33, 2005 Apr 10 (UTC)

images by non-Wikipedians
Paddu, Yes, images taken by non-Wikipedias which are released under the GFDL are just fine for uploading to the Commons. It's far better to put them there than here. Just make sure that you put them in categories and include source info on the image description page! Here's an example of such an image page. If you have any questions, just ask me. --Zantastik 03:20, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re: Template:Sharedip
Hi Paddu, maybe I should back away from using this so often. I was interpreting "shared" to mean that any number of users might use that same address, either because of dynamic IP allocation or because the computer is in a public space (such as a library or school). It seemed to me that if the ISP was America Online, a school, or a library then the address is probably shared (in one way or the other). I think I may have seen what you meant, I got a couple of Whois results where it gave back the specific address instead of the possible range. Mainly I was using the template to (hopefully) dissuade vandals but I guess I could just as asily paste in the lookup information. I hope I didn't cause too much confusion being over-vigilant. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 03:06, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Mind Benders
Hello! I've noticed your past interest in Mind Benders and wanted to share the following announcement with you! I've taken over the responsibilities of Mind Benders, and the page will now be regularly updated. Right now, the pre-round is open (it's more of a creative artistic competition), and round one will open soon (the questions are done, we just need to wait for the pre-round to begin/finish)! So why not check it out? I'll keep you updated! Thanks, Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 01:44, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

P.S. Feel free to pass this news on to other Wikipedians.

Calgary disambig
I have moved the disambiguation page for Calgary to Calgary (disambiguation. This is standard protocol for cities whereby there are few other places of significance with the same name. Most people who type "Calgary" into the search pane will want Calgary, Alberta, not Calgary, Mull. By performing this action, you inadvertently caused all articles with Wikilinks to "Calgary" (rather than to "Calgary, Alberta") to link to a page that was not the intended destination. Please to not make changes on this scale without consulting others in the talk. I believe the current arrangement with a separate disambig page and a header note on the Calgary, Alberta article is a good compromise and it is consistent with other cities with similar issues (for example, see Edmonton, Alberta, Vancouver, Toronto, etc.). Thank you. --Tyson2k 8 July 2005 06:06 (UTC)

Ayyavazhi
Greetings.

I have been doing some copy-editing on the Hindu faith Ayyavazhi. The material could use some expert cleaning, someone aware of the Hindu faith. The pages are several, and the stories are many: Steven McCrary 19:15, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

Birthday
=) --User:Jenmoa 17:35, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

 * *slaps forehead* That's right! I'd forgotten. Haha, thanks for the heads up. I'd better change that template before TimeWarner sues me... --User:Jenmoa 21:33, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for your birthday wishes! :) --User:Jenmoa 19:12, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

dates on six degrees
yes, it would probably be a bit better. unfortunately i'm rather busy and haven't had time to implement it.. but it'll probably appear one day. —kate

Thanks!
Thanks for reminding me to add a link to the second archive :) -Frazzydee|✍ 22:36, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

At-Grade Crossings
I am going to add "or Texas" to the picture. I have personally been all along the stretch of I-40 in this area and: 1. The surrounding area is Plains like in Western Texas, which west of Albuquerque is mountainous. 2. It was located on a section of I-40 where US 66 is undriveable and I remember there being these crossings on the interstate at that time. Further, I have contacted both the Texas and New Mexico Department of Transportations about the matter to get a final ruling. There are no at-grade crossings in New Mexico and there are in the Texas Panhandle. I will post both replies on the talk page for the article and the picture.Rt66lt 21:40, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Note: I just went back to the reference sited. There is some dissent on that page about the location of the intersection at well. Rt66lt 21:47, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

I live in Abq, and this does not look like "west of Albuquerque" to me (though Rt66lt is incorrect about this area being "mountainous"). I've been on this stretch of I-40 several times, and I can't remember seeing any at-grade crossings like the one in the picture, so you guys are probably right about it being in Texas. Camerafiend 03:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Greetings
Greetings on India’s 57th Republic Day.

Category:WikiGnome to Category:User Wikipedia/wikignomes

 * Just started the process of merging the categories. Thanks for the suggestion, (and the learning experience)  ;-)  If you have the time (and the knowledge) could you check to see if I did everything right to effect the merge?  Thanks for your help. — Bill W. (Talk) (Contrib) [ 22:38, 29 January 2006 (UTC) ]

New Mexico Dept of Transportation
I posted the e-mail I just got from the NMDOT. It's not theirs, they believe it is in Texas. Posted the e-mail at Talk:At-grade intersection.Rt66lt 23:22, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Mumbai Pune Expressway
Which one is India's first tolled road?Pizzadeliveryboy 22:52, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Derivative & commercial use for images
Hi, I saw that at User talk:Pizzadeliveryboy and Wikipedia talk:Notice board for India-related topics/archive4 you have stated that for all the images uploaded into Wikipedia derived and commercial use should be allowed. As is usually the case, IANAL but AFAICT this is only true for those images for which fair use is not being claimed. Such images can also be uploaded into, but for images used under fair use derived and commercial use are not allowed. It might not always be legal to include even unmodified fair-use in copies of Wikipedia content, e.g. if the copy is not in the USA and the image is such that US fair-use law allows it but the fair-use law in the country in which the copy resides doesn't. Commercial use of fair-use images is obviously prohibited. I'm skeptical about the legality of modifying fair-use images, i.e. derived use of these images (except for personal use). -- Paddu 16:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Since PDB did not have a complete understanding of copyright issues, I mentioned acceptable wiki licences in plain English. There are many free images available for the Mumbai article, so uploading fair use images are rather redundant. To upload an image under the FU clause, one must: 1. Justify its usage 2. Use it in context. 3. Not dwell on the subject of the image. Since the issue on FU is a picky issue on WP, my first goal was to prevent newbies from uploading unnecessary images to WP till they had completely grasped wikipedia rules.

 * I just wanted to make sure you understood the slight "exception" to your statement for "fair-use" images. I was afraid people might misunderstand you or WP:FU due to those statements.

 * WRT if the copy is not in the USA and the image is such that US fair-use law allows it but the fair-use law in the country in which the copy resides doesn't. I'm not conversant with international copyright laws, but since the servers are based in Florida, local laws apply. (This also applies to other transnational laws.). Images in commons: are governed by the the nationality of the uploader or the source nation of the image. =Nichalp   «Talk»=  17:33, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Neither am I conversant with international copyright laws (or even national copyright laws for that matter :) ). I was just saying derived use of a Wikipedia image outside of the US might not be allowed if the derived image is outside of the US. -- Paddu 17:48, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Paddu/Archive1