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Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Rachel Osbourne (née Levy, later Arden; born 9 October 1952) is an English television personality, music manager, and author. She is married to heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and came to prominence while appearing on The Osbournes (2002–2005), a reality television show that aired on MTV, which followed her family's daily life. Osbourne later became a judge on television talent competition shows, including The X Factor (2004–2007, 2013, 2016–2017) and America's Got Talent (2007–2012).

Osbourne is credited with reviving her husband's heavy metal career by founding the summer Ozzfest tour, which was held almost annually between 1996 and 2018. In light of her success managing her husband, she branched out into managing other acts, such as Gary Moore, Motörhead, Lita Ford, and The Smashing Pumpkins, through her own talent management company Sharon Osbourne Management.

From 2003 to 2004, Osbourne hosted her own television talk show The Sharon Osbourne Show, which was syndicated to various US channels and also shown in the UK on Sky One. In 2010, she was a contestant on the NBC reality show The Celebrity Apprentice, and became a co-host on the CBS talk show The Talk, hosting until her termination in 2021. In 2022, she joined TalkTV, hosting a prime time show also titled The Talk. In 2024, Osbourne appeared as a celebrity lodger on the twenty-third series of the ITV reality show Celebrity Big Brother.

As an author, Osbourne has released three autobiographies and two novels. Her first autobiography, Extreme, debuted at number one on the Sunday Times best-seller list and went on to become the most successful female autobiography ever in the UK.

Early life
Sharon Rachel Levy was born on 9 October 1952 in London, United Kingdom, as the daughter of Don Arden (born Harry Levy) (1926–2007), who was a music promoter and rock and roll entrepreneur, and his wife, Hope (née Shaw, 1916–1999). She has a brother, David. Her mother was of Irish descent and her father was Ashkenazi Jewish.

Osbourne revealed she was surrounded by violence during her childhood and that it was a normal occurrence to see her father threatening someone, or brandishing a firearm. Osbourne's father managed Black Sabbath and fired Ozzy Osbourne from the group. Levy subsequently began dating Ozzy, in 1979, and took over his management from the Arden organisation. Levy coordinated the recruitment of a backing band (Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley, and Lee Kerslake) for the recording of the Blizzard of Ozz album and helped Ozzy launch what became a successful solo career. Arden resented his daughter for dating Ozzy and managing his career. In her memoir, Osbourne relates that he had robbed her, once tried to kill her, and once told Ozzy that she had tried to seduce him, to turn Ozzy against her. She soon lost contact with her father and did not speak to him for 20 years. In an interview in 2001, she commented that her father has never seen her children and that "he never will". Osbourne had told her children that their grandfather was dead but they unknowingly saw him for the first time when Osbourne was shouting abuse at him on a street in Los Angeles. When asked who she was shouting at, she replied Tony Curtis. They were reunited in 2001 and he then had a role in their reality show, The Osbournes. In August 2004, Osbourne stated her father had Alzheimer's disease and she paid for his care in the last years of his life.

Osbourne's relationship with her mother was also damaged. At the age of 17, Osbourne lost her virginity and realised two months later that she was pregnant. By her account, pressure from others, principally her mother, influenced her decision to have an abortion, which Osbourne has described as the biggest mistake in her life. While visiting her parents on a later occasion, her mother's dogs attacked her and it was some time before her mother appeared to call them off. She was pregnant at the time and subsequently lost the baby. According to a 2009 article in The Guardian, Hope Arden was a cold woman who became even stranger after a serious car accident, something which Osbourne said "unhinged her". When Osbourne was informed of her mother's death, she said "Oh, what a shame" and simply put the phone down.

Ozzfest
A series of high-selling albums and world tours followed through the 1980s, eventually bringing about Ozzy's popularity. In 1996, Osbourne created the Ozzfest summer touring festival. It went on to become a regular rock occasion and celebrated a 10th anniversary in 2006. By 2007, the ticket prices had reached £76 and Osbourne announced that the tickets would be free to allow more people the opportunity to attend the concert. Prior to the founding of Ozzfest, Osbourne approached Lollapalooza, another rock/pop festival, to request that Ozzy play at that year's festival, only to be rejected and told that Ozzy was "uncool" and too drugged up. It was then that she decided to launch her own festival. Controversy ensued when she pulled the plug on Iron Maiden's set three times in one performance. She also harassed the singer Bruce Dickinson, and threw eggs at the band.

Sharon Osbourne Management
In light of her success managing her husband, Osbourne branched out into managing other acts by creating Sharon Osbourne Management. The new company, with Osbourne as its sole employee, managed artists such as Gary Moore, Motörhead, Lita Ford, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Coal Chamber. She co-managed a band called Cube, with Cud guitarist Mike Dunphy. Cube were signed to Polydor Records but had limited success. She has also turned down career guidance requests from Fred Durst, Guns N' Roses, and Courtney Love.

Television work (2002–2007)
Osbourne gained celebrity status as one of the stars of MTV's reality show, The Osbournes, which followed her family's daily life and had a national audience. As the person who negotiated with MTV to screen the show, she is often credited with bringing about her husband's emergence from heavy metal icon into mainstream celebrity. The show began airing in early 2002, and when, in July 2002, Osbourne was diagnosed with cancer, she insisted that filming should continue. The final episode of the show aired in the US on 21 March 2005. MTV's British affiliate has been airing the show since 2003. The show brought MTV its highest ratings ever in both America and Britain.

The Osbournes' Beverly Hills home (made famous on the show) has since been sold and the Osbournes have taken up residence in another home in Beverly Hills. Her Beverly Hills home was later seen in The X Factor during series two. The show saw that Osbourne was responsible for the livelihood of 12 dogs and employs a dog walker named Cherie. From the mid-1990s until the end of The Osbournes in 2005, she was primarily based in Los Angeles with the rest of her family. Osbourne earned an estimated £11.5 million from The Osbournes.

In 2009, she was included in Yahoo!'s Top 10 TV Moms from Six Decades of Television for the time period 2002–2005. In 2003, Osbourne became the host of her own television talk show, The Sharon Osbourne Show, which was syndicated to various US channels and also shown in the UK on Sky One. The show was meant to be a reflection of her personality and home life, similar to her reality show but with the inclusion of guest interviews and performances. During the episodes, she conducted some of her interviews on a giant bed. However, the ratings were never successful and critics panned her inability to perform the basic tasks required of a talk show host, such as reading cue cards and conducting interviews. The show was cancelled in early 2004 after one season.

In 2006, UK TV network ITV commissioned a new chat show, initially to be called Mrs Osbourne Presents, but eventually just named The Sharon Osbourne Show. Osbourne signed a deal with ITV for a reputed £2 million. The show began on Tuesday 29 August 2006, and was scheduled to run for six weeks in the 5 pm weekday timeslot. The premiere episode proved a close competition as the show received 1.9 million viewers with 17% share – 400,000 viewers (and 3% share) ahead of Richard & Judy on Channel 4. Her second show attracted 2.1 million viewers. However, ratings appeared to decrease after Channel 4 moved its game show Deal Or No Deal, hosted by Noel Edmonds, into the timeslot, with Osbourne managing 1.2 million viewers compared to Deal Or No Deal's 2.9m. Channel 4's The New Paul O'Grady Show returned on Monday 25 September 2006 with 2.3 million viewers compared to Osbourne's 1.6 million.

Osbourne was a judge and mentor on the UK's The X Factor every year, from 2004 through to 2007. In the first series she mentored the 16–24s and chose Roberta Howett, Cassie Compton and Tabby Callaghan to represent her in the live rounds of the show. The best placed of these was Tabby, who finished third overall. The final was contested between Simon Cowell's act Steve Brookstein and Louis Walsh's act G4, with Steve winning. Osbourne's outburst against Steve on the night of the final is widely credited with helping him to win, although according to her autobiography he was well ahead at all stages of the voting.

In the second series she mentored the 25-and-overs, and selected Andy Abraham, Brenda Edwards, Chico Slimani and Maria Lawson to contest the final rounds. Andy Abraham finished in second place to Louis Walsh's act Shayne Ward. During this series, the judges were again required to bring the selected candidates to their homes. Osbourne chose her Beverly Hills home as a suitable location, which saw Osbourne inviting her neighbours and husband Ozzy Osbourne to attend live performances by the candidates. During Chico's performance, he jumped into her functioning fountain with a live microphone, and proceeded to splash water.

Osbourne also appeared in the spin-off show The X Factor: Battle of the Stars. She was not required to choose her celebrity singing contestants but was selected to manage the 16–24s which were made up of Nikki Sanderson, Matt Stevens and Michelle Marsh.

In the third series of The X Factor in 2006, she was mentoring the 25-and-overs, and selected Ben Mills, Dionne Mitchell, Robert Allen and Kerry McGregor. Kerry and Dionne were voted out in a double elimination on 28 October, Robert was voted out on 18 November and Ben was voted out on 9 December, sending Osbourne out of the competition. During the filming of the third series, Osbourne lived at the Dorchester Hotel in central London.

