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Empowerment

Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. Empowerment as action refers both to the process of self-empowerment and to professional support of people, which enables them to overcome their sense of powerlessness and lack of influence, and to recognize and use their resources.

As a term, empowerment originates from American community psychology and is associated with the social scientist Julian Rappaport (1981).

In social work, empowerment forms a practical approach of resource-oriented intervention. In the field of citizenship education and democratic education, empowerment is seen as a tool to increase the responsibility of the citizen. Empowerment is a key concept in the discourse on promoting civic engagement. Empowerment as a concept, which is characterized by a move away from a deficit-oriented towards a more strength-oriented perception, can increasingly be found in management concepts, as well as in the areas of continuing education and self-help.

Definitions
Robert Adams points to the limitations of any single definition of 'empowerment', and the danger that academic or specialist definitions might take away the word and the connected practices from the very people they are supposed to belong to. Still, he offers a minimal definition of the term: 'Empowerment: the capacity of individuals, groups and/or communities to take control of their circumstances, exercise power and achieve their own goals, and the process by which, individually and collectively, they are able to help themselves and others to maximize the quality of their lives.'

One definition for the term is "an intentional, ongoing process centered in the local community, involving mutual respect, critical reflection, caring, and group participation, through which people lacking an equal share of resources gain greater access to and control over those resources".

Rappaport's (1984) definition includes: "Empowerment is viewed as a process: the mechanism by which people, organizations, and communities gain mastery over their lives."

Sociological empowerment often addresses members of groups that social discrimination processes have excluded from decision-making processes through – for example – discrimination based on disability, race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Empowerment as a methodology is also associated with feminism.

Process
Empowerment is the process of obtaining basic opportunities for marginalized people, either directly by those people, or through the help of non-marginalized others who share their own access to these opportunities. It also includes actively thwarting attempts to deny those opportunities. Empowerment also includes encouraging, and developing the skills for, self-sufficiency, with a focus on eliminating the future need for charity or welfare in the individuals of the group. This process can be difficult to start and to implement effectively.

Strategy
One empowerment strategy is to assist marginalized people to create their own nonprofit organization, using the rationale that only the marginalized people, themselves, can know what their own people need most, and that control of the organization by outsiders can actually help to further entrench marginalization. Charitable organizations lead from outside of the community, for example, can disempower the community by entrenching a dependence charity or welfare. A nonprofit organization can target strategies that cause structural changes, reducing the need for ongoing dependence. Red Cross, for example, can focus on improving the health of indigenous people, but does not have authority in its charter to install water-delivery and purification systems, even though the lack of such a system profoundly, directly and negatively impacts health. A nonprofit composed of the indigenous people, however, could ensure their own organization does have such authority and could set their own agendas, make their own plans, seek the needed resources, do as much of the work as they can, and take responsibility – and credit – for the success of their projects (or the consequences, should they fail).

The process of which enables individuals/groups to fully access personal or collective power, authority and influence, and to employ that strength when engaging with other people, institutions or society. In other words, "Empowerment is not giving people power, people already have plenty of power, in the wealth of their knowledge and motivation, to do their jobs magnificently. We define empowerment as letting this power out." It encourages people to gain the skills and knowledge that will allow them to overcome obstacles in life or work environment and ultimately, help them develop within themselves or in the society.

To empower a female "...sounds as though we are dismissing or ignoring males, but the truth is, both genders desperately need to be equally empowered." Empowerment occurs through improvement of conditions, standards, events, and a global perspective of life.

Criticism
Before there can be the finding that a particular group requires empowerment and that therefore their self-esteem needs to be consolidated on the basis of awareness of their strengths, there needs to be a deficit diagnosis usually carried out by experts assessing the problems of this group. The fundamental asymmetry of the relationship between experts and clients is usually not questioned by empowerment processes. It also needs to be regarded critically, in how far the empowerment approach is really applicable to all patients/clients. It is particularly questionable whether [mentally ill] people in acute crisis situations are in a position to make their own decisions. According to Albert Lenz, people behave primarily regressive in acute crisis situations and tend to leave the responsibility to professionals. It must be assumed, therefore, that the implementation of the empowerment concept requires a minimum level of communication and reflectivity of the persons involved.

Another criticism is that empowerment implies that the drive for change comes from an external person. For example, in healthcare, a patient being encouraged by their doctor to track their symptoms and adjust their medication accordingly would be empowerment, where as a patient deciding on their own that they wanted to improve their medication regimen and thus started tracking would be an example of self-empowerment. A recently coined term, self-empowerment "describes patients’ and informal caregivers’ power to perform activities that are not mandated by health care and to take control over their own lives and self-management with increased self-efficacy and confidence".

In social work and community psychology
In social work, empowerment offers an approach that allows social workers to increase the capacity for self-help of their clients. For example, this allows clients not to be seen as passive, helpless 'victims' to be rescued but instead as a self-empowered person fighting abuse/ oppression; a fight, in which the social worker takes the position of a facilitator, instead of the position of a 'rescuer'.

Marginalized people who lack self-sufficiency become, at a minimum, dependent on charity, or welfare. They lose their self-confidence because they cannot be fully self-supporting. The opportunities that denied them also deprive them of the pride of accomplishment which others, who have those opportunities, can develop for themselves. This in turn can lead to psychological, social and even mental health problems. "Marginalized" here refers to the overt or covert trends within societies whereby those perceived as lacking desirable traits or deviating from the group norms tend to be excluded by wider society and ostracized as undesirables.

