text:
Mayapan

Mayapan (Màayapáan in Modern Maya; in Spanish  Mayapán) is a Pre-Columbian Maya site a couple of kilometers south of the town of Telchaquillo in Municipality of Tecoh, approximately 40 km south-east of Mérida and 100 km west of Chichen Itza; in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Mayapan was the political and cultural capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula during the Late Post-Classic period from the 1220s until the 1440s. Estimates of the total city population are 15,000–17,000 people, and the site has more than 4,000 structures within the city walls, and additional dwellings outside.

The site has been professionally surveyed and excavated by archeological teams, beginning in 1939; five years of work was done by a team in the 1950s, and additional studies were done in the 1990s. Since 2000, a collaborative Mexican-United States team has been conducting excavations and recovery at the site, which continue.

Layout
Mayapan is 4.2 square kilometers (about 1.6 square miles) and has over 4000 structures, most of them residences, packed into this compound within the city walls. Built-up areas extend a half kilometer beyond the city walls in all directions. The stone perimeter wall has twelve gates, including seven major gates with vaulted entrances. The wall is 9.1 km (about 5.65 miles) long and is roughly ovate with a pointed northeast corner.

The ceremonial center of the site is located in Square Q of the city's grid in the center of the wider western half of the walled enclosure. The ceremonial center has a tightly packed cluster of temples, colonnaded halls, oratories, shrines, sanctuaries, altars, and platforms (for oration, dancing, or stela display). A.L. Smith, an archeologist with the Carnegie Institute, estimated 10–12,000 people lived within the walled city.

According to Dr. Gregory Simons survey outside the city walls, there were numerous additional dwellings and he revised the total population estimate to between 15,000–17,000 people. His survey results are posted online at www.mayapanperiphery.net. People living outside of the city wall engaged in agriculture, animal-raising, and specialized activities such as lime production. Russell also found a colonnaded hall outside the city wall, revealing much is still to be discovered regarding the complexity of this urban landscape.

The Temple of Kukulcan, a large pyramid also known as the Castillo, is the main temple in Mayapan. It is located immediately to the east of the Cenote Ch'en Mul, which has caves radiating from it. In form, the Temple of Kukulcan (Structure Q-162 on the site map) is a radial four-staircase temple with nine terraces; it is generally similar to the Temple of Kukulcan at the earlier site of Chichen Itza. However, the Mayapan temple appears to be an inferior imitation of the one at Chichen Itza, and the city's buildings in general are not constructed as well as those in other Mayan cities. For example, most or all of the vaulted roofs in Mayapan have collapsed, while many of the better-built buildings at Chichen Itza remain intact. Other major temples in the ceremonial center include three round ones, which are unusual for the Maya area and are also linked to the deity Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl in his wind god (Ehecatl) aspect. Unlike Chichen Itza, Mayapan has no ballcourts.

The extensive residential zones of the site are composed of dwellings and ancillary domestic structures, with those around the ceremonial district larger and of higher quality and those toward the fringes being generally poorer. The houses are often arranged in small patio groups surrounding small courtyards. Houses were built haphazardly without organized streets. Lanes wind among the residences and walls. The residential areas of the site contain many cenotes, perhaps as many as 40. Settlement was the most dense in the southwestern part of the city where cenotes are more numerous.

Historical overview
The ethnohistorical sources – such as Diego de Landa's Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, compiled from native sources in the 16th century – recount that the site was founded by Kukulcan (the Mayan name of Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec king, culture hero, and demigod) after the fall of Chichen Itza. He convened the lords of the region, who agreed to found a new capital at Mayapan. The lords divided the towns of Yucatán among them, and chose the chief of the Cocom family as their leader.

The ethnohistorical sources recount multiple different histories of the rise and fall of Mayapan (Roys 1962). These histories are often confusing, chronologically implausible, and difficult to reconcile. For example, some sources say that the Maya revolted in 1221 against the Maya-Toltec lords of Chichen Itza. After a short civil war, the lords of various powerful cities and families met to restore a central government to Yucatán. They decided to build a new capital city near the town of Telchaquillo, hometown of Hunac Ceel, the general who defeated the rulers of Chichen Itza. The new city was built within a defensive wall and named Mayapan, meaning "Standard of the Maya people".

The chief of the Cocom family, a rich and ancient lineage that had taken part in the revolt against Chichen, was chosen to be king, and all the other noble families and regional lords were to send members of their families to Mayapan to play parts in the government (and perhaps act as hostages for the good behavior of the subsidiary cities). Mexican mercenaries from Tabasco were also employed to keep order and maintain power. Another family, the Xiu, may have been living in the Mayapan area prior to the arrival of the Cocom; the Xiu claim to be a part of the lineage from Uxmal. This arrangement lasted for over 200 years. (An alternative account is given in a Maya chronicle from the Colonial era, claiming that Mayapan was contemporary with Chichen Itza and Uxmal and allied with those cities, but archeological evidence shows this version to be less likely.)

Mayapan became the primary city in a group of allies that included much of the northern Yucatán, and trade partners that extended directly to Honduras, Belize, and the Caribbean island of Cozumel, and indirectly to Mexico. Though Mayapan was ruled by a council, the Jalach winik and the aj k’in (the highest ruler, and the high priest) dominated the political sphere. Below the two primary officials were many other officials with varying responsibilities. The range of classes went from the nobility, down to slaves, with intermediary classes in between. The social climate of Mayapan was made complicated by the antagonistic relationship between the factions of nobles, which were often arranged by kinship (Pugh 2009; Milbrath 2003). In 1441, Ah Xiu Xupan of the powerful noble family of Xiu became resentful of the political machinations of the Cocom rulers and organized a revolt. As a result, all of the Cocom family, except one who was away in Honduras conducting trade, were killed, Mayapan was sacked, burned, and abandoned, all the larger cities went into decline, and Yucatán devolved into warring city-states.

Archaeological evidence indicates that at least the ceremonial center was burned at the end of the occupation. Excavation has revealed burnt roof beams in several of the major buildings in the site center.

Excavations and investigations
In 1841 John L. Stephens was the first to document parts of the Mayapan site with two important illustrations. The first was of the Q-152 round temple, and the second was of the Pyramid of Kukulkan. He was the first in a long string of explorers who drew the ruins of Mayapan. The first large-scale archeological site surveys were not conducted until 1938 by R.T. Patton. These surveys mapped the main plaza group and the city wall, and were the basis of later maps (Russell 2008).

In the 1950s, archaeologists of the Carnegie Institution, including A. L. Smith, Robert Smith, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Edwin Shook, Karl Ruppert and J. Eric Thompson conducted five years of intensive archeological investigations at Mayapan. Their work was published in a mimeographed series of Current Reports. The Current Reports have recently been republished in their entirety by the University of Colorado Press (John Weeks 2009). The final report was published by the Carnegie Institution as Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, by H. E. D. Pollock, Ralph L. Roys, A. L. Smith, and Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1962, Publication 619). Robert Smith published a two-volume monograph on The Pottery of Mayapan in 1971 (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 66, Harvard University).

In the early 1990s, Clifford T. Brown of Tulane University carried out excavations in the residential zones of Mayapan as part of his doctoral dissertation research. Several years later, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico began extensive architectural excavations and consolidation under the direction of archaeologist Carlos Peraza Lope. This work continues to the present. It has resulted in the discovery of many important artifacts, murals, stuccoes, and architectural elements.

From 2001 to 2009, further investigations were begun at the site by a team under the direction of Dr. Marilyn Masson from the State University New York at Albany, Carlos Peraza Lope of INAH, and Timothy S. Hare of Morehead State University. This "Economic Foundations of Mayapan" (PEMY) Project performed mapping, surface survey and collection, test-pitting, and horizontal excavation across the city. Major findings of this project include the identification of diverse occupational specialization among the city's commoners, who worked as craftsmen, conscripted military personnel, farmers, and domestic servants. Great variation is now recognized in the types of work performed by commoners of different households and their degrees of affluence. This project has also identified a probable major market plaza in Square K (between the site center and major north gate D); Richard Terry, Bruce Dahlin, and Daniel Bair have analyzed soil samples from this location to test the function of this locality. In 2008 and 2009, the PEMY project focused excavations on an outlying ceremonial group by the far eastern city gate (Gate H), known as Itzmal Ch'en, as part of its study of the economic and social links between governing elites and distant neighborhoods within the city.

Before Mayapan

 * Some evidence suggests overlapping occupation of the area by different cultures. Shook in 1954 said that there may have been a Puuc "city" somewhere near Mayapan prior to its post-classical settlement. The mixture of Puuc pot shards in the lower parts of Mayapan lots may support this, but it is a very small percentage of the material (2% in most cases and no more than 4% in others).

Site chronology based on ceramics

 * According to Robert Smith, the ceramicist for the Carnegie Institution, there were two ceramic phases in Mayapan: hocaba, which he said started around A.D. 1200 and may have included types named Mama Red and Navula Unslipped, more commonly associated with southern lowland settlements. (Milbrath and Pereza argue that the Hocaba phase starts in A.D. 1100, which fits better with the chronology of the southern lowland sites.) The second phase is Tases, which has some overlapping typology with the Hocaba phase.