Osbourne was criticised for her outbursts on the show, where before a live show in series three she reportedly spoke out against Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter Chris Tarrant, who was in the show's audience prior to filming. Tarrant had made a joke about her husband Ozzy to which Osbourne took offence, but most of her outburst focused on criticising Tarrant's recent infidelity to his wife Ingrid from whom he was in the process of separating. It was rumoured that Cowell, fellow judge and creator of the show, was displeased with her performance in series three, and was thinking of replacing her and Walsh for the next series. However, it was confirmed that Osbourne had been contracted to return for the fourth series of the show. She then appeared in the fourth series along with judges Cowell, Walsh and new judge, Dannii Minogue, and mentored the Girls category during the series.

During the first live show, aired on 20 October 2007, Osbourne walked out on the panel after learning of two of her own acts, Kimberley Southwick and Alisha Bennett, being in the bottom two. However, on The Paul O'Grady Show, aired on 23 October 2007, Osbourne confirmed she would return on the next episode and stated that it is part of her personality to say things in the heat of the moment and not to contrive anything that she says. Two weeks into the live shows, a number of happy slapping videos of Emily Nakanda, the only other act in Osbourne's category, appeared in the media, apparently showing her beating another teenaged girl. The resulting backlash resulted in Nakanda withdrawing from the show. On 17 November, Bennett was voted out of the competition, leaving Osbourne with no acts halfway through the series.

Later work (2007–present)
Osbourne joined the judging panel on the second season of America's Got Talent, along with Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff, replacing Brandy Norwood. Osbourne later worked on the show with Howie Mandel and Howard Stern as judges and Nick Cannon as host.

The season premiered in the United States on 5 June 2007. In her first episode, Osbourne came into a conflict with Piers Morgan when she felt he judged a child contestant too harshly. She threatened to leave the show in the middle of filming, saying "I didn't sign up for this", but was talked out of it. The incident was shown on air. Osbourne has since stayed with the show for its third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons. The new season was announced in a promotional video shown during a commercial break for season seven's second live show. Osbourne initially stated that she will not return for the season, but later said that she was staying with the show "for now". Following this, she announced she was quitting after a dispute with NBC and the producers of Stars Earn Stripes involving what she believed was disability discrimination against her son Jack.

On 6 June 2008, it was announced in a statement on behalf of Osbourne that she has decided to step down as an X Factor judge after four series on the show. The statement read "Sharon would like to thank the wonderful British public for their enormous support during what's been an exciting ride. She would also like to take this opportunity to thank Simon Cowell and ITV while wishing them all the best for the next series." A spokesman from ITV commented "She has been a tremendous judge and mentor on the programme, but we respect her wish to leave and wish her the very best." Osbourne was replaced by Cheryl Cole. During an interview on Piers Morgan's Life Stories, broadcast on 22 February 2009, Osbourne admitted that the reason for her departure from The X Factor was her fractured relationship with Minogue. She stated "I didn't enjoy working with her at all and didn't fancy the prospect of spending six months sitting next to her."

Osbourne hosted the second season of Rock of Love: Charm School with co-hosts Riki Rachtman and Daniella Clarke on VH1. Osbourne had a physical altercation on 13 December 2008 with contestant Megan Hauserman on the reunion special for the show after Hauserman made derogatory statements about Osbourne's husband, Ozzy. Hauserman reportedly filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department and has since filed a lawsuit against Osbourne, claiming battery, negligence and infliction of emotional distress. In 2011, Osbourne reached a settlement with Hauserman. In July 2008, Fox announced that the Osbourne family would be hosting a new variety show titled Osbournes: Reloaded (working title was Osbournes: Loud and Dangerous). The show started filming at CBS Studios in Hollywood in December 2008 before a live audience. The show premiered in March 2009. Fremantle Media North America is producing the show. The show was cancelled after its premiere episode. In March 2010, Osbourne appeared on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice, coming in third place.

From its inception on 18 October 2010 until her departure in 2021, Osbourne co-hosted the CBS talk show The Talk. This decision came after CBS cancelled the soap opera As the World Turns. The show is similar to The View and seeks to address motherhood and other contemporary issues. Osbourne was the last original co-host following the departure of fellow co-host and series creator Sara Gilbert.

In September 2010, Osbourne made a return to The X Factor at the Judges' Houses round of series 7 where she assisted Walsh at Adare Manor, County Limerick, Ireland to pick the final 3 contestants of the Over 28s category, Then in September 2012, she joined Walsh again this time in Las Vegas, for the 9th series Judges' Houses segment of the competition, to help him choose his final 3 groups.

Osbourne has expressed interest in reprising her role on the judging panel, notably in September 2012, when she said that she would 'love' to return for the show's tenth series. Media outlets reported in December 2012 that X Factor producers had approached Osbourne for a return in 2013, reportedly to replace Tulisa. In April 2013, the show's creative director Brian Friedman said that he was "confident" of Sharon Osbourne's return, following her departure from America's Got Talent and replacement by Heidi Klum. It was later announced by ITV that Osbourne would indeed be returning for the tenth series of the show, replacing Tulisa. She returned to the judging panel alongside Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger, and original panellist Walsh. During the live shows, she mentored the Over 25s category which included Lorna Simpson, Shelley Smith and Sam Bailey. Bailey was eventually announced as the winner of the show on 15 December, marking Osbourne's first victory as a mentor in the show's ten-year history. Osbourne did not return for the eleventh series of The X Factor UK and was replaced by Cheryl Fernandez-Versini.

In 2014 and 2017, Osbourne appeared as a guest panellist on ITV's daytime programme Loose Women.

On 1 June 2016, it was announced that once again, Osbourne would return to The X Factor for the show's thirteenth series to replace Cheryl Fernandez-Versini. She judged alongside Cowell, Walsh (who replaced Nick Grimshaw) and Scherzinger (who replaced Rita Ora). She once again mentored the Over 25s category, choosing Saara Aalto, Relley C and Honey G as her final three contestants. Aalto went on to become the series' runner-up. Although initially casting doubt on returning for another series due to her commitments with The Talk, Osbourne returned to The X Factor for the fourteenth series. This time she again mentored the Girls category; her last act Grace Davies finished as the runner-up. Osbourne was initially confirmed to return for the fifteenth series as the fifth judge during the live shows portion of the competition but later declined the offer to return, feeling she wasn't needed on the panel and was replaced by Ayda Field.

In 2020, she portrayed herself in season 5, episode 2 of Lucifer.

In March 2022, Osbourne joined TalkTV hosting a new weekly prime time show named "The Talk".

Writing
Sharon Osbourne's first autobiography, Extreme (co-authored by Penelope Dening), was published in October 2005 and tells of her difficult childhood growing up with her father, Don Arden, and also documents the highs and lows of her marriage to husband Ozzy Osbourne, shedding light on areas of her life previously not commented on. Domestic violence, drug abuse, alcoholism, affairs, bribery, colon cancer, robberies, a plane crash, therapy, and cosmetic surgery are also documented in the autobiography.

Published by Time WarnerBooks, it went to Number 1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List (UK) where it remained for 15 weeks and sold over 621,000 copies in hardback, becoming the biggest-selling autobiography since British records began, beating the previous record set by David Beckham's autobiography by 100,000 copies. In March 2006 it won Biography of the Year at the British Book Awards. The autobiography has proceeded to sell in excess of two million copies which has become the most successful female autobiography ever.

Osbourne later released another autobiography named Survivor, the title coming from surviving cancer. It was released in 2007. In August 2013, Osbourne announced on Twitter that her third autobiography named Unbreakable, would be released on 10 October 2013.

In the media
In January 2003, Osbourne and the rest of her family hosted the 30th Annual American Music Awards. The night was marked with constant "bleeping" due to some of the lewd and raunchy remarks made by both Osbourne and Ozzy. Additionally, the night was met with some controversy, as critics panned their hosting and presenter Patricia Heaton walked out midway in disgust.

In January 2005, she was contracted to feature in a television advertising campaign for UK supermarket chain, Asda and later in 2007, Osbourne became the new face of Galabingo when she was featured in television advertisements promoting the gambling website. She has co-hosted one of the Royal Variety Performances with Jonathan Ross. Osbourne appeared in Days of Our Lives, It's a Boy Girl Thing.

On Friday 15 June 2007, Osbourne guest hosted The Friday Night Project with Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr. Osbourne also made a cameo appearance on 23 June 2007 in an episode of the science fiction series Doctor Who. The episode "The Sound of Drums" saw her appearing in a spoof party political broadcast, which featured testimonials from British celebrities such as Osbourne and the band McFly showing their support for Mr Saxon to become Prime Minister.

On 20 February 2008, Sharon Osbourne co-hosted the 28th edition of the BRIT Awards at Earls Court in London, along with her husband and daughter Kelly. During the awards Osbourne caused controversy and sparked complaints by calling Vic Reeves, who was presenting one of the awards, a "piss head" and a "bastard" after he appeared to be drunk, although he claimed that he was having trouble reading the autocue. On 22 August 2008, Osbourne took part in the 2008 MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in Scotland. In 2009 she co-hosted WWE Raw with her husband Ozzy.