In health promotion practice and research
As a concept, and model of practice, empowerment is also used in health promotion research and practice. The key principle is for individuals to gain increased control over factors that influence their health status.

To empower individuals and to obtain more equity in health, it is also important to address health-related behaviors.

Studies suggest that health promotion interventions aiming at empowering adolescents should enable active learning activities, use visualizing tools to facilitate self-reflection, and allow the adolescents to influence intervention activities.

In economics
According to Robert Adams, there is a long tradition in the UK and the USA respectively to advance forms of self-help that have developed and contributed to more recent concepts of empowerment. For example, the free enterprise economic theories of Milton Friedman embraced self-help as a respectable contributor to the economy. Both the Republicans in the US and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher built on these theories. 'At the same time, the mutual aid aspects of the concept of self-help retained some currency with socialists and democrats.'

In economic development, the empowerment approach focuses on mobilizing the self-help efforts of the poor, rather than providing them with social welfare. Economic empowerment is also the empowering of previously disadvantaged sections of the population, for example, in many previously colonized African countries.

Consumer empowerment
A consumer empowerment strategy was put in place in the United Kingdom by the 2010-2015 coalition government. The strategy, produced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Behavioural Insights Team at the UK Cabinet Office, sought to introduce voluntary measures and "nudges" which could help consumers "find and adopt the best choices for their circumstances and needs". Activities promoted by the strategy included the midata programme under the direction of Professor Nigel Shadbolt, annual credit card usage statements, collective purchasing schemes, and presentational work on Energy Performance Certificates, motor vehicle sales literature and food hygiene ratings, so that consumers can make better use of the information they contain.

Customer empowerment
Companies that empower their customers have the potential to create superior products at reduced costs and risks, provided that customers are willing and able to contribute valuable input in the new product development process. Businesses that involve and empower customers in the process of creating new products can sometimes have a competitive edge over traditional firms that do not give their customers such involvement. This advantage is evident in the fact that consumers generally prefer the former. When customers have the authority to choose which products are brought to market, they exhibit increased demand for the chosen products, even when they are objectively of the same quality. This apparently irrational phenomenon can be explained by the heightened sense of psychological ownership that consumers develop for the selected products. Two conditions limit this effect: (1) it diminishes when the joint decision-making outcome does not align with consumers' preferences and (2) when consumers lack confidence in their ability to make informed decisions.

Increasingly engaged corporate directors
The World Pensions Council (WPC) has argued that large institutional investors such as pension funds and endowments are exercising a greater influence on the process of adding and replacing corporate directors – as they are themselves steered to do so by their own board members (pension trustees).

This could eventually put more pressure on the CEOs of publicly listed companies, as “more than ever before, many [North American], UK and European Union pension trustees speak enthusiastically about flexing their fiduciary muscles for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals”, and other ESG-centric investment practices

Legal
Legal empowerment happens when marginalised people or groups use the legal mobilisation i.e., law, legal systems and justice mechanisms to improve or transform their social, political or economic situations. Legal empowerment approaches are interested in understanding how they can use the law to advance interests and priorities of the marginalised.

According to 'Open society foundations' (an NGO) "Legal empowerment is about strengthening the capacity of all people to exercise their rights, either as individuals or as members of a community. Legal empowerment is about grass root justice, about ensuring that law is not confined to books or courtrooms, but rather is available and meaningful to ordinary people.

Lorenzo Cotula in his book ' Legal Empowerment for Local Resource Control ' outlines the fact that legal tools for securing local resource rights are enshrined in legal system, does not necessarily mean that local resource users are in position to use them and benefit from them. The state legal system is constrained by a range of different factors – from lack of resources to cultural issues. Among these factors economic, geographic, linguistic and other constraints on access to courts, lack of legal awareness as well as legal assistance  tend to be recurrent problems.

In many context, marginalised groups do not trust the legal system owing to the widespread manipulation that it has historically been subjected to by the more powerful. 'To what extent one knows the law, and make it work for themselves with 'para legal tools', is legal empowerment; assisted utilizing innovative approaches like legal literacy and awareness training, broadcasting legal information, conducting participatory legal discourses, supporting local resource user in negotiating with other agencies and stake holders and to strategies combining use of legal processes with advocacy along with media engagement, and socio legal mobilisation.

Sometimes groups are marginalized by society at large, with governments participating in the process of marginalization. Equal opportunity laws which actively oppose such marginalization, are supposed to allow empowerment to occur. These laws made it illegal to restrict access to schools and public places based on race. They can also be seen as a symptom of minorities' and women's empowerment through lobbying.

Gender
Gender empowerment conventionally refers to the empowerment of women, which is a significant topic of discussion in regards to development and economics nowadays. It also points to approaches regarding other marginalized genders in a particular political or social context. This approach to empowerment is partly informed by feminism and employed legal empowerment by building on international human rights. Empowerment is one of the main procedural concerns when addressing human rights and development. The Human Development and Capabilities Approach, The Millennium Development Goals, and other credible approaches/goals point to empowerment and participation as a necessary step if a country is to overcome the obstacles associated with poverty and development. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5) targets gender equality and women's empowerment for the global development agenda.