Middle Preclassical Date

 * In an alley fill between the Templo Redondo and an adjoining hall, some charcoal was found that yielded a calibrated date of 540–820 B.C. But, most of the pottery in this fill was post-classical. Researchers think that this sample represented old charcoal that predated the context in which it was found.

Terminal Classical Dates

 * A burial found on bedrock in the houselot soils of a post-classical solare dated between A.D. 600 and A.D. 780. The burial appeared to be a secondary interment, and could not be completely excavated because it intruded into a wall. There was no pottery with the burial; midden samples in this area suggest occupation prior to the construction of the post-classical houselots.

 * Charcoal was found on the upper floor of one of the temples that was dated to A.D. 770-1020. Researchers think that this sample is not associated with the context in which it was found. The construction fill as well as the upper floors were of post-classical age.

Early Mayapan occupation

 * Three separate samples form the frame for early Mayapan occupation. These dates are A.D. 990–1170. However, two of these dates come from inexact sources. One was burned copal found in an unknown structure (apparently the label had eroded off of the structure); the researchers inferred that it was Q-95. The early date would suggest that this temple was built and in use in Mayapan's early history.
 * Carbon dating of the pits below what was assumed to be Q-97 (again the label had eroded) dated from A.D. 990–1180.
 * Charcoal found in the early construction phase of the site's main pyramid was dated A.D. 1020–1170. This sample was found in reliable context and is presumably the most accurate. It is important for suggesting that the post-classical phase in Mayapan started earlier than A.D. 1200.

Late Mayapan occupation

 * Mayapan's settlement pattern radiated outwards to its fringes over time; many of the later dates are from materials outside of the main group of ruins. The fall of the city is tentatively dated around A.D. 1461, based on the lack of construction of altars and burial cists after this date. (Lope et al. 2006). According to Diego de Landa Calderon (1524–1579), the city was abandoned following the country's enslavement by a certain chieftain of the Yucatecan nation (in collusion with a garrison of Mexica Indians), and which abuse eventually led to internecine war, culminating in the city's demise in circa 1441.

Agriculture and animals
Milpa, or mixed, fields may have been cultivated when Mayapan was inhabited. There is evidence that the area around Mayapan was regularly used for slash-and-burn agriculture. Cenotes and underground limestone canals serve as the only source of freshwater in this area, making them essential to support agriculture. Researchers have suggested that Mayapan was an import/export center, and that they often traded luxury goods, such as cotton, salt, and honey, for products of obsidian and metal, which they would have forged. (Paris 2008) (Melbrath & Peraza 2003:29). Today farmers use mixed fields, called the milpa fields, to cultivate maize, beans, squash, watermelons, mangoes, papayas and other crops. Also, citrus fruit such as oranges and limes are often grown within the domestic house groups of the local residents (Russell 2008:16).

Faunal remains indicate that the local population used varying methods of animal acquisition. A study done by M.A. Masson and C. Peraza Lope in 2008 looked at faunal remains from two different middens, one located in the monumental center by some houses, and the other is located in the domestic area outside the monumental compound. The largest samples of recognized remains within the monumental center were from: white-tailed deer (23%), dog (4.4%), turkey (12.9%), and iguana (10.2%). The combined contributions of fish make up around 1.2% of the samples. These percentages as well as the ones that will follow for the settlement zone are based on recognized remains. Primary animals may have made up larger portions of the diet but their remains are too difficult to recognize.

In the settlement zone, researchers found: white-tailed deer (8.4%), dog (1.4%), turkey (5.3%), iguana (14.5%), and fish (3.6%). Both turtle and rabbit remains were found in both sites, but they were consumed in small amounts (less than 1.5%). While excavating, the researchers noted many fish skeletons, but few fish heads. They concluded that the fish were being traded into Mayapan, and not collected near the site. If the fish had been prepared at the site, the heads would have been common refuse. Within the ceremonial center, numerous deer heads and teeth were found among the remains.(M.A. Masson, C. Peraza Lope 2008).

Trade
Mayapan was a major capital in the Yucatán, and there is extensive evidence that it had far-reaching trade routes, as seen in architecture and artifacts of other settlements in the region. A wide variety of goods were traded, including maize, honey, salt, fish, game, cloth, and birds.

Peten
Zacpeten on Lake Salpeten – Incense burners found at this site are nearly identical to those found at Mayapan. The temple assemblages at Zacpeten are very similar to those at Mayapan. Topoxte in Lake Yaxha, Peten also shares similarities of architecture and artifacts of effigy censers. Topoxte architectural remains show a similar stone carving style to Mayapan. Also, tiny “dwarf” shrines found at this site were very similar to shrines found at Mayapan. The two sites appear to have been abandoned around the same time; which may suggest a connection between their governments.

Highland Guatemala
Architectural and artifact connections are seen between Mayapan and the Utatlan in highland Guatemala. Examples are similar temple assemblages, the presence of skull imagery and squatting figures, extensive and lavish use of stucco combined with crude masonry, and effigy figure censers.

Yucatan East Coast
This region also shows apparent influence of Mayapan, in similar temple assemblages, similarities in architecture, effigy censers at some sites, and parallels between architectural decoration at Mayapan and some east coast sites. The east coast sites exported products such as cotton, salt, and honey from the Yucatán. Sites in Guatemala traded back cacao. El Chayal in Guatemala was the only source of the obsidian found at Mayapan.

Aztecs, Central Mexico, and the Campeche Coast
The presence of Matillas Fine Orange ceramics in Mayapan suggests trade with Tabasco. This area may have mediated trade between Mayapan and the rest of Central Mexico. Sculptures and murals at Mayapan suggest that there was contact between Mayapan and the rising Aztec empire. Some Mayapan figures showed details of Aztec dress, and what appears to be an Aztec deity is carved on an altar in Mayapan.

This evidence suggests a: “circum-Yucatecan trade route that linked Mayapan to Peten, northern Belize, and east-coast sites in the Late Postclassic period.” (Melbrath & Peraza Lope 2003:24–31)

Symbolism

 * The symbolism present in Mayapan is particularly significant, partially because the center of the site is mainly used for ritual purposes. There are many similarities between the murals in Mayapan and the art and iconography of the Aztec and Mixteca-Puebla regions. Symbols that they have in common include:
 * the sun disc (there are varying interpretations of what this represents
 * Could represent the sun god
 * However, the diving posture of the figure within the disc is a common motif used to represent a dead warrior, and because the figure is represented bound and with his heart removed it has been interpreted as a representation of a warrior sacrificed to the sun god.
 * representations of Quetzalcoatl
 * murals in structure Q.80 show reptile iconography which has been interpreted as participation in Mixteca-Puebla traditions. The dentition of the reptile indicate that they are serpents. There are similar representations found at Coba and on some pottery in Cholula dated to circa 1350–1550 AD.

(Milbrath, Susan., Carlos Peraza Lope, Miguel Delgado Kú. 2010)

 * Serpent iconography is very common at Mayapan, serpent balustrade carvings are common throughout the ritual center in the complexes that are associated with the Cocom lineage like the Castillo (Milbrath, Susan., Carlos Peraza Lope, Miguel Delgado Kú 2010). In contrast depictions of the rain god Chaac are common to the temples related to the Xiu lineage. (Milbrath 2009:583) There are also depictions of the Monkey-man god
 * Most of the iconography in Mayapan is found either in murals on the temple walls, stone carving, or carved stone covered in plaster.

Evidence of inequality
Directionality may have played a role in the representation of inequality among the powerful factions of Mayapan. East and west were of primary importance because it represented the track of the sun through the sky. The east was associated with: life, males, and heat; whereas the west was associated with: death, females, and cold. This has led many sources to believe that the Itza and the Xiw may have been associated with east and west. There was very little evidence for obvious separation of residence between classes. This is mostly due to the residential center of Mayapan being located around the concentration of the water filled cenotes. Most residences are tandem structures made of several building within a separating wall. Many of these tandem structures include multiple residential buildings; the size of these residential buildings, relative to each other, suggests that some of them were for slaves. The integration of classes extends to the outer edges of the residential areas probably due to the convenience of being close to the agricultural fields. Some sources indicate that the analysis of oratorios or god-houses (large house-like shrines) show boundaries that were known to the people of Mayapan. This is shown in relation to the analysis of household oratorios and those oriented around the ceremonial center of Mayapan. Unfortunately there is very little skeletal evidence found in this region because of the composition of the soil. The goods found in different house structures do suggest different levels of social status, mainly in regard to the specialization of housing structures. There are at least two examples of obsidian workshops in Mayapan. The strongest evidence for inequality in Mayapan is found in the presence of deep shafts full of sacrificial victims, this suggests that the noble class had enough power to condemn some people to death.