On 1 April 2010, Sharon Osbourne (along with Kelly Osbourne) joined Cyndi Lauper in the launch of her Give a Damn campaign to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the LGBT community as part of her True Colors Fund. The organisation campaigns to urge straight people to stand up with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community and stop discrimination. Other names included in the campaign are Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Mraz, Elton John, Judith Light, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Kardashian and Clay Aiken. Anna Paquin is also part of the campaign and came out as bisexual. This news clogged the Give A Damn website.

Osbourne has a recurring voice role as Mama Hook in the animated television series Jake and the Never Land Pirates, which was broadcast in 2012.

In 2016, Osbourne appeared in two videos for PETA, explaining why she gave up wearing fur and encouraging others to do the same.

Public image
On the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, Osbourne was listed as the 44th richest woman in Britain and the 60th richest woman on the 2007 list. In the overall British list in 2006, Osbourne and her husband appeared together as the 554th richest people with a combined wealth of £100 million. As of 2008, the couple was ranked as the 724th richest people in Britain with an estimated joint wealth of £110 million.

Osbourne has sent her son's or daughter's feces in Tiffany boxes on more than one occasion to people she felt had unreasonably criticised her or her family. When a journalist criticised her teenage children, Osbourne sent a box of excrement with a note saying, "I heard you've got an eating disorder. Eat this."

The popular British comedy Dead Ringers, features and spoofs Osbourne (played by Jan Ravens) quite prominently alongside her husband (played by Jon Culshaw). Also, she was spoofed by impressionist Ronni Ancona on Alistair McGowan's Big Impression and was also featured in comedy 2DTV. On Saturday Night Live, Amy Poehler played her on "Celebrity Jeopardy!" skit on 14 May 2005.

Sharon Osbourne appeared in season nine of Celebrity Apprentice. On 16 May 2010, she was fired during the double elimination round. Impressionist Francine Lewis performed an impression of her in the seventh series of Britain's Got Talent.

Iron Maiden
At Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance, on 20 August 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, California, several negative events took place, allegedly the fault of Sharon Osbourne. Osbourne's actions were reportedly in retaliation to lead singer Bruce Dickinson slighting reality TV, with claims that this was an attack on Ozzy Osbourne himself.

During the first Iron Maiden song, several members of the front row of the crowd (reportedly a combination of Osbourne's entourage and a few members from other bands persuaded by Osbourne or her entourage) were reported to have bombarded the band with eggs, bottle caps, and ice. Some reports also say that Sharon's daughter, Kelly, was throwing objects at the band. During three of Iron Maiden's songs, the PA system was switched off, cutting power to Dickinson's microphone and the band's instruments. In audio captured during the concert, it is reported that Dickinson can be heard accusing the festival's organisers of deliberately cutting off the band's power. Also unknown to Iron Maiden, played secretly through the PA at the very beginning and end of their set was a tape with the chant "Ozzy – Ozzy – Ozzy". On Iron Maiden's departure, Sharon made a few statements on stage in front of the 40,000 people in attendance. She told the audience that while she "absolutely loved Iron Maiden," she thought lead singer Bruce Dickinson was a "prick" and had "disrespected Ozzfest since they began their stint with the tour." Her words were met with booing, and soon afterwards she walked off the stage.

Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, issued a statement shortly after the debacle condemning the attack on the band as "vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly" as well as disrespectful to fans who had paid to see the band perform "a full unhindered performance.". Dickinson later denied making a personal attack on Ozzy Osbourne; "Did I have a go at Ozzy and Black Sabbath? No. Why would I? But I do find The Osbournes TV series loathsome, and the whole cult of reality TV celebrities disgusting."

The Smashing Pumpkins
In 2000, Osbourne resigned from managing The Smashing Pumpkins by releasing a memo which said, "It was with great pride and enthusiasm that I took on management of the Pumpkins back in October, but unfortunately I must resign today due to medical reasons ... [The Smashing Pumpkins frontman] Billy Corgan was making me sick!!!" In an October 2008 interview, Osbourne revealed that she and Corgan had recently made up: "I saw him at the Scream Awards. We hadn't seen each other since that whole thing in Germany. The first time we ran into each other and we hugged and kissed and laughed."

The Talk
In July 2011, Osbourne and some of her fellow The Talk panellists were criticised for their conduct when discussing the story of Catherine Kieu. Osbourne described Kieu's cutting off of her husband's penis and putting it in a garbage disposal as "quite fabulous", Osbourne also laughed about the incident with her fellow panellists and members of the audience. Osbourne's cohost Sara Gilbert offered the counterpoint "Not to be a total buzz kill, but it is a little bit sexist. If somebody cut a woman's breast off, nobody would be sitting laughing." Osbourne replied by saying "It's different". Osbourne later apologised for her behaviour, stating "she was sorry she offended people" and that she "did not condone genital mutilation".

Osbourne's co-hosts on The Talk, Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete were released from their contracts in 2011. Osbourne spoke of their dismissals in December 2011 on The Howard Stern Show, stating: "Some people don't really know who they are, and you have to know who you are when you're in something like this. You can't pretend to be something you're not. You have to know your brand. You can't be all things to everyone." Remini later protested her dismissal and levelled accusations aimed at Osbourne through a series of tweets.

On 10 March 2021, whilst speaking on The Talk, Osbourne defended Piers Morgan's negative comments towards Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, resulting in a heated exchange with co-host Sheryl Underwood. Osbourne's behaviour towards Underwood during the argument was criticised as harsh and aggressive. In the same month, a 2018 clip from The Talk resurfaced in which Osbourne was discussing the Duchess of Sussex's skin colour. Osbourne said that Markle "ain't Black" and that "she doesn't look Black". In response, The Talk went on hiatus while CBS conducted a review on Osbourne. In a statement made 26 March 2021, CBS concluded that Osbourne's "behavior toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with [CBS] values for a respectful workplace". Ultimately, Osbourne decided to depart from the program.

In the midst of her scandal and termination from The Talk, both Holly Robinson Peete and Leah Remini, Osbourne's former cohosts, took to social media to reproach Osbourne over her conduct in relation to her removal from the show, pointing out that they had been treated similarly by her, citing additional acts of discriminatory behaviours from her towards additional cast members. Osbourne responded with threats of defamation lawsuits against both Peete and Remini, but ultimately did nothing.

Fired assistant revelation
In 2019, Osbourne appeared on the British panel show Would I Lie to You? in which guests make statements about themselves and fellow panellists guess whether or not the statements are true. She claimed that during a house fire she made her assistant go back into the house to save pieces of art. She also claimed that she ripped an oxygen mask off the assistant and gave it to her dog. She then proceeded to fire him when he did not find the situation funny, believing he might have lung damage from smoke inhalation, saying "he showed absolutely no sense of humour" during the fire. After the usual deliberations by fellow panellists, she confirmed the incident to be true.

The clip of Osbourne's story on the show that was uploaded by the official BBC YouTube Channel was met with an overwhelmingly negative reception. There was also a considerable backlash from Twitter users. Following the backlash, Osbourne backtracked on her claims on The Talk in January 2020. She said: "I told a true story about a fire I had in my house. He went in, he got the paintings out. And then, just to be precocious, I said at the end of this little thing I was doing, 'Oh, and then I fired him.' It was a joke because I was on a comedy show. I fired him about 15 years later." Her response was met with scepticism.

Personal life
Sharon Osbourne (then Sharon Levy) met her future husband Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, at the age of 18, while working for her father, Don Arden (born Harry Levy), who was managing Black Sabbath at the time. When Ozzy was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, Sharon started to date him and took over his management as a solo artist. The two were married in Maui, Hawaii, on 4 July 1982. Together, Sharon and Ozzy have three children: Aimee, Kelly and Jack. She also has two stepchildren, Louis and Jessica, from her husband's previous marriage to retired schoolteacher Thelma Riley.

For years, the Osbourne marriage was plagued by alcohol, drug use, and violence, with Osbourne having even been arrested for driving while intoxicated. The couple used to physically fight regularly and, according to Osbourne, they would "beat the shit out of each other." She has described herself as "a beaten woman" when she was at the hands of husband Ozzy where he once knocked out her front teeth. She once retaliated by throwing a full bottle of scotch at his head. The most notorious incident arose in August 1989, when Ozzy was arrested for attempted murder after he had returned from the Moscow Music Peace Festival, and tried to strangle his wife in a haze of alcohol and drugs. After the incident, Ozzy spent six months in rehabilitation as a result of his actions, after which time Sharon Osbourne said she regained her strength in their relationship and did not press charges.

In July 2002, after colon cancer claimed the life of Reagan Erin Marcato, the mother of then-18-year-old son Robert who was a friend of Osbourne's daughter Kelly, Osbourne told the BBC that she had adopted Robert; however, when he was later sent to live with his biological father following a nervous breakdown, Osbourne denied having legally adopted him. In February 2024, Osbourne revealed that she tried to take her own life in 2016 after learning of her husband’s affair with hairdresser Michelle Pugh.

Health
In 1999, Osbourne lost 100 lb after lap-band surgery (adjustable gastric band). Osbourne commented that being large was an essential part of her persona when she worked for her father and that when she was larger, she made a more dramatic entrance. On 26 October 2006, she went on The Howard Stern Show and revealed that she gained 15 pounds in the last year and would be having her plastic band removed.