In workplace management
According to Thomas A. Potterfield, many organizational theorists and practitioners regard employee empowerment as one of the most important and popular management concepts of our time.

Ciulla discusses an inverse case: that of bogus empowerment.

In management
In the sphere of management and organizational theory, "empowerment" often refers loosely to processes for giving subordinates (or workers generally) greater discretion and resources: distributing control in order to better serve both customers and the interests of employing organizations. It also giving employees the authority to take initiatives, make their own decisions, find and execute solutions. Data from survey research using confirmatory factor analysis, empowerment can be captures through four dimensions, namely meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact; whereas some exploratory factor analysis identifies only three dimensions, namely meaning, competence, and influence (a conflation of self-determination and impact).

One account of the history of workplace empowerment in the United States recalls the clash of management styles in railroad construction in the American West in the mid-19th century, where "traditional" hierarchical East-Coast models of control encountered individualistic pioneer workers, strongly supplemented by methods of efficiency-oriented "worker responsibility" brought to the scene by Chinese laborers. In this case, empowerment at the level of work teams or brigades achieved a notable (but short-lived) demonstrated superiority. See the views of Robert L. Webb.

Since the 1980s and 1990s, empowerment has become a point of interest in management concepts and business administration. In this context, empowerment involves approaches that promise greater participation and integration to the employee in order to cope with their tasks as independently as possible and responsibly can. A strength-based approach known as "empowerment circle" has become an instrument of organizational development. Multidisciplinary empowerment teams aim for the development of quality circles to improve the organizational culture, strengthening the motivation and the skills of employees. The target of subjective job satisfaction of employees is pursued through flat hierarchies, participation in decisions, opening of creative effort, a positive, appreciative team culture, self-evaluation, taking responsibility (for results), more self-determination and constant further learning. The optimal use of existing potential and abilities can supposedly be better reached by satisfied and active workers. Here, knowledge management contributes significantly to implement employee participation as a guiding principle, for example through the creation of communities of practice.

However, it is important to ensure that the individual employee has the skills to meet their allocated responsibilities and that the company's structure sets up the right incentives for employees to reward their taking responsibilities. Otherwise there is a danger of being overwhelmed or even becoming lethargic.

Implications for company culture
Empowerment of employees requires a culture of trust in the organization and an appropriate information and communication system. The aim of these activities is to save control costs, that become redundant when employees act independently and in a self-motivated fashion. In the book Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, the authors illustrate three keys that organizations can use to open the knowledge, experience, and motivation power that people already have. The three keys that managers must use to empower their employees are:
 * 1) Share information with everyone
 * 2) Create autonomy through boundaries
 * 3) Replace the old hierarchy with self-directed work teams

According to Stewart, in order to guarantee a successful work environment, managers need to exercise the "right kind of authority" (p. 6). To summarize, "empowerment is simply the effective use of a manager’s authority", and subsequently, it is a productive way to maximize all-around work efficiency.

These keys are hard to put into place and it is a journey to achieve empowerment in the workplace. It is important to train employees and makes sure they have trust in what empowerment will bring to a company.

The implementation of the concept of empowerment in management has also been criticized for failing to live up to its claims.

In artificial intelligence
Empowerment in the study of artificial intelligence is an information-theoretic quantity that measures the perceived capacity of an agent to influence its environment. Empowerment is an approach to modelling intrinsic motivation where advantageous actions are chosen by agent with just knowledge of the structure of the environment, rather than satisfying an externally imposed need as in homeostasis.

Experiments have shown that artificial agents acting to maximise their empowerment, in the absence of a defined goal, exhibit advantageous exploratory behaviour that, in a range of simulated environments, resembles intelligent behaviour in living things.

"Age of Popular Empowerment"
Marshall McLuhan insisted that the development of electronic media would eventually weaken the hierarchical structures that underpin central governments, large corporation, academia and, more generally, rigid, “linear-Cartesian” forms of social organization. From that perspective, new, “electronic forms of awareness” driven by information technology would empower citizen, employees and students by disseminating in near-real-time vast amounts of information once reserved to a small number of experts and specialists. Citizens would be bound to ask for substantially more say in the management of government affairs, production, consumption, and education

World Pensions Council (WPC) economist Nicolas Firzli has argued that rapidly rising cultural tides, notably new forms of online engagement and increased demands for ESG-driven public policies and managerial decisions are transforming the way governments and corporation interact with citizen-consumers in the “Age of Empowerment”

title: Empowerment


text:
Carla Howell

Carla Howell (born 1955) is an American politician, small government advocate and activist. She was the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts candidate for Massachusetts State Auditor in 1998, U.S. Senate in 2000, and Governor in 2002. She then served in multiple leadership positions in the U.S. Libertarian Party. She has also organized tax-cut initiative ballot measures in Massachusetts and worked for the Libertarian National Committee.

Early life and education
Howell is the daughter of Carla (Winsor) Howell and Charles Howell, the third of their five children. She is a great-granddaughter of William Eustis Russell, a former Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Her father worked as a business executive and her mother engaged in volunteer work in the community. As a result of her father's work, the family moved from Massachusetts, and Howell attended high school in Detroit and Pittsburgh, graduating from Fox Chapel High School in Pittsburgh at age 16.