Abandonment
The site of Mayapan was abandoned sometime in the 15th century. There has been some dispute over when the actual abandonment took place. However, written records state that the site was abandoned in A.D. 1441. There appear to be several contributing factors to the abandonment of Mayapan. Around A.D. 1420 a riot was started by the Xius against the Cocom which culminated in the death of nearly all (if not in fact all) of the Cocom lineage. Pestilence may have been involved in the subsequent abandonment of the site by the remaining Xiu inhabitants. There were several sources of evidence to support this interpretation. Evidence of burned wood was found inside of structure Y-45a as well as burned roofing material on many of the other structures that was dated to around the time of the collapse in K’atun 8 Ahau (roughly A.D. 1441–1461). A mass grave in the main plaza, and bodies in a burial shaft covered in ash were dated to around the collapse and showed signs of violence, some of the bodies still had large flint knives in their chests or pelvises, suggesting ritualized sacrifice. Smashed vessels litter the floors of the Y-45a complex that date to around A.D. 1270–1400, prior to the documented collapse of Mayapan. A vessel bearing the glyph K’atun 8 Ahau was found on the floor of this complex. From this they have posited that the complex was abandoned finally when the city fell (Lope 2006; Milbrath 2003). After A.D. 1461 there is little evidence of altars and burial cists being constructed after 1461, suggesting that the site had been abandoned by this point (Lope 2006). Very little evidence has been found to support later usage of Mayapan. Copal from an altar was found in the Templo Redondo compound that may suggest later pilgrimages to the Castillo de Kukulkan. However, these samples date to the industrial era and may not be valid, so any assumptions based on this evidence would also not be valid (Lope 2006:168).

title: Mayapan


text:
User talk:Zoe/archive 6

how to revert autmomatically? or you did by hand? -- user_talk:hfastedge

Welcome back. You on Bomis salary now? BF

 * She does do a lot for Wikipedia. Nope - nobody here is on the Bomis payroll. --mav

 * I don't even know what "Bomis salary" means. -- Zoe
 * Bomis is the company that Jimbo owns, which also owns the servers wikipedia runs off of. Koyaanis Qatsi

Lilo & Stitch
Zaminum, is the material from Lilo & Stitch your own work, or is it copied from another source? -- Zoe

Zaminum, I'm still waiting for an answer from you concerning the copyright status of the information you put into Lilo & Stitch. If I don't get an answer soon, I'm going to delete what you put there and write my own article. -- Zoe

Sorry about that delay, I was away for awhile. It`s mine, based on about 6 or so magazine and newspaper articles. The quotes are from those sites, but I`ve done much rewriting to change the page as much as possible. I can find the site addresses if you want to read over the sources. - Zanimum

 * Hi Zoe,
 * Yeah, I think the clash of the pretenders bit on the page on Louis-Philippe is relevant on that page because (a) it is only a minor historical bit of info that would be unimportant on a page of the history of France, but (b) it brings out a central feature of the story concerning Louis-Philippe, namely the bitter rivalries between France's two wannabe royal families, with the Charles X vs Louis Philippe clash mirrored in the Chambord vs Paris clash later, as both were 'kings' to whom thrones had been abdicated, both of which never got a chance to sit in them, then squabbling over who would get the throne when it was again on offer in the 1870s. Because Louis Philippe was the last French king, I think a short paragraph or two as a sort of epilogue is important, if only to finish off the story which was finished off within two generations; how, having lost thrones through stupidity earlier, the French legitimists and orleanists (well the legitimists primarily) were too stupid to take it even when if was offered gift-wrapped by the French parliament and people. I think a page on the last king is probably the right place to explain why there was no other. If I was in a biblical mood, I could have written the last line as 'here endeth the monarchy!' JTD

 * I think this should be in an article about the third Republic.

Ericd

 * As to the names of the various other royals, I'm afraid I have no idea who wrote things in that way and why. PS: looks like peace may have broken out on the Irish famine page. About bloody time! :-) JTD 04:14 Jan 19, 2003 (UTC) (Except there isn't a Third Republic page, Ericd', which there should be. (After being ambushed three times this week on pages I'd written by fanatics (some of them anonymous) and threatened with reversions (and on occasion just threatened!) I'm not quite in the mood to do another 'big' page yet, and the Third Republic would have to be one big page!) (At least not until I'm off the valium!!! :-) JTD 04:41 Jan 19, 2003 (UTC)

Zoe deeds speak. mav is starry eyed over poeple who have declared their phd on their user page. He is too young to know that phd's come on a continuom. Oral cultures differentiate. mav is experiencing prejudice I stand by my record. the fuel that mav adds to the fires. mav doesn't work smartly. you have been arrond to know that mav can be mistaken. If I don't have enough boo with you that is too bad. npov does not depend on popularity: that would be a logical history.

mav is part of a disordered unregulated militia. He fans the flames as often, as he put out fires in talk, He is using the wrong metaphor for his persoanality type. Something is happening and sysysop mav is on the wrong side of histories.

I choose to post anonomously appeals to authority are a logical fallacy. If we are all phds then we have to find some other mathod and that is evaluation. Words speak. Deeds speak. Were you just commenting on the summarry?

If there is an edit war raging in a scientific article what is the best way to stop it? With the authority that only clear prose and tight logic brings. That is quality. The pro hominiem arguement is just as false as the ad hominiem arguement. npov demands that both arguements are not to be given much weight. Logic demands it mav and I have had it out over another phd. In both cases mav was illogical and his violation of npov, by refusing to examine the facts, led a hubris filled physicist to his shame. BC looked to mav for authority. Wasn't he suprized when I showed him that his world view was logically inconsistant? Wasn't he suprized when I knew more than he did in his choosen discipline. It crushed him. And it was mav fault. I was the author of his crushing downfall. I was simply plying reason no malice. Just reason. The Phd cleared out the histories in order to protect his reputation, his internet business, and his status as physics teacher at a two year colledge in Orange County.

This did not have to happen. mav defers to phd. Phd gets out too far. mav doesn't refute logical arguements: this cause problems for everybody. And it doesn't even approach methodologies for npov. See the beautiful prose in Talk:EPR paradox There is power in quality. It stopped a hot edit war by showing them that their arguement was pointless given undiagnoisised problems with the article. Zoe it is a masterpiece. Then go see Talk:scientific method.

With all the phd working on the long term article, its a wonder that nobody saw it before. :-]  Zoe the level of scientific articles can be quite high but any contovercial article becomes an edit war. They have not any understanding of the philosophy of science. The scientifc method is linked to 90 article an 30 other pages How many edit wars could be stopped if a single authoritative. It's a stable article; apparently everybody had their say. It sucked because it is not philosophically defensible. The long term article EPR Paradox shows the limitation of world view commonly held by scientists. If he could he could see the devaluation of the phd degree caused by the expansion of the university systems, mav would not be so impressed. It no longer confers anything except its qualification. How do phds settle their problems? Well that depends on merit doesn't it. JTD is going to meet the Wikipedian Ethos.

Take a look at my record I will put it against mav's npov. 216

 * Whatever - see my talk page. You are the trouble maker here, not me. --mav

Oh, God, now Two16 is babbling on my talk page. -- Zoe

Zoe you commented to me. Do you think that ridicule will help at this stage ? Eventually the truth will out. Take it over to my page if you like. Throw away comments don't impreess people with wit. User:Two16

1-Whatever language you're typing in is very hard to understand. 2-you don't need to write long diatrbies every time you write. 3-You are scaring me. -- Zoe

Does anyone have a clue what all this means? I'm too busy laughing to make head or tail of it! (You should see some of the other 'stuff' being placed around!!!) I know Bill Clinton said he didn't inhale. I get the impression that certain people inhaled some weird substance and forgot to exhale it again!!! I'd say the lunatics were trying to take over the asylum, except I don't think going by their typing they could even spell it. To think I wasted how many hours typing replies to you know who, thinking we had a 'serious' argument going!!! It like like trying to debate transcendental meditation with a Klingon! (And I thought this was a serious website! Obviously some corners are occupied by leftovers from 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'!) Take care. JTD 08:16 Jan 19, 2003 (UTC)

Dear Zoe: Hi! Once again, thanks for reading my article, this time on boxer Kostya Tszyu. Airhead me of course, did not realize you had commented on it until today. As far as your comment, a question, I am almost sure it is KO Magazine. Cause the word Ko appears with two, big, large capital letters on the cover, and Ive read other magazines call it KO, although some others do write it Ko, but Im almost sure its written KO Magazine.

Once again, thanks and God bless you!!

Sincerely yours, AntonioMartin.

 * I haven't had any any dealings with Fwappler so I don't know. But I did begin to wonder about parallels with Sv. I noted a similar cadence sometimes in the way things were constructed, a moment of reasonableness followed by an earthquake of over the top ranting of a very personal manner. Both talked about seriously loopy poems and and being out to get people, etc etc etc. And each then quoted the other as 'evidence' that they were not alone in their views. And when paranoia hit, it seemed almost identical in structure. Both began making snide remarks about my having a PhD. It just seemed spookily strange, just too similar. Forget about great minds thinking alike. Either nutty minds do too, or they are in one and the same mind because they are . . . . Spooky! (To be safe, you'd better take this off your page when you get it, or I'll get an earful of oddball rants and tantrum throwing. Its been like dealing with Laurel and Hardy (or Laurel and Laurel?), except in a rather nasty 'we are right! f*** you, mav and everyone else. You are all a shower of revisionist pro-british Tory assholes' sort of way. Take care. Don't have nasty dreams about odd-ball unintelligable messages threatening doom on the world of Wiki. I'm sure someone out there has tablets that might cure it. If not, we'll get someone to tie them down and play tapes of the wit and wisdom of the George Bushes over and over and over again until their heads explode!  JTD 09:31 Jan 19, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Zoe. :)

do you realize that the entire english speaking world understands my definition, and almost no one understands yours. Christmas card has a clear meaning! Why change it? I recogized your secondary meaning in my edit--saying that it was a rare use of the term. You merely deleted the universally understood meaning.