In July 2002, Osbourne had surgery for cancer. She announced it was colon cancer and had spread to her lymph nodes and was more serious than originally thought. She survived the disease against a 33% survival prognosis. Despite battling cancer, she insisted that the MTV cameras document her illness during the filming of the second season of The Osbournes. When Osbourne's hair fell out during her subsequent treatment, her wigs were custom made by Cher's wigmaker. Ozzy Osbourne admitted that he "fell apart" during her treatment and recovery, and it was revealed that her son, Jack Osbourne, tried to commit suicide because of his depression stemming from his mother's condition.

In August 2004, she founded the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Cedars Sinai Hospital. In addition, she was the honoured guest at the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation's 2003 Fall Gala, where she spoke of her struggle against cancer. Osbourne has lent her support to design limited edition T-shirts or vests for the 'Little Tee Campaign' for Breast Cancer Care which donates money for breast cancer research.

Osbourne has freely admitted to having extensive cosmetic surgery. As well as documenting this in her autobiography, she appeared on Dr. Phil on 14 December 2006, and commented on everything that had been surgically changed on her body to improve her appearance. She stated that she had had a full rhytidectomy, abdominoplasty, mastopexy, as well as many other procedures, but commented that she would not have any surgery performed on her eyes or lips. She has admitted to spending £300,000 on plastic surgery.

In early November 2012, Osbourne revealed she had undergone a double mastectomy after learning she had a gene that increases the risk of developing breast cancer.

Household incidents
In 2004, Osbourne's home in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, was burgled by a man who stole gems worth £2 million. The burglar managed to get away with the gems despite being put in a headlock by Ozzy. Items taken during the burglary included wedding rings, an engagement ring, pearl and diamond necklaces, a large 52 carat (10g) sapphire ring and two pairs of diamond earrings. After the incident, Osbourne appeared on Crimewatch and offered a reward of £100,000 for the return of her valuable jewellery.

In March 2005, there was an incident in the Osbournes' mansion in Jordans, Buckinghamshire. Ozzy and Sharon were forced to flee their mansion when a blaze broke out as they slept. They were not injured but had to be treated for smoke inhalation. In 2006, another fire broke out at the Osbourne's mansion; however, none of the family was at home.

Awards and recognition

 * In 2002, Sharon Osbourne and husband Ozzy were invited to the White House Correspondents' Association dinner by Fox News Channel correspondent Greta Van Susteren for that year's event.
 * Sharon Osbourne and Ozzy Osbourne were honoured for their contribution to the music industry at a ceremony in London when the couple won a Silver Clef Award.
 * Osbourne was voted "the most amazing woman of 2003", according to a poll published by Handbag.com, a website for women, taking almost a third of the votes cast. More than 7,000 votes were cast in a range of categories.
 * During Osbourne's time battling cancer, she attended an award ceremony to collect a gong for the success of her family's television show The Osbournes. She attended the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles with her daughter Kelly Osbourne, to receive the best reality television show award.
 * In late 2004, Osbourne attended the Woman of the Year awards in London to collect an award that she had previously won at the 2002 event, but was unable to accept due to illness.
 * Osbourne was voted Freemans Celebrity mother of the Year in 2006, fending off competition from Jordan, Kate Moss and the Duchess of Cornwall.
 * In 2006, Osbourne's autobiography won Biography of the year at the British Book Awards.
 * There is a wax figure of Osbourne at Madame Tussauds.
 * She is an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

title: Sharon Osbourne


text:
Neurilemma

Neurilemma (also known as neurolemma, sheath of Schwann, or Schwann's sheath) is the outermost nucleated cytoplasmic layer of Schwann cells (also called neurilemmocytes) that surrounds the axon of the neuron. It forms the outermost layer of the nerve fiber in the peripheral nervous system.

The neurilemma is underlain by the myelin sheath (also known as the medullary sheath). In the central nervous system, axons are myelinated by oligodendrocytes, thus lack neurilemma. The myelin sheaths of oligodendrocytes do not have neurilemma because excess cytoplasm is directed centrally toward the oligodendrocyte cell body.

Neurilemma serves a protective function for peripheral nerve fibers. Damaged nerve fibers may regenerate if the cell body is not damaged and the neurilemma remains intact. The neurilemma forms a regeneration tube through which the growing axon re-establishes its original connection.

Neurilemoma is a tumor of the neurilemma.

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

title: Neurilemma


text:
User:Mattsm

Hi

title: User:Mattsm


text:
Talk:Crazy Joe Gallo

Moved from "Crazy Joe Gallo" to Joey Gallo since the odds are no one is ever going to form a link to the former without searching for it. -- Someone else 06:35 Jan 6, 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Crazy Joe Gallo


text:
Freedom Air

Freedom Air (legally Freedom Air International) was a New Zealand low-cost airline which operated since 8 December 1995 to March 2008. It was part of the Air New Zealand Group which ran scheduled passenger services from New Zealand to Australia and Fiji and charter services within New Zealand. Its main hub was Auckland Airport.

History

The airline was established in 1995 as a response to the commencement of discount services between Australia and New Zealand by Kiwi Travel International Airlines and started operations on 8 December 1995 with a single Boeing 757-200. It was ordinally formed as South Pacific Air Charters by Mount Cook Airline and renamed to Freedom Air International in 1998.

By 2004, its fleet had expanded to five Boeing 737-300 aircraft and it was providing direct non-stop services to the Australian cities of Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne from Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Palmerston North. Flights to Fiji were also operated. It briefly operated on the New Zealand main trunk domestic routes such as Auckland–Christchurch, but ceased these services to concentrate on providing value trans-Tasman flights.

In June 2006, the aircraft from Freedom Air were combined with Air New Zealand's fleet of Airbus A320-200 under the air operator's certificate of Zeal320, which was then the sole operator of the Air New Zealand Group's Airbus fleet. When the airline ceased Zeal320 had one aircraft painted in Freedom Air livery. As such, Freedom Air has no aircraft or current air operator's certificate, and Freedom Air is no longer an operational entity.

Air New Zealand ceased all Freedom Air operations from the end of March 2008.

Destinations
Throughout its existence, Freedom Air flew to six destinations in New Zealand, five in Australia and one in Fiji. When the airline shut down on 30 March 2008, all services were replaced by Air New Zealand flights, with the exception of flights out of Palmerston North, which left the airport without any international services. Flights to Nadi and Newcastle were withdrawn prior to 2008.

 * Brisbane (Brisbane Airport)
 * Gold Coast (Gold Coast Airport)
 * Melbourne (Melbourne Airport)
 * Newcastle (Newcastle Airport)
 * Sydney (Sydney Airport)
 * Sydney (Sydney Airport)

 * Nadi (Nadi International Airport)
 * Nadi (Nadi International Airport)

 * Auckland (Auckland Airport) Hub
 * Christchurch (Christchurch Airport)
 * Dunedin (Dunedin Airport)
 * Hamilton (Hamilton Airport)
 * Palmerston North (Palmerston North Airport)
 * Wellington (Wellington Airport)
 * Wellington (Wellington Airport)

Fleet

Freedom Air had operated the following aircraft:

title: Freedom Air


text:
Talk:Paintball

History section?
This article could use a brief section on the history of paintball, if anyone has nothing to do... Psychlohexane (talk) 02:29, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Especially since the Woodsball article links to the nonexistent history section. :) 73.186.162.89 (talk) 21:59, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Undue significance of unlawful use
The entire section reads as if written by an airsoft-fan troll. Including the facts is ok, but let's do somethng about the intro paragraph.
 * Many professional law-enforcement and military groups around the world actively use airsoft to simulate combat situations in the training of their personnel. *ORLY? citation? why is it even mentioned here?* Conversely *conversely??! "Airsoft goood Paintball baaaad!"* unlawful groups and terrorist have been accused of using paintball for similar tactical training purposes. *And that is an inherent trait of paintball presentable in such a general manner?!*

It just reads like a fearmongering news article. Leaves a bad taste, and definitely not encyclopedic. Instead, I propose getting rid of the first sentence, and replacing the intro with: "In the past, unlawful groups and terrorist have been accused of using paintball for tactical training purposes in connection with the following incidents:" 82.131.194.26 (talk) 13:21, 7 April 2013 (UTC)
 * ohwell I couldn't stand the thing and made the change, revert if you don't like. :) 82.131.194.26 (talk) 13:24, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
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For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, and, if allowed under fair use, may copy sentences and phrases, provided they are included in quotation marks and referenced properly. The material may also be rewritten, providing it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Therefore, such paraphrased portions must provide their source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. Diannaa (talk) 21:41, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just added archive links to 4 one external links on Paintball. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
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External links modified
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External links modified
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 * Added tag to http://www.grippaintball.com/best-paintball-guns/
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 * Added tag to http://dailyuw.com/2001/4/18/ready-aim-paint/
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title: Talk:Paintball


text:
Public holidays in Germany

By law, "the Sundays and the public holidays remain protected as days of rest from work and of spiritual elevation" (Art. 139 WRV, part of the German constitution via Art. 140 GG). Thus all Sundays are, in a manner, public holidays – but usually not understood by the term "holiday" (except for, normally, Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday).