Howell attended Bethany College in West Virginia for mathematics and computer science, and after graduating, became a systems engineer at Westinghouse Electric. In 1981, she began work at Computervision and became the head of an engineering division in 1984. After a decade of engineering work, she then became a consultant in the Boston area for the high-tech and health care industry.

Howell earned her MBA from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1986.

Political career
In 1994, Howell joined the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts and she was elected chair of the state party in 1997. In 1998, she ran for Massachusetts State Auditor on the Libertarian Party ticket, and was endorsed by the Boston Herald. She received 102,198 votes, 5.3 percent of the total, which according to the Associated Press, "guarantee[d] the party's official status."

In 2000, Howell was the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts against Edward M. Kennedy. She ran with a "Small government is beautiful" campaign slogan, and by October, had raised almost $700,000, while the Republican candidate had raised about $20,000. She placed third, with more than 308,000 votes, which was 12 percent of the total and one percent behind the Republican candidate. In 2001, while reporting on the Massachusetts Libertarian Party convention, Rick Klein of the Boston Globe wrote the 2000 election "made Howell the state party's standard-bearer - and something of a hero to Bay State Libertarians" and reported she received standing ovations before and after her speech to the attendees.

In 2002, Howell was the Libertarian candidate for Massachusetts Governor. At the time of her campaign, she was the chair of the Committee For Small Government. Her campaign platform included a plan to reduce the state budget by half, support for gun rights, and a repeal of the state income tax. She was excluded along with other minor candidates from a gubernatorial candidate debate, and their requests for an injunction were denied. She received 23,044 votes, more than 1 percent of the total.

By 2012, Howell was the executive director of the U.S. Libertarian Party. In 2016, she worked as the political director for the national party.

She was a staff member in the Libertarian National Committee from December 2011 until June 2017.

Ballot initiatives
Howell spearheaded initiatives to repeal the Massachusetts state personal income tax in 2002 and 2008. In 2002, she sponsored 2002 Statewide Ballot Question 1, an initiative petition to end the income tax in Massachusetts. The measure received 45% of the vote, which Peter DeMarco, writing for the Boston Globe, described as "eye-popping".

In 2007, Howell and co-chair Michael Cloud, re-established the Committee For Small Government. The Committee obtained enough petition signatures to put the issue on the ballot as Statewide Ballot Question 1. The 2008 initiative differed from the 2002 initiative in that it provided a one-year transition period with a tax rate of 2.65% before the tax rate would drop to zero. This measure received a higher vote total than in 2002, but lost with 30% of the vote.

In 2010, Howell filed four petitions to create ballot measures to reduce sales taxes, and Republican Christy Mihos, who was running for Massachusetts governor at the time, also sponsored the initiatives. Howell headed the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, sponsor of a ballot initiative to cut the Massachusetts sales tax from 6.25% to 3.0%, which was on November 2, 2010, ballot as Question 3. Her group collected and submitted 74,131 approved voter signatures in the fall of 2009, and another 14,023 signatures in the spring-summer of 2010 to qualify the measure. The measure reached as high as 56% in the polls but was unsuccessful.

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

title: Carla Howell


text:
Japan (band)

Japan were an English new wave band formed in 1974 in Catford, South London by David Sylvian (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steve Jansen (drums) and Mick Karn (bass guitar), joined the following year by Richard Barbieri (keyboards) and Rob Dean (lead guitar). Initially a glam rock-inspired band, Japan developed their sound and androgynous look to incorporate electronic music and foreign influences.

Japan achieved success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, releasing nine UK top 40 hits, including the 1982 top 5 hit single "Ghosts", and scoring a UK top 5 with the live album Oil on Canvas (1983). Six of the band's albums have achieved Gold status in the UK. The band split in December 1982, just as they were beginning to experience commercial success in the UK and abroad. Its members went on to pursue other musical projects, though they reformed briefly in the early 1990s under the name Rain Tree Crow, releasing an album in 1991.

History
The band began as a group of friends in the early 1970s. Brothers (birth surname Batt) David Sylvian (guitar and vocals) and Steve Jansen (drums), and bassist Mick Karn studied at the same school, Catford Boys', Brownhill Road, South London. As youngsters they played Sylvian's two-chord numbers mainly as a means of escape; initially with Karn on lead vocals and Sylvian on guitar and backing vocals, Sylvian became lead vocalist in 1974. In June 1974, they made their first public performance at Karn's brother's wedding reception.

The band was initially nameless until the members opted to call themselves Japan. This name was intended by Sylvian to be temporary until they could think of something else, but ultimately became permanent. The following year they were joined by another school friend Richard Barbieri on keyboards and later by lead guitarist Rob Dean, and signed a management deal with Simon Napier-Bell (who also managed the Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, London and Wham!) in 1976. After coming runner up to The Cure in a talent contest staged by Hansa Records the band signed a recording contract with Hansa-Ariola in 1977, becoming an alternative glam rock outfit in the mould of Lou Reed, David Bowie, T.Rex, Roxy Music, and New York Dolls although their initial material was guitar-based funk.