Why?

Arthur.

I didn't delete anything. I merely took the redirect out of "Christmas Card" and left "Christmas card" behind. -- Zoe

Hey Zoe.

Isn't this funny? I so feel like you and I should be friends, but somehow we've become estranged. Man, I hate that.

Nevertheless, read the current "Christmas card" (NOT A PROPER NAME AND THEREFOR NOT PROPERLY CAPITALIZED) to see that it no longer says what i said. I redirected properly (only proper names are to be capitalized) and i edited properly (the entire English speaking world agrees that this is not only the name of a "partridge family" album.

What's your problem? Why is this, again(!), only the name of some bubble-gum group's album?

Arthur?

p.s. Please! let's be friends!

A "Christmas card", with a lower case, is a generic item. "Christmas Card", upper case, is an album. They are different things. Please click here!!!!! -- Zoe

--
 * Zoe!

 * Hi, whoever you are!

 * I'm now happy! Thank you! We're friends. I have no more complaints!

 * Yours,

 * Arthur

Zoe, I overzealously tried to edit War of the Austrian Succession without checking how long it was. I made the change I wanted (in the first sentence, regarding the HRE bit) but my browser cuts off the ends of really long articles. I'd be grateful if you could undo the damage for me :( -- even just to restore the old version -- I don't want to do more damage than I undo. BTW, I was intrigued by the factoid that Patricia Cornwell was descended from Harriet Beecher Stowe. Unfortunately haven't been able to trace it exactly yet, but I'm looking. And finally , I'll be ever so disappointed if no one reads and loves my Horace Greeley deathbed anecdote... -- Someone else 05:51 Jan 20, 2003 (UTC)

 * Many thanks! Now I can rest easy -- Someone else 06:04 Jan 20, 2003 (UTC)

--

Zoe, I've made a suggestion for sorting out how we refer to royals who aren't monarchs. Basically you could call it the three generation rule. A monarch's siblings and children (First Generation) should be referred to by title of if they have none as Prince/ss of [name of country]. Grandchildren of a monarch (Second generation) should be referred to by title of they have one; if not by surname. 'Third Generation'' covers everyone else, and should involve use of surname only. (The more I think about it, the more I think instead of surname, we should go for 'Royal House' name; ie, not all UK minor royals are called Windsor, but as that is the Royal Family name, for convenience it should be used.) I've gone into it in a bit more detail on the 'talk:Anne Windsor' page. Let me know what you think. JTD 00:33 Jan 21, 2003 (UTC)

-

Zoe,

having had time to reflect on the Christmas Card page, and my response to it, you were absolutely right. I had no legitimate complaint against you. I was merely hasty and responded before i saw your appropriate modifications.

Arthur

Zoe, your mail is arriving on the mailing list, including your comment that you couldn't mail to the list. Have you perhaps turned off receiving mail, or maybe set something in your mail program that shunts aside mail you yourself have sent? Ortolan88

O, the mail that I sent to wikien-l was received, but the two I sent to wikipedia-l both bounced back saying there is no such address. -- Zoe

Dear ZOE: I'm sure your intentions, along with the others, was quite sincere in coming up with a formula for the opening line of an article on someone. However, it is a totally and completely lousy presentation that is hard on the eyes and far too much for researchers to be asked to absdorb. In plain words, it turns people off and therefore Wikipedia's credibity. Please get over the obsession with Google, the heading doesn't gain users, only QUALITY does. I am putting an enormous amount of work into hundreds of articles that, based on this hoffific heading presentation is rendering them useless. For people with or without a brain larger than a flea, this is what they need when using an Encyclopedia for a biography or other such items:

NAME: year dates, occupation.

John Smith (1920-1990), Medical Scientist

SPACE

Born John William George Peabody Smith on July 5, 1920, he was etc.

Make paragraphs short (See HarperCollins/Random House or amy other publisher about readability, interest span in the 21st Century etc.

LAST LINE (always): John Smith died on December 1, 1990 and was interred in ????.

If they were a great whatever, you might add one one to occupation. Then, in a new PARAGRAPH, the full date of birth. AND, I've never met anyone who said they were born in Tupelo, United States. So, do as I do and get the Province/Departement etc. for foreign countries. Too, nobody says they were born in Boston, New England, United States. So, a Region in France should be specified after the Departement or leave the region out. I don't want to see any more of my hard work changed. There is not one person on Wikipedia with any marketing expertise. Buy a few marketing books, use a little marketing common sense, and see how Wikipedia can succeed rather than articles on "getting new users." Build it right, accurate, and sufficiently detailed and interesting and they will come. ALSO, if idiots want to insert stubs or are too lazy to do research, LABEL the artice: ''Work in Progress". That way, a new user/viewer understands and doesn't click away thinking what a half-assed information site Wikipedia is. Because, when they do, they don'y come back (except to play and add the same useless bits of crap) and they don't tell others....DW

Sorry to butt in: are you sending to the list at nupedia.com or the one at wikipedia.org? the list was moved shortly before I unsubscribed. Best, Koyaanis Qatsi

KQ- to nupedia, I didn't know it was changed, nobody bothered to tell me. -- Zoe
 * Wow. well, I mean wikipedia-l is now at wikipedia.org; I don't remember where wikien-l is since I just "reply" when I need to.  The change in wikipedia-l was announced about a week before I unsubscribed.  Koyaanis Qatsi

DW, we've had this discussion before. If you insist on writing your own way instead of the way that consensus has developed here on the Wikipedia, your work will be changed. -- Zoe

Your so-called consensus has failed, utterly and miserably. Wake up and stop acting like a spoiled child who can't accept advice from someone who knows more, a whole lot more, than you. And, I will change each and every one of my articles back if you touch them and I will keep doing it. I'm tired of incompetence....DW

 * It seems that DW has share the views of 172 about colaborative work.

 * Ericd 02:47 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

Zoe, I may have solved (and caused ;) your login problem. If that didn't do it, let me know and I'll dig deeper. --Brion 02:45 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

Also, one more suggestion: stop labelling people as "French", "American" etc. Place of birth and article allows the reader to make a decision. Neither you, I nor anyone else has the right to appoint nationalities....DW (And yes, in the intellectual community, my view on this is now 100% accepted)

It must be nice to be perfect. -- Zoe

 * Generally one labels people by their citizenship. For example, Edmund Burke is an Irish-born British philosopher and statesman.  An Wang was a Chinese-born American inventor.  So stop with the political correctness. Chadloder 03:21 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)
 * Our parents shouldn't have the right to appoint nationalities either; I wish they'd all have children on the snow at Antarctica so we could pick citizenship for ourselves. Wistfully not Swiss, Koyaanis Qatsi

 * IMHO nationalities should be abolished they're a medieval survivance ;).

Ericd 03:28 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

Actually, Zoe is right in some contexts to label people. Most people I've ever come across in the 'intellectual community' as DW calls it, regularly do so. And find those sort of political correctness 'rules' that says you shouldn't absurd, self-righteous pompous nonsense! JTD 04:01 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

 * Hey, Zoe, I'm undoubtedly an intellectual, so I can say without fear of contradiction that DW is 100% wrong in believing his views to be 100% accepted. Deb 17:58 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

Zoe, I've just been chasing up some info on Google and noticed a lack of references to Wiki pages on it. I was checking up topics that I know are on Wiki; I of them I wrote myself and its still there. Is there some problem with Google linking up to Wiki pages? Just curious. JTD 22:39 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

Been trying to Zoe, but unfortunately its page is too full for my browser. If I try to edit it to archive what is currently there, my goddamn browser will chop off and scrap the last quarter of the page. So I'm sorta stuck. (This browser is really causing problems for quite a few people! A lot of people have been sending 'help' messages around, complaining that they cannot access various pages. Mav's page, too, for example. is too full to be accessed!) JTD 22:59 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

Google shows MFU's and because of the crap that MOST ARTICLES in Wikipedia are, it isn't drawing users. And, its because morons like a few of the above, haven't got a clue about anything, but come here to play. My 9-year-old niece logged on today for school research and the first thing she saw was Tokerboy calling himself a Bad-Ass. -- Smart, real smart. -- And you retards wonder why this is a failure. And yes, I back up my talk with QUALITY work that will attract users and help build a worthy reputation. ZOE: I will outline a marketing concept that even some of these idiots might understand. In the meantime, I'm fixing up the artist sights that I have put so much work into while idiots do ones like Georges Seurat that drives people away because it HAS NO VALUE.... DW

More: You say you are a movie nut. Well, now that we use Wikipedia to offend children and their parents and drive them away, the next thing is to get rid of those baby-boomers by adding to this PLACE OF LEARNING, articles like those on Cary Grant or Yul Brynner. Before you use your time "Wikipediainginginging" more of my hard work, why not use the time to properly fix sites like the aformentioned. Compare these sites with mine on Juliette Binoche or Irene Jacob or Audrey Hepburn, I even had to fix up Brigitte Bardot or Edith Piaf, or or or or or.... dozens of others I've done properly....DW

Prime examples of comments from idiots on this site who have no clue what they are talking about? JTD -- my dog has more intellect than Deb !