Public holidays apart from the Sundays (there must be some of them constitutionally) can be declared by law either by the Federation or by the Länder for their respective jurisdictions. At present the only federal holiday is German Unity Day (Unity Treaty, Art. 2 sect. 2); all the other holidays, even those celebrated all over Germany, are prescribed by state legislation.

Quiet days
A couple of days are designated as stille Tage ("quiet days") by state legislation, which regularly means that public dancing or sport events, music at inns (if live or if not much quieter than usual) etc. are prohibited.

Some public holidays or commemorations are quiet days:
 * Ash Wednesday (in Bavaria)
 * Holy Thursday (in some states; in some of them beginning in the evening)
 * Good Friday
 * Holy Saturday (in some states)
 * Buß- und Bettag (where it is a public holiday and in a couple of other states)
 * All Saints' Day (where it is a public holiday)
 * All Souls' Day (in Lower Saxony and the Saarland)
 * Volkstrauertag
 * Totensonntag (the last Sunday of the Protestant liturgical year)
 * Christmas Eve (beginning in the afternoon, in some states)

The status of quiet days is also given to festivities joyous in nature: in Hesse, the highest Christian holidays are half-quiet days (until midday) and in Rhineland-Palatinate, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day are two-thirds-quiet days (until 4 pm). For details see the German article on the Tanzverbot ("dancing ban").

Flag days
A yet third category that may sometimes be called "holidays" in a sense are the "flag days" (Beflaggungstage). Only the very highest institutions and the military use the national flags at every day, so the directives when flags are to be displayed mark the days in question as special.

Flags are to be shown by Federal Decree on and by state decrees on other days, such as election days for state parliaments, state constitution days, anniversary of the election of the Federal President (in Berlin) and so forth.
 * Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January, half-mast)
 * Labour Day (1 May)
 * Europe Day (9 May)
 * Constitution Day (23 May)
 * Popular Uprising Day (17 June) This day was public holiday under the title of "German Unity Day" from 1954 until 1990 when that unity actually was achieved.
 * World Refugee Day (20 June)
 * Resistance Day (20 July)
 * German Unity Day (3 October)
 * Memorial Day (half-mast) (two Sundays before the first Sunday of Advent)
 * Election Day (Bundestag, European Parliament)

Frequently flags are ordered ad hoc to be shown at half-mast in cases of national mourning.

Unofficial holidays
Either Carnival Monday ("Rosenmontag") or Mardi Gras is a de facto holiday in some towns and cities in Catholic western and southern Germany which have a strong Carnival tradition.

Also, Christmas Eve is developing into a semi-holiday: from mid-afternoon it is practically treated as a holiday, and while shops still open in the morning, for other businesses (apart from those that work even on holidays) this is becoming increasingly unusual; schools are closed in any case.

Customs about holidays
Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) and Corpus Christi (Fronleichnam) are both always on Thursdays. By taking only one day's leave, employees can have a four-day weekend.

The Three Kings Day, better known as Epiphany, is 6 January, the day after the 12 days of Christmas. In parts of Germany, it has its own local customs.

title: Public holidays in Germany


text:
George I

George I or 1 may refer to:

People

 * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631)
 * George I of Constantinople (d. 686)
 * George of Beltan (d. 790)
 * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9)
 * George I of Georgia (d. 1027)
 * Yuri Dolgorukiy (c. 1099–1157), George I of Kiev/Russia
 * George I of Duklja, King of Duklja (1113–1118, and again 1125–1131)
 * George I of Bulgaria (d. 1308/9)
 * Yuri I of Galicia (c. 1252–1308)
 * George I of Imereti (fl. late 1300s)
 * George I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (c. 1390–1474)
 * George VIII of Georgia (1417–1476), George I of Kakheti
 * George I of Münsterberg (1470–1502)
 * George I of Brieg (c. 1482–1521)
 * George I, Duke of Pomerania (1493–1531)
 * George I of Württemberg-Mömpelgard (1498–1558)
 * George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (1547–1596)
 * George I Rákóczi (1593–1648), prince of Transylvania
 * George I of Great Britain (1660–1727), also Elector of Hanover
 * George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1761–1803)
 * George I (Miskito) (d. 1777)
 * George, King of Saxony (1832–1904)
 * George I of Greece (1845–1913)

Other uses

 * GEORGE 1, version of GEORGE operating system

title: George I


text:
User:Urtica~enwiki

http://www.KnottyBits.com

title: User:Urtica~enwiki


text:
Document examiner

Document examiner may refer to:

 * Questioned document examiner, a professional in the forensic examination of documents
 * Symbolics Document Examiner, a software program

title: Document examiner


text:
Fuxi

Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲) is a culture hero in Chinese mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking, as well as the Cangjie system of writing Chinese characters around 2900 BC or 2000BC. Fuxi was counted as the first mythical emperor of China, "a divine being with a serpent's body" who was miraculously born, a Taoist deity, and/or a member of the Three Sovereigns at the beginning of the Chinese dynastic period.

Some representations show him as a human with snake-like characteristics, "a leaf-wreathed head growing out of a mountain", "or as a man clothed with animal skins."

Names
He is also known as Bao Xi (包牺) and Mi Xi (宓羲).

Origin
Pangu was said to be the creation god in Chinese mythology. He was a giant sleeping within an egg of chaos. As he awoke, he stood up and divided the sky and the earth. Pangu then died after standing up, and his body turned into rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and everything else in the world, among which is a powerful being known as Huaxu (華胥). Huaxu gave birth to a twin brother and sister, Fuxi and Nüwa. Fuxi and Nüwa are said to be creatures that have faces of human and bodies of snakes.

However, in some myths, Fuxi was held to be the creator, not Pangu, who worked alone and not with Nüwa.

Fuxi was known as the "original god", and he was said to have been born in the lower-middle reaches of the Yellow River in a place called Chengji (成紀) (possibly modern Lantian, Shaanxi province, or Tianshui, Gansu province).

A possible historical interpretation of the myth is that Huaxu (Fuxi's mother) was a leader during the matriarchal society (c. 2600BC) as early Chinese developed language skill while Fuxi and Nüwa were leaders in the early patriarchal society (c. 2600BC) while Chinese began the marriage rituals.

A divinity Taihao (太皞, "The Great Bright One") appears, vaguely, in sources before the Han dynasty, independent from Fuxi. Later, Fuxi is identified with Taihao, the latter being his courtesy or formal name.

According to legend, the goddess of the Luo River, Mifei, was the daughter of Fuxi. Additionally, some versions of the legend state that she is Fuxi's consort. She drowned in the Luo River while crossing it and became the spirit of the Luo River.

Creation legend
According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Fuxi and Nüwa were the original humans who lived on the mythological Kunlun Mountain (today's Huashan). One day they set up two separated piles of fire, and the fire eventually became one. Under the fire, they decided to become husband and wife. Fuxi and Nüwa used clay to create offspring, and with the divine power they made the clay figures come alive. These clay figures were the earliest human beings. Fuxi and Nüwa were usually recognized by Chinese as two of the Three Sovereigns in the early patriarchal society in China (c. 2600BC), based on the myth about Fuxi establishing marriage ritual in his tribe. The creation of human beings was a symbolic story of having a larger family structure that included the figure of a father.

Social importance
On one of the columns of the Fuxi Temple in Gansu Province, the following couplet describes Fuxi's importance: "Among the three primogenitors of Huaxia civilization, Fu Xi in Huaiyang Country ranks first." During the time of his predecessor Nüwa, society was matriarchal.

Fuxi taught his subjects to cook and various methods of hunting and fishing, including fishing with nets and hunting with weapons made of bone, wood, or bamboo. He instituted the basic family structure, as well as marriage, and offered the first open-air sacrifices to heaven. A stone tablet, dated AD 160, shows Fuxi with Nüwa.

Traditionally, Fuxi is considered the originator of the methods of divination that were passed down through the ages before the ''I Ching.  In other versions of the story, he is credited to the writing of some of the I Ching'' itself. His divination powers are attributed to his reading of the He Map (or the Yellow River Map). According to this tradition, Fuxi had the arrangement of the trigrams of the I Ching revealed to him in the markings on the back of a mythical dragon horse (sometimes said to be a tortoise) that emerged from the Luo River. This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Zhou dynasty. This discovery is said to have been the origin of calligraphy. Fuxi is also credited with the invention of the Guqin musical instrument, though credit for this is also given to Shennong and Yellow Emperor.

The Figurists viewed Fuxi as Enoch, the Biblical patriarch. Alexander Catcott, a Hutchinsonian, identified Fuxi with the Biblical Noah (A Treatise on the Deluge).

Fuxi and Nüwa were also thought to be gods of silk.

Death
Fuxi is said to have lived for 197 years altogether and died at a place called Chen (modern Huaiyang, Henan), where a monument to him can still be found and visited as a tourist attraction.

title: Fuxi


text:
World Scout Jamboree

The World Scout Jamboree is a Scouting jamboree of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, typically attended by several tens of thousands of Scouts from around the world, aged 14 to 17. At the jamboree, many scouts swap badges.

The first World Scout Jamboree was organized by The Scout Association in London. With exceptions for the World War years and the Iranian Revolution, it has been organized approximately every four years, and in the more recent years has been organised by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), in different locations over the world. The 25th World Scout Jamboree was held in South Korea in 2023.