Shortly after signing the record deal Sylvian, Jansen and Karn adopted their stage names. Initially, the record company was horrified by the apparent similarity of Sylvian's and Jansen's names to the names of band members of the New York Dolls, but eventually accepted the name changes. In 1977, the band embarked on their first recording session for the record company with producer Ray Singer and performed as support band for Jim Capaldi and the Contenders on a UK tour.

Early years
In March 1978, the band released their first single, a cover version of "Don't Rain on My Parade" followed a month later by their debut album Adolescent Sex. Advertising campaigns that focused on the band's androgynous glam rock image failed to attract much interest for the band in the UK but was more successful in Japan where the band attracted a considerable fan following before a record had been released.

The debut album was followed by a UK tour supporting Blue Öyster Cult, intended to promote their album. The album itself sold poorly, and Japan faced negative criticism and hostile audiences. In August 1978 their second single, "The Unconventional," failed to chart. In November the band made a short US tour, but although they were better accepted by American audiences it proved to be their last and only US tour. The follow-up album Obscure Alternatives showed musical progress and particularly the last track "The Tenant" – which has been described as a fusion of Low-era David Bowie and the piano works of Erik Satie – was a hint of the band's future, but again the album was a commercial and critical flop.

Though influenced by artists such as Lou Reed, T. Rex, New York Dolls, Roxy Music and David Bowie, both albums were widely dismissed by the UK music press as being distinctly outmoded at a time when punk and new wave bands were in ascendance. However, both albums, produced by Ray Singer, sold well in Japan and the Netherlands, where the single version of "Adolescent Sex" was a top 30 hit. They also gained some popularity in Canada. But in their native UK, those albums failed to garner public attention and did not chart.

While unsuccessful in their home country, the band gained a huge popularity in Japan. In March 1979, they made their first visit to the country and sold out the 11,000 seat capacity Budokan Theatre three days in a row.

Mid-career

In 1979, the band briefly worked with the successful Euro disco producer Giorgio Moroder, who co-wrote and produced a one-off single, "Life in Tokyo". The track was unsuccessful as a single but a significant change in musical style from their earlier guitar-laden recordings, moving them away from their glam rock roots and into electronic new wave.

The electronic style continued on their third album, Quiet Life (1979), which was produced by the band with John Punter and Simon Napier-Bell. In a retrospective review of the band's work, The Quietus described Quiet Life as defining "a very European form of detached, sexually-ambiguous and thoughtful art-pop, one not too dissimilar to what the ever-prescient David Bowie had delivered two years earlier with Low. It showcased Barbieri's synthesizers, Sylvian's now baritone style of singing, Karn's distinctive fretless bass sound and Jansen's odd-timbred and intricate percussion work, with Dean's guitar playing becoming somewhat sparser and atmospheric. Quiet Life was their last studio album for Hansa-Ariola, although the label would later issue a compilation album (Assemblage) featuring highlights from the band's tenure on the label, followed by a series of remixed and re-released singles.

Quiet Life was the first Japan album to reach the UK Albums Chart, but it wasn't a success on its initial release. It peaked at a lowly 72 in February 1980 and dropped out of the chart the following week. The band had for long been a financial strain on their record company and management, and after a final attempt to score a hit single that would boost the sales of the album with a cover version of "I Second That Emotion" was unsuccessful, Japan was dropped by Hansa Records.

Final years
After leaving Hansa-Ariola, the band signed with Virgin Records who released their last studio albums, Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981). The albums continued to expand their audience as the band refined its new sound, although the combination of their newer sound and the band's stylised visual appearance led to them unintentionally becoming associated with the early-1980s New Romantic scene. The band had always worn make-up since their inception in the mid-1970s at the tail end of the glam rock era, several years before the New Romantic movement had begun. In an October 1981 interview, Sylvian commented "There's a period going past at the moment that may make us look as though we're in fashion." In another interview, he stated "I don't like to be associated with them [New Romantics]. The attitudes are so very different." Of Japan's fashion sense, Sylvian said "For them [New Romantics], fancy dress is a costume. But ours is a way of life. We look and dress this way every day." Regardless, it had a positive effect on the band's record sales in the UK and they slowly began to gain chart success.

After a couple of lower charting singles, their first UK top 40 hit was a re-release of the "Quiet Life" single, which peaked at No. 19 in October 1981. Three of the singles from the Tin Drum album also peaked in the UK top 40, with its unconventional single "Ghosts" reaching No. 5, becoming Japan's biggest domestic hit. The Tin Drum album itself peaked just outside the UK top 10, and was the band's first record to be certified by the BPI, being awarded a silver disc within a month of release, and reaching gold status within four months. The album, produced by Steve Nye, is often regarded as one of the most innovative of the 1980s, with its fusion of occidental and oriental sounds. In 2011, thirty years after its release, Tin Drum was awarded BBC Radio 6 Music's 'Goldie Award' posthumously for the Best Album of 1981.

With personality conflicts leading to rising tensions within the band, Tin Drum was to be the band's final studio album. Long-simmering differences among the band members came to a head when Karn's girlfriend, photographer Yuka Fujii, moved in with Sylvian and the individual members proceeded with their own projects. Rob Dean had already departed (in May 1981) after the release of the Gentlemen Take Polaroids album, as his electric guitar work became superfluous for the band's sound on Tin Drum. Dean subsequently formed the band Illustrated Man. Karn released his first solo album, Titles, at the same time the band announced their split in late 1982.