My sympathies on having to deal with such a prat as DW, Zoe. When you get self righteous egotists like that, the best thing is just to ignore them. But put his comments on the Wiki list so everyone knows what we are dealing with. It will give the people with 'real' intelligence on Wiki something to laugh about! I can't work out which description describes him best: Mr. Bean or Homer Simspon! JTD 00:47 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Zoe. 172 has discouraged be to begin another war with DW. But he as uploaded ton of photos that are IMHO probably copyrighted. He refuses to answer to my questions about images sources. Ericd 01:23 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

Good luck, Zoe. Fight the good fight. I'll try to help if I can. Danny 01:26 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

It would be greatly appreciated if you went back to Piaf et al and restored my hard work. Stop acting like a child because someone has better ideas than the "clique" you play with... Merci...DW Or would you prefer I leave to? Seems our phony friend, JTD would like that. So, why don't you vote me off too. Or, are you afraid if my work is compared to 99.999999 % of others, it is vastly superior. Read the publicity about Wikipedia. Not one word about "a quality site" and NO ONE has recommended it as an Encyclopedia....DW

 * 1. I'm not part of Zoe's clique -- if such a groups exists. She has made changes on some of the articles I have written, some good, others bad.

 * 2. However, seeing how she's been a contributor to Wiki for longer than I have, I feel it might win me a few points with both her -- & anyone who might follow our exchanges -- if I treat her with politeness & civility.

 * 3. What are you talking about when you say "hard work"? I've looked at a couple of articles you "improved", & compared them to what Zoe did to them. The factual contents are almost identical, so it can't be that you contributed more research.

 * 4.The only difference I see between your entries and Zoe's changes appears to be that you like to use a lot of sentence fragments -- which make sense if one is writing on paper & attempting to save printing costs -- but Wikipedia has no such constraints. According to the guy who owns the hardware Wiki is runnig on -- Jimbo -- there is no practical limit on the size of any article. And complete sentences are easier to read than sentence fragments.

 * Sheesh -- if the whole reason you are carrying on this battle with Zoe is over this trivial point of style, follow William Shatner's advice and get a life! Your changes do not make Wikipedia appear more professional or raise its credibility. There are thousands of entries that cry out for either more information or more modern information, & you whine on & on over her preference for complete sentences. -- llywrch 02:16 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

DW, I couldn't care less what kind of work you do, whether it's wonderful, adequate, or awful. I am not changing ANY of the CONTENT of what you write. The only thing I'm doing is making it match what Wikipedia AS A WHOLE has agreed to. If you don't care to play nicely, why don't you start your own site? After all, you're so much smarter than the rest of us. -- Zoe

Changing my work by YOU deciding on someones nationality is in fact a change of content....DW

 * Constant harping on this does no good. How nice to see you finally respdoning to a Talk page instead of just ranting on one.  Why don't you go to the talk page for Irene Jacob and answer why it was YOU who created the article by claiming she was French?  I won't be discussing this with you any more, but I will continue to make sure that your articles follow Wikipedia style.  Expect a visit from Jimbo Wales (the owner of the site) in the near future.  -- Zoe

Zoe, stop fighting with the KROQ guy. You're just filling up the database with revisions at this point.

Hi Zoe, you might want to explain your comment/question on Talk:The Tie That Binds ("a lot of information ..."). How well-known is, say, Zoltán Kodály? Do we really need such a lengthy entry on Enoch, Utah? And how familiar had you been with the name of Josip Plemelj before you edited his biography on 14 January 2003? Isn't it a tiny bit self-centred to assume that an article might be worthless/too long/whatever just because you don't know anything about it? Also, don't we want users to be able to get as much solid information from Wikipedia as we're able to give them? KF 09:10 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

I never said the article was worthless, I just asked if we needed so much detail. -- Zoe

Let me rephrase my question: Why not? --KF

Why not just a brief sketch of the plot? -- Zoe

Because someone might want to know more about the book, and why not make the information available to them? Reading http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_is_not_paper gives me the impression that this is the idea behind Wikipedia. Of course someone else might say that students whose homework assignment is reading and writing about a particular novel could use what they find here, but I believe that if you want to cheat there are thousands of other places you can go to get what you want. KF 09:40 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:Zoe/archive 6


text:
Quincunx

A quincunx is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center. The same pattern has other names, including "in saltire" or "in cross" in heraldry (depending on the orientation of the outer square), the five-point stencil in numerical analysis, and the five dots tattoo. It forms the arrangement of five units in the pattern corresponding to the five-spot on six-sided dice, playing cards, and dominoes. It is represented in Unicode as or (for the die pattern).

Historical origins of the name
The quincunx was originally a coin issued by the Roman Republic c. 211–200 BC, whose value was five twelfths (quinque and uncia) of an as, the Roman standard bronze coin. On the Roman quincunx coins, the value was sometimes indicated by a pattern of five dots or pellets. However, these dots were not always arranged in a quincunx pattern.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates the first appearances of the Latin word in English as 1545 and 1574 ("in the sense 'five-twelfths of a pound or as; i.e. 100 old pence). The first citation for a geometric meaning, as "a pattern used for planting trees", dates from 1606. The OED also cites a 1647 reference to the German astronomer Kepler for an astronomical/astrological meaning, an angle of 5/12 of a whole circle. When used to describe a tree-planting pattern, the same word can also refer to groups of more than five trees, arranged in a square grid but aligned diagonally to the dimensions of the surrounding plot of land; however, this article considers only five-point patterns and not their extension to larger square grids.

Examples
Quincunx patterns occur in many contexts:
 * In heraldry, groups of five elements (charges) are often arranged in a quincunx pattern. This arrangement is called, in heraldic terminology, in saltire for its usual orientation with the sides of the square vertical or horizontal, or in cross when the square is diagonally oriented. The flag of the Solomon Islands features this pattern, with its five stars representing the five main island groups in the Solomon Islands. Another instance of this pattern occurred in the flag of the 19th-century Republic of Yucatán, where it signified the five departments into which the republic was divided. The coat of arms of Portugal includes both orientations of the same patterns, nested within each other.
 * Quincunxes are used in modern computer graphics as a pattern for multisample anti-aliasing. Quincunx antialiasing samples scenes at the corners and centers of each pixel. These five sample points, in the shape of a quincunx, are combined to produce each displayed pixel. However, samples at the corner points are shared with adjacent pixels, so the number of samples needed is only twice the number of displayed pixels.
 * In numerical analysis, the quincunx pattern describes the two-dimensional five-point stencil, a sampling pattern used to derive finite difference approximations to derivatives. The five points of the five-point stencil are arranged directly above, below, and to the two sides of the center point, rather than (as in quincunx sampling) diagonally with respect to it.
 * In Khmer architecture, the towers of a temple, such as Angkor Wat, are sometimes arranged in a quincunx to represent the five peaks of Mount Meru.
 * A quincunx is one of the quintessential designs of Cosmatesque inlay stonework.
 * A quincuncial map is a conformal map projection that maps the poles of the sphere to the centre and four corners of a square, thus forming a quincunx.
 * The points on each face of a unit cell of a face-centred cubic lattice form a quincunx.
 * The quincunx as a tattoo is known as the five dots tattoo. It has been variously interpreted as a fertility symbol, a reminder of sayings on how to treat women or police, a recognition symbol among the Romani people, a group of close friends, standing alone in the world, or time spent in prison (with the outer four dots representing the prison walls and the inner dot representing the prisoner). Thomas Edison, whose many inventions included an electric pen which later became the basis of a tattooing machine created by Samuel O'Reilly, had this pattern tattooed on his forearm.
 * The first two stages of the Saturn V super heavy-lift rocket had engines in a quincunx arrangement.
 * A baseball diamond forms a quincunx with the four bases and the pitcher's mound.