In lexicography, "Jamboree" is considered an Americanism that traces back to 1860–65 and refers to a joyful, noisy gathering. The term is believed to originate from the words jabber (rapid, indistinct talk) and shivaree (noisy celebration), with "m" from jam (crowd).

History
While World Scout Jamboree is the expression used by the World Organization of the Scout Movement, other organizations held events called "jamborees" for their members.

The Scouting program became an international success following its founding by Robert Baden-Powell in 1907. With its continuing growth, the founder of the movement saw a need for a gathering of representatives of Scouting from all around the world. The general aim was to foster a worldwide brotherhood, and to help the young Scouts in the movement learn about other peoples and nations by direct interaction with them.

The idea of organizing such periodical international gatherings was originally conveyed to Baden-Powell by the General Chief of the Scouts of Greece, Konstantinos ("Kokos") Melas, during the 1918 international Scout meeting, in England. Captain Melas proposed the gatherings should repeat every four years, in the same way Olympic Games were held in Ancient Greece. The suggestion was accepted with enthusiasm by Baden-Powell, who named the gatherings "Jamborees".

It was in 1920 that the first World Scout Jamboree was realized, held in the Olympia halls in Kensington, London. Symbolically, the Jamboree site bore the name of the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Olympia. 8,000 Scouts from 34 countries attended the event.

Thereafter, a Jamboree has been held every four years. There are two exceptions to this: no Jamboree was held between 1937 and 1947 because of the Second World War, and the 1979 Jamboree, which was to be held in Iran, was cancelled due to the political upheaval in the region at that time. The Jamboree has been held in different countries around the world. The first seven Jamborees were held in Europe. The eighth World Jamboree was held in North America where the tradition of moving the Jamboree among the continents began. As yet, Africa has not hosted a jamboree.

To replace the cancelled event of 1979, the World Scout Committee determined that an alternative celebration, the World Jamboree Year should take place. Several regional camps took place, such as the 12th Australian/4th Asia-Pacific Jamboree, held in Perth, Western Australia, along with countless Join-in-Jamboree activities — designed to allow Scouts from around the world to participate in an activity that thousands of other Scouts around the world were also participating in at the same time. This Join-in programme was reproduced again as part of the Scouting 2007 Centenary celebrations.

The greatest attendance of all Jamborees was in 2019, where over 45,000 members experienced a Jamboree in West Virginia, US. This number represented the permanent contingent who remained for the entire event. They were joined by hundreds of thousands of visiting Scouts who participated on a day basis.

The first Jamboree was more akin to an exhibition of Scouting, allowing visitors to see how things were done in other parts of the world. The Second Jamboree was conducted on a camp basis and each successive Jamboree has developed on this format where the programme is typically more activity oriented, with plenty of time for Scouts from different nations to interact and learn about each other in less formal ways than an exhibition would allow.

The 16th World Scout Jamboree went to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, in Sydney, NSW, Australia.

The 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 was held in Hylands Park, Essex, United Kingdom, and celebrated the Centenary of Scouting. Because of this, the honour of hosting the event was again bestowed upon the United Kingdom, as the birthplace of Scouting. Over 40,000 young people camped in August at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex. Hundreds of thousands of day visitors attended events in the south-east of England as part of the Jamboree.

The 22nd World Scout Jamboree was at Rinkaby, Sweden from 27 July to 8 August 2011; the 23rd World Scout Jamboree was at Kirara-hama, Yamaguchi City, Japan from 28 July to 8 August 2015; the 24th World Scout Jamboree was at The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia, United States, from 22 July to 2 August 2019.

The 25th World Scout Jamboree was at Saemangeum in South Korea from 2 to 12 August 2023. It was accompanied by great heat from the beginning, several contingents, including British and American, therefore left the camp. On August 7, the Korean government decided to end the jamboree in Saemangeum early and to evacuate the participants to Seoul, the heat wave was to be replaced by a tropical storm. The jamboree program continued in the capital city of Seoul, with participants staying at various locations throughout the city, including military bases and universities. The closing ceremony was held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, which hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

The next 26th World Scout Jamboree will be held in 2027 at Sobieszowo Island near Gdańsk in Poland.

Jamboree on the Air
Jamboree on the Air, usually referred to as JOTA, is an international Scouting and Guiding activity held annually on the third full weekend in October. The event was first held in conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of Scouting in 1957, and was devised by radio amateur operator Leslie R. Mitchell who used the callsign G3BHK. It is now considered the largest event organized by the WOSM annually.

Amateur radio operators from all over the world participate with over 500,000 Scouts and Guides to teach them about radio and to assist them to contact their fellow Scouts and Guides by means of amateur radio and since 2004, by the VOIP-based Echolink. Scouts and Guides are also encouraged to send paper or electronic confirmations known as "QSL cards", or "eQSLs" when they are sent electronically. This provides the Scouts and Guides with a means of learning about fellow Scouts and Guides from around the world. It is an adjunct to the World Scout Jamboree.

The event is recognized as one of international participation by the various Scout and Guide organisations, and supports several awards which are a part of Scouting and Guiding programmes.

Jamboree on the Internet
Jamboree on the Internet, known by its acronym JOTI, is an international Scouting activity held annually. Participants, through the use of designated Chats from all over the world, can contact their fellow Scouts by means of the Internet. Common communication methods include ScoutLink (IRC), e-mail, and VOIP. This provides the Scouts with a means of learning about fellow Scouts from around the world. JOTI operates alongside JOTA (Jamboree on the Air) and is an official event of the World Organization of the Scout Movement.

JOTI was pioneered in 1995 by Queanbeyan Rovers whilst one Rover, Norvan Vogt was on a student exchange in the Netherlands, with the home crew in Australia co-ordinated by Brett Sheffield. They connected Putten, Netherlands and Queanbeyan, Australia with dedicated IRC servers. In November 1996 the World Scout Committee, noting that Scouting already had a considerable presence on the Internet, and that there was already an informal and rapidly growing Jamboree on the Internet, decided that JOTI should become an official international Scouting event, and that it should be held on the same weekend as the Jamboree on the Air (JOTA).

2011 saw the first ever 'JOTI Radio' station, a broadcast internet radio station based in the UK to provide entertainment for the JOTI weekend, which had live interviews from Scouts all over the world, the team that lead JOTI Radio are made up of the 'Avon Scout Radio' team, which are a County Active Support Unit for Avon Scouts and provide broadcast radio services within the Scouting Movement worldwide. JOTI Radio is now part of the annual JOTA/JOTI weekend.

Jamboree on the Trail
Following on the idea of the Join-in events from the World Jamboree Year, Jamboree on the Trail (or JOTT), is a co-ordinated event where Scouts around the world simultaneously participate in local hikes. It takes place on an annual basis on the 2nd Saturday in May.

This type of event allows Scouts to take part in activities at the same time as other Scouts, promoting the idea of the Scouting brotherhood. Participants are awarded a JOTT badge as a recognition of having participated in this worldwide event.

Smaller events
There are up to ten smaller Jamboree (or Jamborette) events held each year around the world. This includes Regional Jamborees, which are held every three years in their areas of the world. Scouts from outside these regions are invited, but attendance is generally lower (for example, the EuroJam 2005 event hosted 10,000 Scouts, mostly from Europe).

National associations, and sub-national groups, also organise a number of events, such as the WINGS event and KIJ, which is organised by a County level body.

title: World Scout Jamboree


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Stanley Ketchel

Stanisław Kiecal (September 14, 1886 – October 15, 1910), better known in the boxing world as Stanley Ketchel, was an American professional boxer who became one of the greatest World Middleweight Champions in history. He was nicknamed "The Michigan Assassin." He was murdered at a ranch in Conway, Missouri, at the age of 24.

Biography
He was born in 1886 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Tomasz and Julia (née Olbinska) Kiecal, whose family immigrated from the village of Sulmierzyce in Piotrków Trybunalski, Guberniya, in modern-day central Poland.

He avoided school, instead falling in with a gang of street kids and often getting into fist fights. At twelve years old, he ran away from home, becoming a child hobo. As a teenager he lived in Butte, Montana, where he found employment first as a hotel bellhop and then as a bouncer. This profession obviously led to many scraps that established his reputation as the best fist fighter in town. Soon enough sixteen-year-old Stanley was performing in backroom boxing matches with older locals for twenty dollars a week. He began traveling throughout Montana, offering to take on any man brave enough to face him. Between 1903 and 1906, he lost just twice in thirty-nine contests and, in 1907, moved to California, where he knew most of boxing's big names and big fights waited for him.

Professional boxing career
Only a middleweight, Ketchel was also known for taking on heavyweights, who sometimes outweighed him by more than 30 pounds (14 kg). According to hearsay, before each of his fights, he would imagine that his opponent had insulted his mother, with whom he had a very close relationship; thus, his anger would motivate him to fight with fury.