The final "Sons of Pioneers" tour in late 1982 included dates in Europe, UK and the Far East. On this tour, guitarist and keyboardist Masami Tsuchiya performed with the band on stage.

The group's final UK performances included a final TV appearance playing together on The Old Grey Whistle Test in October and culminating in a six-night sell-out stint at London's Hammersmith Odeon in November (which would be recorded and filmed to produce Oil on Canvas, a live album and video released in June 1983). Japan's last performance was on 16 December 1982 in Nagoya, Japan.

The band decided to split just as they were beginning to achieve major commercial success both in the UK and internationally, with Oil on Canvas becoming their highest charting UK album, reaching No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart, a rare feat for a live album. By this time, the band's back catalogue had begun to sell steadily and both Hansa-Ariola and Virgin Records continued to release Japan singles into 1983, ultimately earning the band a total of nine top 40 hits in the UK. In summer 1982, a Hansa re-release of "I Second That Emotion" became Japan's second top 10 hit, reaching number 9. A remixed version of "Life in Tokyo" and a Virgin Records release of "Nightporter" were subsequently both top 30 hits on the UK Singles Chart.

Collaborations
During the early 1980s, Japanese multi-instrumentalist and experimental keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto, of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), briefly collaborated with the band, and worked directly alongside Sylvian on tracks such as "Taking Islands in Africa". He would continue to work with Sylvian both before and after the band split, and the pair would achieve the hit singles "Bamboo Houses" (1982) and "Forbidden Colours" (1983). Similarly, Steve Jansen was influenced by YMO's drummer Yukihiro Takahashi, subsequently joining him on several of Takahashi's solo projects and tours of Japan, along with additional full collaborative works between the two.

Post break-up
All of the band members went on to work on other projects, with varying degrees of success. After his collaborations with Sakamoto, Sylvian's first solo album Brilliant Trees reached No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart in 1984, spawning the UK top 20 single "Red Guitar". Meanwhile, Karn had already become a sought-after session musician and worked with artists such as Gary Numan, Kate Bush, and Joan Armatrading. He also had a top 40 hit ("After a Fashion") with Midge Ure in 1983, and collaborated with Peter Murphy of Bauhaus as the duo Dalis Car, releasing an album in 1984. Jansen and Barbieri worked together as the Dolphin Brothers and simply as Jansen & Barbieri ("Stories Across Borders", 1991, Virgin), and Rob Dean went on to work with Gary Numan and Sinéad O'Connor and also later played guitars in Australian band Geisha from late 1987 to April 1988.

Rain Tree Crow
In September 1989, Sylvian, Karn, Jansen and Barbieri reunited under the moniker 'Rain Tree Crow'. They released an eponymously titled album in April 1991, which was well received by music critics and reached the UK top 25. However, once again, the band dissolved following creative frictions between Sylvian and the other members.

Other projects
Medium Productions was a record label created in 1993 primarily to publish the music of Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, and Mick Karn. Medium was a means to release their own music with other collaborating artists, without 'major record label' compromise. Fifteen CDs of largely instrumental music were produced over a ten-year period. Medium Productions folded in 2004 as the founders became more involved in other projects (such as Porcupine Tree, Nine Horses). The entire MP catalog has been re-released on the Voiceprint Music label beginning in 2001.

Richard Barbieri moved on to become the keyboardist for progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, a role he has filled since 1995's The Sky Moves Sideways. Although band members would work with each other again on various individual projects (including Sylvian and Jansen's Nine Horses project), no further full Japan reunions were planned in any form.

Throughout the 1990s Karn, Jansen and Barbieri reunited in instrumental projects with different guitarists such as David Torn and Steven Wilson.

Twenty years after their reunion as Rain Tree Crow, Mick Karn died from cancer in January 2011.

Band members

 * David Sylvian – vocals, guitars, keyboards (1974–1982, 1989–1990)
 * Mick Karn – bass guitars, saxophone, oboe, flute, recorder, clarinet, backing vocals (1974–1982, 1989–1990; died 2011)
 * Steve Jansen – drums, backing vocals, keyboards, percussion (1974–1982, 1989–1990)
 * Richard Barbieri – keyboards, synthesisers, occasional backing vocals (1975–1982, 1989–1990)
 * Rob Dean – guitars, backing vocals (1975–1981)

Timeline
 * Live personnel
 * Jane Shorter – saxophone (1979–1980)
 * David Rhodes – guitars (1981)
 * Masami Tsuchiya – guitars, keyboards (1982)

Discography

 * Adolescent Sex (1978)
 * Obscure Alternatives (1978)
 * Quiet Life (1979)
 * Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980)
 * Tin Drum (1981)
 * Rain Tree Crow same line-up as Japan (1991)

Remasters
In 2003, Virgin Records re-issued remastered editions of Gentlemen Take Polaroids, Tin Drum and Oil on Canvas. BMG followed suit next year, and re-issued Adolescent Sex, Obscure Alternatives, Quiet Life, and Assemblage. All of these re-releases came in the 'digipak' format, collecting many bonus tracks. In 2006, all were repackaged in jewel cases to allow sale at a lower price point.