Literary and symbolic references
Various literary works use or refer to the quincunx pattern:
 * Quincunx (1564) was the name of the political treatise by a Polish-Ruthenian writer Stanisław Orzechowski: here, the five points symbolized five pillars of Polish state, with the Church at the very top.
 * The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, naturally, artificially, mystically considered, is an essay by Sir Thomas Browne, published in 1658. Browne elaborates upon evidence of the quincunx pattern in art, nature and mystically as evidence of "the wisdom of God". Although writing about the quincunx in its geometric meaning, he may have been influenced by English astrology, as the astrological meaning of "quincunx" (unrelated to the pattern) was introduced by the astronomer Kepler in 1604. The Victorian critic Edmund Gosse complained that "gathering his forces it is Quincunx, Quincunx, all the way until the very sky itself is darkened with revolving Chess-boards", while conceding that "this radically bad book contains some of the most lovely paragraphs which passed from an English pen during the seventeenth Century".
 * James Joyce uses the term in "Grace", a short story in Dubliners of 1914, to describe the seating arrangement of five men in a church service. Lobner argues that in this context the pattern serves as a symbol both of the wounds of Christ and of the Greek cross.
 * Lawrence Durrell's novel sequence The Avignon Quintet is arranged in the form of a quincunx, according to the author; the final novel in the sequence is called Quinx, the plot of which includes the discovery of a quincunx of stones.
 * The Quincunx is the title of a lengthy and elaborate novel by Charles Palliser set in 19th-century England, published in 1989; the pattern appears in the text as a heraldic device, and is also reflected in the structure of the book.
 * In the first chapter of The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald's narrator cites Browne's writing on the quincunx. The quincunx in turn becomes a model for the way in which the rest of the novel unfolds.
 * Séamus Heaney describes Ireland's historical provinces as together forming a quincunx, as the Irish word for province cúige (literally: "fifth part") also explicates. The five provinces of Ireland were Ulster (north), Leinster (east), Connacht (west), Munster (south) and Meath (center, and now a county within Leinster). More specifically, in his essay Frontiers of Writing, Heaney creates an image of five towers forming a quincunx pattern within Ireland, one tower for each of the five provinces, each having literary significance.
 * Early African American scientist Benjamin Banneker describes a dream in which he is asked to measure the shape of the soul after death. The answer is "quincunx". Research locates his ancestry in Senegal, where the quincunx is a common religious symbol.

title: Quincunx


text:
Covert channel

In computer security, a covert channel is a type of attack that creates a capability to transfer information objects between processes that are not supposed to be allowed to communicate by the computer security policy. The term, originated in 1973 by Butler Lampson, is defined as channels "not intended for information transfer at all, such as the service program's effect on system load," to distinguish it from legitimate channels that are subjected to access controls by COMPUSEC.

Characteristics
A covert channel is so called because it is hidden from the access control mechanisms of secure operating systems since it does not use the legitimate data transfer mechanisms of the computer system (typically, read and write), and therefore cannot be detected or controlled by the security mechanisms that underlie secure operating systems. Covert channels are exceedingly hard to install in real systems, and can often be detected by monitoring system performance. In addition, they suffer from a low signal-to-noise ratio and low data rates (typically, on the order of a few bits per second). They can also be removed manually with a high degree of assurance from secure systems by well established covert channel analysis strategies.

Covert channels are distinct from, and often confused with, legitimate channel exploitations that attack low-assurance pseudo-secure systems using schemes such as steganography or even less sophisticated schemes to disguise prohibited objects inside of legitimate information objects. The legitimate channel misuse by steganography is specifically not a form of covert channel.

Covert channels can tunnel through secure operating systems and require special measures to control. Covert channel analysis is the only proven way to control covert channels. By contrast, secure operating systems can easily prevent misuse of legitimate channels, so distinguishing both is important. Analysis of legitimate channels for hidden objects is often misrepresented as the only successful countermeasure for legitimate channel misuse. Because this amounts to analysis of large amounts of software, it was shown as early as 1972 to be impractical. Without being informed of this, some are misled to believe an analysis will "manage the risk" of these legitimate channels.

TCSEC criteria
The Trusted Computer Security Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) was a set of criteria, now deprecated, that had been established by the National Computer Security Center, an agency managed by the United States' National Security Agency.

Lampson's definition of a covert channel was paraphrased in the TCSEC specifically to refer to ways of transferring information from a higher classification compartment to a lower classification. In a shared processing environment, it is difficult to completely insulate one process from the effects another process can have on the operating environment. A covert channel is created by a sender process that modulates some condition (such as free space, availability of some service, wait time to execute) that can be detected by a receiving process.

The TCSEC defines two kinds of covert channels: The TCSEC, also known as the Orange Book, requires analysis of covert storage channels to be classified as a B2 system and analysis of covert timing channels is a requirement for class B3.
 * Storage channels - Communicate by modifying a "storage location", such as a hard drive.
 * Timing channels - Perform operations that affect the "real response time observed" by the receiver.

Timing channels
The use of delays between packets transmitted over computer networks was first explored by Girling for covert communication. This work motivated many other works to establish or detect a covert communication and analyze the fundamental limitations of such scenarios.

Identifying covert channels
Ordinary things, such as existence of a file or time used for a computation, have been the medium through which a covert channel communicates. Covert channels are not easy to find because these media are so numerous and frequently used.

Two relatively old techniques remain the standards for locating potential covert channels. One works by analyzing the resources of a system and other works at the source-code level.

Eliminating covert channels
The possibility of covert channels cannot be eliminated, although it can be significantly reduced by careful design and analysis.

The detection of a covert channel can be made more difficult by using characteristics of the communications medium for the legitimate channel that are never controlled or examined by legitimate users. For example, a file can be opened and closed by a program in a specific, timed pattern that can be detected by another program, and the pattern can be interpreted as a string of bits, forming a covert channel. Since it is unlikely that legitimate users will check for patterns of file opening and closing operations, this type of covert channel can remain undetected for long periods.

A similar case is port knocking. In usual communications the timing of requests is irrelevant and unwatched. Port knocking makes it significant.

Data hiding in OSI model
Handel and Sandford presented research where they study covert channels within the general design of network communication protocols. They employ the OSI model as a basis for their development in which they characterize system elements having potential to be used for data hiding. The adopted approach has advantages over these because standards opposed to specific network environments or architectures are considered.

Their study does not aim to present foolproof steganographic schemes. Rather, they establish basic principles for data hiding in each of seven OSI layers. Besides suggesting the use of the reserved fields of protocols headers (that are easily detectable) at higher network layers, they also propose the possibility of timing channels involving CSMA/CD manipulation at the physical layer.

Their work identifies covert channel merit such as:
 * Detectability: Covert channel must be measurable by the intended recipient only.
 * Indistinguishability: Covert channel must lack identification.
 * Bandwidth: number of data hiding bits per channel use.

Their covert channel analysis does not consider issues such as interoperability of these data hiding techniques with other network nodes, covert channel capacity estimation, effect of data hiding on the network in terms of complexity and compatibility. Moreover, the generality of the techniques cannot be fully justified in practice since the OSI model does not exist per se in functional systems.

Data hiding in LAN environment by covert channels
As Girling first analyzes covert channels in a network environment. His work focuses on local area networks (LANs) in which three obvious covert channels (two storage channel and one timing channel) are identified. This demonstrates the real examples of bandwidth possibilities for simple covert channels in LANs. For a specific LAN environment, the author introduced the notion of a wiretapper who monitors the activities of a specific transmitter on LAN. The covertly communicating parties are the transmitter and the wiretapper. The covert information according to Girling can be communicated through any of following obvious ways:

 * 1) By observing the addresses as approached by the transmitter. If total number of addresses a sender can approach is 16, then there is a possibility of secret communication having 4 bits for the secret message. The author termed this possibility as covert storage channel as it depends in what is sent (i.e., which address is approached by the sender).
 * 2) In the same way, the other obvious storage covert channel would depend on the size of the frame sent by the sender. For the 256 possible sizes, the amount of covert information deciphered from one size of the frame would be of 8 bits. Again this scenario was termed as the covert storage channel.
 * 3) The third scenario presented uses the presence or absence of messages. For instance, "0" for an odd message time interval, "1" for even.

The scenario transmits covert information through a "when-is-sent" strategy therefore termed as timing covert channel. The time to transmit a block of data is calculated as function of software processing time, network speed, network block sizes and protocol overhead. Assuming block of various sizes are transmitted on the LAN, software overhead is computed on average and novel time evaluation is used to estimate the bandwidth (capacity) of covert channels are also presented. The work paves the way for future research.

Data hiding in TCP/IP Protocol suite by covert channels
Focusing on the IP and TCP headers of TCP/IP Protocol suite, an article published by Craig Rowland devises proper encoding and decoding techniques by utilizing the IP identification field, the TCP initial sequence number and acknowledge sequence number fields. These techniques are implemented in a simple utility written for Linux systems running version 2.0 kernels.

Rowland provides a proof of concept as well as practical encoding and decoding techniques for exploitation of covert channels using the TCP/IP protocol suite. These techniques are analyzed considering security mechanisms like firewall network address translation.

However, the non-detectability of these covert communication techniques is questionable. For instance, a case where sequence number field of TCP header is manipulated, the encoding scheme is adopted such that every time the same alphabet is covertly communicated, it is encoded with the same sequence number.

Moreover, the usages of sequence number field as well as the acknowledgment field cannot be made specific to the ASCII coding of English language alphabet as proposed, since both fields take into account the receipt of data bytes pertaining to specific network packet(s).

After Rowland, several authors in academia published more work on covert channels in the TCP/IP protocol suite, including a plethora of countermeasures ranging from statistical approaches to machine learning. The research on network covert channels overlaps with the domain of network steganography, which emerged later.

title: Covert channel


text:
Functional predicate

In formal logic and related branches of mathematics, a functional predicate, or function symbol, is a logical symbol that may be applied to an object term to produce another object term. Functional predicates are also sometimes called mappings, but that term has additional meanings in mathematics. In a model, a function symbol will be modelled by a function.