He started boxing professionally in 1903, at 16, in Butte, Montana. In his first fight, Ketchel knocked out Kid Tracy in one round. In his second fight, he was beaten by decision in six rounds by Maurice Thompson. He boxed his first 41 bouts in Montana, and had a record of 36 wins, two losses, and three draws during that span. He lost once more to Thompson in their rematch and then controversially drew with him in their rubber match, in a bout that many people thought Ketchel had won. Afterwards, he went on to beat Tom Kingsley, among others, before moving his campaign on to California in 1907.

There, he won three fights that year, and drew one in Marysville against the man many considered the World Middleweight Champion, Joe Thomas. In his next bout, Thomas and he had a rematch and Ketchel won, by knockout in 32 rounds. Ketchel was then recognized by many as the World Middleweight Champion. He finished the year by beating Thomas again, this time by decision.

Middleweight champion

On February 8, 1908, Ketchel met the man who was generally recognized as the World Welterweight Champion and one of the leading middleweights of the era, Mike "Twin" Sullivan, knocking him out in the first round and winning general recognition as World Middleweight Champion. Sullivan often fought above the welterweight limit, making him a light middleweight. Whether Ketchel became world champion when he defeated Thomas or Mike Sullivan has always been up to debate, but the fact remains that Mike Sullivan and not Thomas is historically remembered as a world champion.

He proceeded to retain the title against Mike's twin brother, Jack "Twin" Sullivan, also a former world champion, by a knockout in 20 rounds; against future world champion Billy Papke by decision in 10; against Hugo Kelly by a knockout in three and against Thomas, by a knockout in two.

Then, he lost the belt to Papke by a knockout in 12, but Papke and he had an immediate rematch and Ketchel regained the title when he beat Papke by a knockout in 11 in their third match.

Ketchel began 1909 by fighting former Light Heavyweight Champion Philadelphia Jack O'Brien. Ketchel survived a terrible beating at the hand of the slick, quick O'Brien in the early rounds, only to mount a terrific comeback and score four knockdowns in the ninth and tenth rounds. When the final bell rang at the end of the 10th round, O'Brien was lying unconscious on the mat, his head in a resin box in his corner. Under New York rules at the time, though, O'Brien had been saved by the bell and because official decisions were outlawed in New York boxing, the fight was declared a "no decision". A few weeks later, Ketchel had a rematch with O' Brien, knocking out Philadelphia Jack in three rounds.

A fourth fight with Billy Papke followed. Ketchel again won in a tumultuous slugfest to defend his championship and end their series of fights with a record of 3-1 in their four encounters. This (fourth) fight took place in the outdoor Mission Street Arena in Colma, California, during a terrible thunderstorm, yet neither fighter relented in his pursuit of victory until Stanley took the 20-round decision.

Ketchel fought Sam Langford on April 27, 1910. It was a hard-pressed fight by both men, each displaying terrific hitting power for all six rounds of the short bout. No knock downs were scored and both had plenty of energy in the end. Langford won by decision. A longer rematch bout was rumored, but never happened. Some disputed the decision, although a majority of people felt that Langford had won the bout, which following a decision-appealing vote, it was decided (in an uncontroversial manner) that it would stand as a decision win for Langford.

Ketchel vs. Johnson
Ketchel's 1909 battle with Jack Johnson has been called by many a modern-day "David and Goliath". In the 12th round, Ketchel floored Johnson with a right hand. Johnson got up and knocked out Ketchel with a right uppercut.

Ketchel and Johnson were rumored to have been friends and to have gone gambling, as well as hit the brothels, together; they shared a love for women. Ketchel and Johnson planned to fight together. Because Ketchel was shorter than Johnson, he wore long coats to conceal the platform shoes he had worn to make him look taller at a publicity event. They set up a script for their fight to stretch it to 20 rounds, as a 20-round fight would guarantee boxing fans would pay to go to local theaters to watch the replay of the fight. After 12 rounds, Ketchel swung a surprise punch that knocked Johnson down. Regaining his feet, Johnson then knocked out Ketchel with a swift combination to Ketchel's head and jaw. Ketchel did not wake up for many minutes and some of his teeth were knocked out by the blow, with a few remaining embedded in Johnson's glove.

Murder
The following year, 1910, Ketchel fought six times (including one exhibition), but his fast living had worn him down. Hoping to regain his strength before a rematch with Jack Johnson, Ketchel moved to the ranch of his friend R. P. Dickerson, on what is now referred to as Dickerson Ranch Road, near Conway, Missouri. Dickerson had just hired a cook, Goldie Smith, and a ranch hand, who Smith said was her husband, Walter Kurtz. Walter Kurtz turned out to be Walter Dipley. Walter Dipley and Goldie Smith were not married, and in fact, had just met each other a month before Dickerson had hired them.

After being upbraided by Ketchel for beating a horse on the morning of October 14, Dipley decided to get even by robbing him. The following morning, Smith seated Ketchel at the breakfast table with his back to the door and Dipley, armed with a .22 caliber rifle, came up behind him and shouted, "Get your hands up!" Ketchel stood up, and as he turned around, Dipley shot him. The bullet traveled from his shoulder into his lung and Ketchel fell to the floor mortally wounded. Dipley then took Ketchel's handgun and smashed Ketchel in the face with it. At the same time, Smith rifled Ketchel's pockets for his money. After promising to meet Goldie Smith later that night, Dipley ran from the ranch.

As he lay dying, Ketchel told the former ranch foreman, C. E. Bailey, that Goldie Smith had robbed him, she told police officers that Ketchel had raped her and that that was the reason why Dipley had shot him. Her story fell apart and she admitted her complicity in the robbery, but stated she did not know Dipley was going to kill the reigning champion.

In an effort to save the young fighter's life, R. P. Dickerson chartered a special train to take Stanley Ketchel to a hospital in Springfield, Missouri, but Ketchel died around 7 o'clock that night. His last words were: "I'm so tired. Take me home to mother."

Dickerson also offered a $5,000 dead or alive reward (preferably dead) for Dipley, who was captured at a neighboring farmhouse the next day. Upon being informed of Ketchel's death, his manager Wilson Mizner reportedly said, "Tell them to start counting ten over him. He'll get up."

Aftermath
Both Walter Dipley and Goldie Smith were convicted of murder and robbery at a jury trial in January 1911, and were given life sentences. Smith had her murder conviction overturned and she served 17 months for the robbery. Walter Dipley served 23 years before he was paroled. He died in 1956, 22 years after his release from prison.

Legacy
Ketchel was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery at Grand Rapids, Michigan. His funeral was the best-attended burial ceremony in that state until the Ford family surpassed him during the 20th century. A plaque in his honor is at the corner of Stocking Avenue and 3rd Street, and a statue is at 438 Bridge Street Northwest. The Ketchel Valley neighborhood on Grand Rapids' west side is named in Ketchel's honor.

Ketchel is now enshrined in the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.

The Ring in 2004 ranked Ketchel as the eighth-greatest middleweight of all time, behind Harry Greb, Sugar Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon, Marvin Hagler, Jake LaMotta, Charley Burley, and Tiger Flowers. The Ring also named Ketchel number six on their list of 100 Best Punchers of All Time.

Nat Fleischer, the late ring historian and founding editor of The Ring, considered Stanley to be the greatest middleweight in history.

He had a record of 51 wins, four losses, four draws, one no contest, and four no decisions (newspaper decisions: 2-1-1), with 48 wins by knockout. He was the first middleweight champion to regain the world title after losing it.

Professional boxing record
All information in this section is derived from BoxRec, unless otherwise stated.

Official record
All newspaper decisions are officially regarded as “no decision” bouts and are not counted as a win, loss or draw.

Unofficial record
Record with the inclusion of newspaper decisions to the win/loss/draw column.

Popular culture
Subject of The Killings of Stanley Ketchel, a novel by James Carlos Blake

Subject of the short story "The Light of the World," by Ernest Hemingway, a chapter in Hemingway's 'The Nick Adams Stories']

Biography Stanley Ketchel: A Life of Triumph and Prophecy, by Manuel A. Mora

Biography The Michigan Assassin: The Saga of Stanley Ketchel, by Nat Fleischer, RING Editor 1946

Book Crossing the Color Line: Stanley Ketchel's Challenge for Jack Johnson's Heavyweight Crown, by Vernon Gravely

title: Stanley Ketchel


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Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument

The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is a United States national monument protecting the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante (Escalante River) in southern Utah. It was established in 1996 by President Bill Clinton under the authority of the Antiquities Act with 1.7 million acres of land, later expanded to 1,880,461 acre. In 2017, the monument's size was reduced by half in a succeeding presidential proclamation, and it was restored in 2021. The land is among the most remote in the country; it was the last to be mapped in the contiguous United States.

The monument is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of the National Conservation Lands system. Grand Staircase–Escalante is the first and largest national monument managed by the BLM. Visitor centers are located in Cannonville, Big Water, Escalante, and Kanab.

Geography
The monument stretches from the towns of Big Water, Glendale, and Kanab, Utah in the southwest to the towns of Escalante and Boulder in the northeast. The monument is slightly larger in area than the state of Delaware. After a reduction ordered by presidential proclamation in December 2017, the monument encompassed 1003863 acres, but it was restored to 1,870,000 acre in 2021.