The Tin Drum digipak re-issue was of particular interest as it was packaged in a cardboard box and contained the bonus 5-inch single "The Art of Parties", which comprised "The Art of Parties" (12" single and live versions), "Ghosts" (single version) and "Life Without Buildings" (B-side to "The Art of Parties" single). The package also included a booklet with black-and-white photos of the band members.

Half-speed mastered 45 rpm double vinyl LP editions of Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum were issued in August 2018. Both albums were remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell. A single disc 33 rpm edition of both albums was also made available. The albums entered the Official Vinyl Charts at numbers 2 and 3 respectively in the first week of sales.

In March 2021, the Quiet Life album was reissued by BMG in several deluxe formats, including a boxset (featuring three CDs with a 180g half-speed mastered vinyl), a couple of separate vinyl editions, and a CD release. The release returned Japan to the UK Top 20 for the first time since 1983, peaking at no.13 on the UK Album Chart and no.2 on the UK Vinyl chart.

Tours

 * October 1977: UK Tour supporting Jim Capaldi and the Contenders
 * April–June 1978: UK Tour supporting Blue Öyster Cult
 * November 1978: US Tour (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York (2 dates), Boston)
 * November–December 1978: Obscure Alternatives UK Tour (Several dates cancelled due to illness in the band)
 * March 1979: Japanese Tour (6 dates)
 * March–April 1979: European/UK Tour (Germany, Holland, Belgium, UK)
 * January–March 1980: Quiet Life Tour UK/Japan, with Jane Shorter on saxophone
 * February 1981: Japanese Tour (7 dates)
 * May 1981: The Art of Parties UK Tour (last tour with Rob Dean)
 * December 1981: Visions of China UK Tour, with David Rhodes on guitar
 * October–December 1982: Sons of Pioneers Tour (Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, UK, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan), with Masami Tsuchiya on guitar and keyboards. November concerts at Hammersmith Odeon recorded for the Oil on Canvas album and video.

title: Japan (band)


text:
Talk:Where Mathematics Comes From/Archive

This archive is mostly a discussion between AxelBoldt and the infamous "24".

This article is about a specific theory, and should be titled with the name of the theory. So long as it is properly identified in the opening paragraph whose theory it is, it's a fine subject for an encyclopedia, even if it's not taken seriously by many people (of course, opponents to the theory are free to include their views here too). --LDC - This is false. Physicists do *NOT* believe that human cognition changes reality. People who don't understand quantum mechanics something think that physicists think this, but they don't. There are a number of pages on QM in wikipedia which go into detail about this issue.

 * This was contrary to a growing body of evidence in quantum physics that observers did in fact alter what they observed, and that the process of human cognition itself changed "reality".

 * the Uncertainty Principle argues that you can't get position and velocity at the same time *BECAUSE TESTING FOR ONE DISTURBS THE OTHER* - also the who notion of resolution of events backwards in time in QM models seems very clearly to say that the choice to observer or not, as per Schrodinger, must be said to have some impact on "reality". A narrower claim would be fine, but I don't know how to write that, so I invite you QM types to try to do so.

 * This is an incorrect interpretation of the Uncertainty Principle.  Testing for one may disturb the other or not, but it has nothing to do with the uncertainty principle. -- Olof

 * I'm getting a little tired of the way physicists use the phrase "nothing to do with". As I was taught the Uncertainty Principle in high school, along with billions of others I am sure, you can't know both the position and momentum of any particle below a certain size, because testing for one disturbs the other.  "The more precisely the POSITION is determined, the less precisely the MOMENTUM is known" in Heisenberg's terms.  Now, you may *claim* that there are underlying factors that "cause" that relationship to be true, and I won't argue that there aren't, and the "because" of high school physics teachers is always suspect...  -- 24.150.61.xxx

 * Perhaps reading the entry on the Uncertainty Principle will wake you up. The fact that you were taught in high school that "testing for one disturbs the other" is a good interpretation of Uncertainty Principle tells us more on the quality of your teachers than it tells us about the meaning of the Uncertainty Principle.  Here's an example to illustrate the true meaning of the Uncertainty Principle :

 * My car gets about 30 miles to a gallon of gasoline ( 12 km / liter ). I know that because I put in about 10 gallons of gasoline every 300 miles.  I can keep meticulous records so that I know, over the past year, exactly how much gasoline went in and how many miles I drive. A also know where my car is tonight, because I park it in my garage.  I know exactly where my car is tonight.  However, measuring the position of my car and its gas mileage at the same time turns out to be a more difficult problem.  How accurately can I measure the gas mileage of my car when I'm at exactly mile 182 on Interstate 5?  Note that measuring how much gas I put in the car does not affect the car's position:  I look at the gas pump when my car is parked at the gas station.  Furthermore, measuring the distance driven doesn't affect the car's position:  I look at the odometer when it is parked in my garage.  I repeat:  "measuring gas mileage does not affect the position of the car".  Nevertheless, the rate in gallons per mile at which my car burns gasoline and its position can be thought of as conjugate variables, related by an uncertainty principle.  I really don't know what the car's gas mileage is at any one given point ( except when it is running and not moving, at which point I get 0 miles per gallon no matter what).  And conversely, although I do know that it got 30 miles per gallon last year, I can't tell you exactly where the car was when it was getting those 30 miles per gallon. -- Olof