Specifically, the symbol F in a formal language is a functional symbol if, given any symbol X representing an object in the language, F(X) is again a symbol representing an object in that language. In typed logic, F is a functional symbol with domain type T and codomain type U if, given any symbol X representing an object of type T, F(X) is a symbol representing an object of type U. One can similarly define function symbols of more than one variable, analogous to functions of more than one variable; a function symbol in zero variables is simply a constant symbol.

Now consider a model of the formal language, with the types T and U modelled by sets [T] and [U] and each symbol X of type T modelled by an element [X] in [T]. Then F can be modelled by the set
 * $$[F]:=\big\{([X],[F(X)]):[X]\in[\mathbf{T}]\big\},$$

which is simply a function with domain [T] and codomain [U]. It is a requirement of a consistent model that [F(X)] = [F(Y)] whenever [X] = [Y].

Introducing new function symbols
In a treatment of predicate logic that allows one to introduce new predicate symbols, one will also want to be able to introduce new function symbols. Given the function symbols F and G, one can introduce a new function symbol F ∘ G, the composition of F and G, satisfying (F ∘ G)(X) = F(G(X)), for all X. Of course, the right side of this equation doesn't make sense in typed logic unless the domain type of F matches the codomain type of G, so this is required for the composition to be defined.

One also gets certain function symbols automatically. In untyped logic, there is an identity predicate id that satisfies id(X) = X for all X. In typed logic, given any type T, there is an identity predicate idT with domain and codomain type T; it satisfies idT(X) = X for all X of type T. Similarly, if T is a subtype of U, then there is an inclusion predicate of domain type T and codomain type U that satisfies the same equation; there are additional function symbols associated with other ways of constructing new types out of old ones.

Additionally, one can define functional predicates after proving an appropriate theorem. (If you're working in a formal system that doesn't allow you to introduce new symbols after proving theorems, then you will have to use relation symbols to get around this, as in the next section.) Specifically, if you can prove that for every X (or every X of a certain type), there exists a unique Y satisfying some condition P, then you can introduce a function symbol F to indicate this. Note that P will itself be a relational predicate involving both X and Y. So if there is such a predicate P and a theorem:
 * For all X of type T, for some unique Y of type U, P(X,Y),

then you can introduce a function symbol F of domain type T and codomain type U that satisfies:
 * For all X of type T, for all Y of type U, P(X,Y) if and only if Y = F(X).

Doing without functional predicates
Many treatments of predicate logic don't allow functional predicates, only relational predicates. This is useful, for example, in the context of proving metalogical theorems (such as Gödel's incompleteness theorems), where one doesn't want to allow the introduction of new functional symbols (nor any other new symbols, for that matter). But there is a method of replacing functional symbols with relational symbols wherever the former may occur; furthermore, this is algorithmic and thus suitable for applying most metalogical theorems to the result.

Specifically, if F has domain type T and codomain type U, then it can be replaced with a predicate P of type (T,U). Intuitively, P(X,Y) means F(X) = Y. Then whenever F(X) would appear in a statement, you can replace it with a new symbol Y of type U and include another statement P(X,Y). To be able to make the same deductions, you need an additional proposition:
 * For all X of type T, for some unique Y of type U, P(X,Y).

(Of course, this is the same proposition that had to be proven as a theorem before introducing a new function symbol in the previous section.)

Because the elimination of functional predicates is both convenient for some purposes and possible, many treatments of formal logic do not deal explicitly with function symbols but instead use only relation symbols; another way to think of this is that a functional predicate is a special kind of predicate, specifically one that satisfies the proposition above. This may seem to be a problem if you wish to specify a proposition schema that applies only to functional predicates F; how do you know ahead of time whether it satisfies that condition? To get an equivalent formulation of the schema, first replace anything of the form F(X) with a new variable Y. Then universally quantify over each Y immediately after the corresponding X is introduced (that is, after X is quantified over, or at the beginning of the statement if X is free), and guard the quantification with P(X,Y). Finally, make the entire statement a material consequence of the uniqueness condition for a functional predicate above.

Let us take as an example the axiom schema of replacement in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. (This example uses mathematical symbols.) This schema states (in one form), for any functional predicate F in one variable:
 * $$\forall A, \exists B, \forall C, C \in A \rightarrow F(C)\in B.$$

First, we must replace F(C) with some other variable D:
 * $$\forall A, \exists B, \forall C, C \in A\rightarrow D \in B.$$

Of course, this statement isn't correct; D must be quantified over just after C:
 * $$\forall A, \exists B, \forall C, \forall D, C \in A \rightarrow D\in B.$$

We still must introduce P to guard this quantification:
 * $$\forall A, \exists B, \forall C, \forall D, P(C,D) \rightarrow (C \in A \rightarrow D \in B).$$

This is almost correct, but it applies to too many predicates; what we actually want is:
 * $$(\forall X, \exists ! Y, P(X,Y))\rightarrow (\forall A, \exists B, \forall C, \forall D, P(C,D)\rightarrow (C \in A \rightarrow D \in B)).$$

This version of the axiom schema of replacement is now suitable for use in a formal language that doesn't allow the introduction of new function symbols. Alternatively, one may interpret the original statement as a statement in such a formal language; it was merely an abbreviation for the statement produced at the end.

title: Functional predicate


text:
Cracker (food)

A cracker is a flat, dry baked biscuit typically made with flour. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking. Crackers are often branded as a nutritious and convenient way to consume a staple food or cereal grain.

Crackers can be eaten on their own, but can also accompany other food items such as cheese or meat slices, fruits, dips, or soft spreads such as jam, butter, peanut butter, or mousse. Bland or mild crackers are sometimes used as a palate cleanser in food product testing or flavor testing, between samples. Crackers may also be crumbled and added to soup. The modern cracker is somewhat similar to nautical ship's biscuits, military hardtack, chacknels, and sacramental bread. Other early versions of the cracker can be found in ancient flatbreads, such as lavash, pita, matzo, flatbrød, and crispbread. Asian analogues include papadum, senbei and num kreab.

The characteristic holes found in many crackers are called "docking" holes. The holes are poked in the dough to stop overly large air pockets from forming in the cracker while baking.

Names
In American English, the name "cracker" usually refers to savory or salty flat biscuits, whereas the term "cookie" is used for sweet items. Crackers are also generally made differently: crackers are made by layering dough, while cookies, besides the addition of sugar, usually use a chemical leavening agent, may contain eggs, and in other ways are made more like a cake. In British English, crackers are sometimes called water biscuits, or savoury biscuits.

Types
Crackers come in many shapes and sizes, such as round, rectangular, triangular, or irregular. Crackers sometimes have cheese or spices as ingredients, or even chicken stock, such as In a Biskit, which is sold internationally with various flavors.

Saltines and oyster crackers are often used in or served with soup. Similar crackers include cream crackers and water biscuits.

Cheese crackers are prepared using cheese as a main ingredient. Commercial examples include Cheez-It, Cheese Nips and Goldfish.

Graham crackers and digestive biscuits are also treated more like cookies than crackers, although they were both invented for their supposed health benefits, and modern graham crackers are sweet. Similarly, animal crackers are crackers in name only. Animal crackers and Graham crackers may have docking holes.

Brands
Cracker brands include Bremner Wafers, Captain's Wafers, Cheese Nips, Club Crackers, Goldfish crackers, In a Biskit, Jacob's, Ritz Crackers, Town House crackers, Triscuit, TUC, and Wheat Thins, among others.

title: Cracker (food)


text:
Talk:RNA

(comment from August 2005)
I wanted sdto look up RNA in the wikipedia thinking that it would be able to give me a good starting point to understanding it. However, what I got was what's posted which tells me absolutely nothing as a newbie to genetics. Could someone please lay some ground rules about this kind of thing. It seems to me that since you can put lots of links in the definition of an entry, the entry loses it's coherence for someone like me. I think a good rule for wikipedia entries is that there should only be 3 links allowed in the opening general description paragraph of an article.

basically DNA the instructions for are organisms is found in the nucleus. however it can not leave the nucleus so when "instructions" need to be send out, part of the DNA is unraveled and copied. dna is made of four base pairs. i shall use just the letters A, T, C ang G. amazing yes that all life is described in changing patterns of these. A always pairs with T and C with G. because DNA is two strands. when copying dna the two strands are unraveled and one side is copied because if know one side you know the other. RNA bases (the same as DNA bases except use U instead of T) go into the nucleus and bind to the complimentary DNA bases. They then polymerise into the RNA strand. This is transcription. If it is a mRNA then it is later translated into protein.

that is the most basic explaination without getting into virii and other things.