The western part of the monument is dominated by the Paunsaugunt Plateau and the Paria River, and is adjacent to Bryce Canyon National Park. This section shows the geologic progression of the Grand Staircase. Features include the slot canyons of Bull Valley Gorge, Willis Creek, and Lick Wash which are accessed from Skutumpah Road.

The center section is dominated by a single long ridge, called the Kaiparowits Plateau from the west, and Fifty-Mile Mountain when viewed from the east. Fifty-Mile Mountain stretches southeast from the town of Escalante to the Colorado River in Glen Canyon. The eastern face of the mountain is a 2200 ft escarpment. The western side (the Kaiparowits Plateau) is a shallow slope descending to the south and west.

East of Fifty-Mile Mountain is the Canyons of the Escalante. The monument is bounded by Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the east and south. The popular hiking, backpacking, and canyoneering areas include Calf Creek Falls off Utah Scenic Byway 12, and Zebra Canyon, Harris Wash, and the Devils Garden. The latter areas are accessed via the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, which extends southeast from Escalante, near the base of Fifty-Mile Mountain. The Dry Fork Slots of Coyote Gulch and lower Coyote Gulch are also located off the Hole-in-the-Rock Road.

Paleontology
Since 2000, numerous dinosaur fossils over 75 million years old have been found at Grand Staircase–Escalante.

In 2002, a volunteer at the Monument discovered a 75-million-year-old dinosaur near the Arizona border. On October 3, 2007, the dinosaur's name, Gryposaurus monumentensis (hook-beaked lizard from the monument) was announced in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. G. monumentensis was at least 30 ft long and 10 ft tall, and has a powerful jaw with more than 800 teeth. Many of the specimens from the Kaiparowits Formation are reposited at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Two ceratopsid (horned) dinosaurs, also discovered at the monument, were introduced by the Utah Geological Survey in 2007. They were uncovered in the Wahweap Formation, which is just below the Kaiparowits formation, where the duckbill was extracted. They lived about 80 million or 81 million years ago. The two fossils are called the Last Chance skull and the Nipple Butte skull. They were found in 2002 and 2001, respectively. Both were later identified as belonging to Diabloceratops.

In 2013 the discovery of a new species, Lythronax argestes, was announced. It is a tyrannosaur that is approximately 13 million years older than Tyrannosaurus, named for its great resemblance to its descendant. The specimen can be seen at the Natural History Museum of Utah.

Human history
Humans did not settle permanently in the area until the Basketmaker III Era, around AD 500. Both the Fremont and ancestral Puebloan people lived here; the Fremont hunted and gathered below the plateau and near the Escalante Valley, and the ancestral Puebloans farmed in the canyons. Both groups grew corn, beans, and squash, built brush-roofed pithouses, and took advantage of natural rock shelters. Ruins and rock art can be found throughout the Monument.

The first record of white settlers in the region dates from 1866 when Captain James Andrus led a group of cavalry to the headwaters of the Escalante River.

In 1871 Jacob Hamblin of Kanab, on his way to resupply the second John Wesley Powell expedition, mistook the Escalante River for the Dirty Devil River and became the first Anglo to travel the length of the canyon.

In 1879 the San Juan Expedition crossed through the region on their way to a proposed Mormon colony in the far southeastern corner of Utah. Traveling on a largely unexplored route, the group eventually arrived at the 1200 ft sandstone cliffs that surrounded Glen Canyon. They found the only breach for many miles in the otherwise vertical cliffs, which they named Hole-in-the-Rock. The narrow, steep, and rocky crevice eventually led to a steep sandy slope in the lower section and eventually down to the Colorado River. With winter settling in, the company decided to go down the crevice rather than retreat. After six weeks of labor, including excavation and using explosives to shift rock, they rigged a pulley system to lower their wagons and animals down the resulting road and off the cliff. There they built a ferry, crossed the river, and climbed back out through Cottonwood Canyon on the other side.

National monument
A national monument was initially proposed in 1934, but the project floundered until several decades later. It was on September 18, 1996, at the height of the 1996 presidential election campaign by President Bill Clinton, that the national monument was declared and was controversial from the moment of creation. The declaration ceremony was held at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, rather than in Utah.

Local officials such as Democratic U.S. Representative Bill Orton from Utah objected to the designation of the national monument, questioning whether the Antiquities Act allowed such vast amounts of land to be designated. However, United States Supreme Court decisions have long established the president's discretion to protect land under the Antiquities Act, and several lawsuits filed in an effort to overturn the designation were dismissed by federal courts. The area's designation as a monument also nixed the Andalex Coal Mine that was proposed for a remote location on the Kaiparowits Plateau. Wilderness designation for the lands in the monument had long been sought by environmental groups; however, the designation of a monument is not the same as wilderness designation, as activities such as motorized vehicle and mountain bike use are allowed in National Monuments.

There are contentious issues peculiar to the state of Utah. Certain plots of land were assigned when Utah became a state (in 1896) as School and Institutional Trust Lands (SITLa, a Utah state agency), to be managed to produce funds for the state school system. These lands included scattered plots in the monument that could no longer be developed. The SITLa plots within the monument were exchanged for federal lands elsewhere in Utah, plus equivalent mineral rights and $50 million cash by an act of Congress, the Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998, supported by Democrats and Republicans, and signed into law as Public Law 105–335 on October 31, 1998.

A more difficult problem is the resolution of United States Revised statute 2477 (R.S. 2477) road claims. R.S. 2477 (Section 8 of the 1866 Mining Act) states: "The right-of-way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted." The statute was repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, but the repeal was subject to valid existing rights.

A process for resolving disputed claims has not been established, and in 1996, the 104th United States Congress passed a law that prohibited the R.S. 2477 (proposed resolution regulations) written by the Clinton Administration from taking effect without congressional approval.

The right to maintain and improve the many unpaved roads in the national monument is disputed, with county officials placing county road signs on the roads they claim and occasionally applying bulldozers to grade claimed roads, while the Bureau of Land Management tries to exert control over the same roads. Litigation between the state and federal government over R.S. 2477 and road maintenance in the national monument is an ongoing issue.

On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered that the monument's size be reduced by nearly 47% to 1003863 acres, with the remainder divided into three areas, two of which border one another along the Paria River. Bears Ears National Monument was significantly reduced in size at the same time. Conservation, angling, hunting, and outdoor recreation groups filed suit to block any reduction in the national monument, arguing that the president has no legal authority to materially shrink a national monument. The cases were still pending at the 2020 election.

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for a review of the reduction of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante monuments. On October 8, 2021, he restored the original boundaries.


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Zilker Park

Zilker Metropolitan Park is a recreational area in south Austin, Texas at the juncture of Barton Creek and the Colorado River that comprises over 350 acre of publicly owned land. It is named after its benefactor, Andrew Jackson Zilker, who donated the land to the city in 1917. The land was developed into a park during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Today the park serves as a hub for many recreational activities and the hike and bike trail around Lady Bird Lake, both of which run next to the park. The large size of the park makes it a capable venue for large-scale events such as the Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Zilker Park Kite Festival. The park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

History
The land surrounding Barton Springs was claimed by its namesake, William Barton, in the 1830s for his cattle ranch. In the 1860s it was acquired by the Rabb family, who operated mills on Barton Creek. In the early twentieth century Andrew Jackson Zilker bought a 350 acre plot of land between the Colorado River and Barton Creek, including the Springs, and used the spring water in his ice-making business. Zilker sold his land to the City of Austin in a series of sales in 1917, 1923 and 1931; he donated the proceeds of the sale to a trust dedicated to funding Austin's public schools.

In the 1930s the city transformed the ranch into a space for public recreation, building park amenities and buildings with help from the Civil Works Administration. Barton Springs Pool was given a concrete dam and an enlarged swimming area. In 1934 the park was named Zilker Metropolitan Park, after its donor and patron.

Attractions
In addition to general-purpose lawns, sports fields, cross country courses, historical markers, concession stands and picnic areas, the park includes numerous public attractions. The Zilker Botanical Garden features several independently maintained gardens located near the center of the park and hosts the Zilker Gardens Festival every spring. The Austin Nature & Science Center offers ecological exhibits, nature hike trails, and children's educational programming. The Umlauf Sculpture Garden adjoins the southeast end of the park, displaying sculptural works by artist Charles Umlauf and others. The Zilker Hillside Theater hosts regular performances by local theatre companies, including free "Shakespeare in the Park" every May and an annual summer musical. Barton Springs Pool adjoins the park on the east, offering public swimming; other water activities are available in Barton Creek. The Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center by Barton Springs Pool offers exhibits about the natural history of the Edwards Aquifer that feeds Barton Springs. Every winter the 155 ft Zilker Holiday Tree is illuminated, along with a Trail of Lights display. The Zilker Zephyr gauge miniature railway carries passengers on a tour around the park. It opened in 1961 and ran until 2019. In 2019, it closed down due to erosion. It has been reopened as of August 2023 as Zilker Eagle.

The park's amenities and wide, open spaces allow it to host a variety of large events each year—notably, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which fills the park for two weekends each fall with numerous live musical performances by prominent country, folk and rock artists, among others.

Trails

 * Roy and Ann Butler Trail encircling Lady Bird Lake
 * Violet Crown Trail runs south from Barton Springs Pool to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

title: Zilker Park