Loads of prebiotic molecules found in Milky Way?
FWIW - (For being aware only of newly published relevant studies - not necessarily to incorporate into the main article) - On 8 July 2022, astronomers reported the discovery of massive amounts of prebiotic molecules, including for RNA, in the galactic center of the Milky Way Galaxy. - Stay Safe and Healthy !! - Drbogdan (talk) 13:09, 10 July 2022 (UTC) Drbogdan (talk) 13:09, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

double stranded molekul by default?
Just looking superficially at the images in the article, one can think that RNA is a (mostly) double stranded molecule. however, that is not true as far I know. I think at least, first image should be a single stranded RNA image. Araz Zeyniyev (talk) 02:41, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

Too technical first sentence
The first sentence leans on very specialized terms.

Abbreviated: RNA is essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes.

In the first sentence we should strive to convey the essentials in a way that many can understand. Here is a trial:

RNA is essential for all biological functions, either by performing that function itself (Non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for production of proteins (messenger RNA). Ettrig (talk) 08:00, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Better introductory picture
Here is a good introductory picture for RNA. The site says that it is public domain. Ettrig (talk) 08:55, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:RNA


text:
Atomic units

The atomic units are a system of natural units of measurement that is especially convenient for calculations in atomic physics and related scientific fields, such as computational chemistry and atomic spectroscopy. They were originally suggested and named by the physicist Douglas Hartree. Atomic units are often abbreviated "a.u." or "au", not to be confused with similar abbreviations used for astronomical units, arbitrary units, and absorbance units in other contexts.

Motivation
In the context of atomic physics, using the atomic units system can be a convenient shortcut, eliminating unnecessary symbols and numbers with very small orders of magnitude. For example, the Hamiltonian operator in the Schrödinger equation for the helium atom with standard quantities, such as when using SI units, is
 * $$\hat{H} = - \frac{\hbar^2}{2m_\text{e}} \nabla_1^2 - \frac{\hbar^2}{2m_\text{e}} \nabla_2^2 - \frac{2e^2}{4\pi\epsilon_0 r_1} - \frac{2e^2}{4\pi\epsilon_0 r_2} + \frac{e^2}{4\pi\epsilon_0 r_{12}} ,$$

but adopting the convention associated with atomic units that transforms quantities into dimensionless equivalents, it becomes
 * $$\hat{H} = - \frac{1}{2} \nabla_1^2 - \frac{1}{2} \nabla_2^2 - \frac{2}{r_1}  - \frac{2}{r_2} + \frac{1}{r_{12}} .$$

In this convention, the constants $\hbar$, $m_\text{e}$, $4 \pi \epsilon_0$, and $e$ all correspond to the value $1$ (see  below). The distances relevant to the physics expressed in SI units are naturally on the order of $10^{-10}\,\mathrm{m}$, while expressed in atomic units distances are on the order of $1 a_0$ (one Bohr radius, the atomic unit of length). An additional benefit of expressing quantities using atomic units is that their values calculated and reported in atomic units do not change when values of fundamental constants are revised. The fundamental constants are built into the conversion factors between atomic units and SI.

History
Hartree defined units based on three physical constants: "Both in order to eliminate various universal constants from the equations and also to avoid high powers of 10 in numerical work, it is convenient to express quantities in terms of units, which may be called 'atomic units', defined as follows:
 * Unit of length, $a_\text{H} = h^2 \,/\, 4 \pi^2 m e^2$, on the orbital mechanics the radius of the 1-quantum circular orbit of the H-atom with fixed nucleus.
 * Unit of charge, $e$, the magnitude of the charge on the electron.
 * Unit of mass, $m$, the mass of the electron.

Consistent with these are: Here, the modern equivalent of $h \,/\, 2 \pi$ is the Rydberg constant $e^2 / a_\text{H} = 2 h c R =$, of $1 \,/\, 4 \pi c R$ is the electron mass $R$, of $R_\infty$ is the Bohr radius $m$, and of $m_\text{e}$ is the reduced Planck constant $a_\text{H}$. Hartree's expressions that contain $a_0$ differ from the modern form due to a change in the definition of $h / 2 \pi$, as explained below.
 * Unit of action, $\hbar$.
 * Unit of energy, $e$ [...]
 * Unit of time, $e$."

In 1957, Bethe and Salpeter's book Quantum mechanics of one-and two-electron atoms built on Hartree's units, which they called atomic units abbreviated "a.u.". They chose to use $\hbar$, their unit of action and angular momentum in place of Hartree's length as the base units. They noted that the unit of length in this system is the radius of the first Bohr orbit and their velocity is the electron velocity in Bohr's model of the first orbit.

In 1959, Shull and Hall advocated atomic units based on Hartree's model but again chose to use $\hbar$ as the defining unit. They explicitly named the distance unit a "Bohr radius"; in addition, they wrote the unit of energy as $H = m e^4 / \hbar^2$ and called it a Hartree. These terms came to be used widely in quantum chemistry.

In 1973 McWeeny extended the system of Shull and Hall by adding permittivity in the form of $\kappa_0 = 4 \pi \epsilon_0$ as a defining or base unit. Simultaneously he adopted the SI definition of $e$ so that his expression for energy in atomic units is $e^2 / (4 \pi \epsilon_0 a_0)$, matching the expression in the 8th SI brochure.

Definition
A set of base units in the atomic system as in one proposal are the electron rest mass, the magnitude of the electronic charge, the Planck constant, and the permittivity. In the atomic units system, each of these takes the value 1; the corresponding values in the International System of Units are given in the table.

 * Table notes
 * : $†$ This choice of base units, which is essentially arbitrary, is McWeeny's proposal.
 * : $undefined$ W represents the dimensions of energy, ML2T−2.
 * : $⹋$ In the 'atomic units' column, the convention that uses dimensionless equivalents has been applied.

Units
Three of the defining constants (reduced Planck constant, elementary charge, and electron rest mass) are atomic units themselves – of action, electric charge, and mass, respectively. Two named units are those of length (Bohr radius $†$) and energy (hartree $undefined$).

Conventions
Different conventions are adopted in the use of atomic units, which vary in presentation, formality and convenience.

Explicit units

 * Many texts (e.g. Jerrard & McNiell, Shull & Hall ) define the atomic units as quantities, without a transformation of the equations in use. As such, they do not suggest treating either quantities as dimensionless or changing the form of any equations.  This is consistent with expressing quantities in terms of dimensional quantities, where the atomic unit is included explicitly as a symbol (e.g. $⹋$, $\hbar$, or more ambiguously, $e$), and keeping equations unaltered with explicit constants.
 * Provision for choosing more convenient closely related quantities that are more suited to the problem as units than universal fixed units are is also suggested, for example based on the reduced mass of an electron, albeit with careful definition thereof where used (for example, a unit $m_\text{e}$, where $4 \pi \epsilon_0$ for a specified mass $a_0 \equiv 4 \pi \epsilon_0 \hbar^2 / m_\text{e} e^2$).

A convention that eliminates units
In atomic physics, it is common to simplify mathematical expressions by a transformation of all quantities:
 * Hartree suggested that expression in terms of atomic units allows us "to eliminate various universal constants from the equations", which amounts to informally suggesting a transformation of quantities and equations such that all quantities are replaced by corresponding dimensionless quantities.  He does not elaborate beyond examples.
 * McWeeny suggests that "... their adoption permits all the fundamental equations to be written in a dimensionless form in which constants such as $E_\text{h} \equiv \hbar^2 / m_\text{e} a_0^2$, $2.542 D$ and $5.142 GV⋅cm^{−1}$ are absent and need not be considered at all during mathematical derivations or the processes of numerical solution; the units in which any calculated quantity must appear are implicit in its physical dimensions and may be supplied at the end." He also states that "An alternative convention is to interpret the symbols as the numerical measures of the quantities they represent, referred to some specified system of units: in this case the equations contain only pure numbers or dimensionless variables; ... the appropriate units are supplied at the end of a calculation, by reference to the physical dimensions of the quantity calculated. [This] convention has much to recommend it and is tacitly accepted in atomic and molecular physics whenever atomic units are introduced, for example for convenience in computation."
 * An informal approach is often taken, in which "equations are expressed in terms of atomic units simply by setting $5.142 V⋅Å^{−1}$".  This is a form of shorthand for the more formal process of transformation between quantities that is suggested by others, such as McWeeny.

Physical constants
Dimensionless physical constants retain their values in any system of units. Of note is the fine-structure constant $4 \pi \epsilon_0$, which appears in expressions as a consequence of the choice of units. For example, the numeric value of the speed of light, expressed in atomic units, is $2 \mu_\text{B}$

Bohr model in atomic units
Atomic units are chosen to reflect the properties of electrons in atoms, which is particularly clear in the classical Bohr model of the hydrogen atom for the bound electron in its ground state:
 * Mass = 1 a.u. of mass
 * Charge = −1 a.u. of charge
 * Orbital radius = 1 a.u. of length
 * Orbital velocity = 1 a.u. of velocity
 * Orbital period = 2π a.u. of time
 * Orbital angular velocity = 1 radian per a.u. of time
 * Orbital momentum = 1 a.u. of momentum
 * Ionization energy = $2.351 G$ a.u. of energy
 * Electric field (due to nucleus) = 1 a.u. of electric field
 * Lorentz force (due to nucleus) = 1 a.u. of force

title: Atomic units