 * I think you just made my high school teacher's point. the conditions of measurement of gas mileage (requiring one to know the exact state of the gas tank) are incompatible with the car's motion (sloshing, hanging off a moving car to stick a dipstick in the tank)... while the conditions of measurement of the car's position (stable enough in space for the report to be meaningful, i.e. the car isn't moving) are incompatible with measurements of mileage (i.e. there is no mileage unless it's moving). the conditions of testing for one are incompatible with the conditions of testing for the other.  I repeat, I am getting tired of the way physicists use the phrase "nothing to do with" when what they mean is "not reductionistic enough for us physicists who reduce everything beyond the point of being meaningful". -- 24.150.61.xxx

 * If by 'beyond the point of being meaningful' you mean 'enough to show the flaw in a high school teacher's false conception', then I agree with you.  The sloshing of the gasoline is irrelevant:  whether or not the gas sloshes, the gas mileage is unchanged, and the position of the car is unchanged.

 * how do you know that? those are both assumptions based on things you haven't measured, but pretend to know about cars and their engines... you are inserting knowledge about cars that you can't possibly have about atoms...-- 24.150.61.xxx

 * Measuring the car position doesn't disturb the gas mileage, and measuring the gas mileage doesn't disturb the position. And it is easy enough to measure the position of a car when it is moving.  This is how, for example, they decide who wins automobile races.  The important part is that

 * not from *inside the car* it isn't. And you don't determine the winner of an automobile race by bouncing an armor piercing shell off the winning car as it crosses the line first... the best analogy to the degree of interference that position or momentum testing on electrons could have... the shell is likely to tear the car's hood off and send it flying - changing its momentum substantially.-- 24.150.61.xxx

 * Never heard of GPS, eh?  In any case, it is obvious you haven't understood (  perhaps haven't even looked at ) the section of the Uncertainty Principle page with the explanation on why this doesn't apply to the Uncertainty Principle.  -- Olof

 * doing the measurement doesn't change the gas mileage. That's why this is a good example for pointing out why your initial statement "*BECAUSE TESTING FOR ONE DISTURBS THE OTHER*" is wrong. On the other hand, I completely agree with your statement that 'the conditions of testing for one are incompatible with the conditions of testing for the other.'  This is exactly how any pair of conjugate variables are linked.  If it is not clear to you what the difference is in the two statements, then, by your definition, this discussion has not yet reduced things beyond the point of being meaningful.-- Olof

 * you have shown the "because" to be a typical false assumption of causality by correlation. "Because" the testing conditions interfere, the tests interfere.  But this is most truly splitting hairs.  I can see what *you* mean by "conditions of testing" versus "testing" - but I can also see that you are assuming a model (of a car, of an atom) in making that hair split.  I agree with Lakoff that this hair simply doesn't need to be split, that if the conditions of testing interfere, arguing whether they interfere at the stage of setting up apparatus or conditions, or at the actual moment the tank fires its armor piercing shell into the car, changing its momentum, is the furthest thing from relevant.-- 24.150.61.xxx

 * No, I have shown the 'because' to be flat out wrong. The testing conditions need not interfere with each other.  'incompatible with' does not mean 'interferes with', and furthermore, you seem to be confusing "testing property A is incompatible with testing for property B"  with "testing property A disturbs property B"  Repeat:  The tests can be made so that the tests do not interfere with each other.  The armor piercing shell analogy is compelling, but it is wrong.  I say that sloshing does not affect the gas mileage not because I have any knowledge about fuel injection, but because , as in quantum mechanics, an experiment ( or a gasoline tank) can be constructed such that measuring property A doesn't affect property B, and measuring property B doesn't affect property A. -- i.e. where the measurement is made even if the armor piercing shell misses. The uncertainty referred to in the Uncertainty Principle comes from somewhere else, not in any interference between testing methods.  Please go back and try to understand this issue before trying to spread your false conceptions about physics. Especially pay attention to the part on the Uncertainty Principle page that says "The uncertainty principle is sometimes erroneously explained by..." -- Olof

 * this states the relationships more precisely. Perhaps, however, Schrodinger or entanglement resolution is a better example of this issue?  I want to know whether any aspect of QM claims that "observers did in fact alter what they observed, and that the process of human cognition itself changed "reality".  Does it, or not?

 * To say that the observer affects the "reality" of the observed thing is already to assume that the observed thing has its properties, the observer exists apart from it and has his own properties, and that one affects the other in a particular direction. That's not the best way to look at it. It

 * I think you confuse "best" with "most convenient" here... what's wrong with an ontology of three actors: observer, observed, and invisible (and not directy testable) foundation/reality?  Properties are things "observed" have - there are no "properties" in the foundation/reality, merely the bonds/orders.

more like the experience of observation itself is a very complex phenomemon that emerges from the interaction between the observed thing and the observer. This doesn't make either of them less "real", or the result of the observation any more subjective or informative; it's just the nature of our

 * thus I stick to the very neutral terms like "foundation" or "zoo" - but ideologically, Axel objects despite the extremely common use of the term "zoo". I am willing to keep "zoo" out of titles but not out of articles.

being physical things, which we have to account for. That which we observe as "position" and that which we observe as "momentum" are not independently-existing things. They are mathematically related, and appear as interactions with our instruments, but they aren't determined in any way by our choice of measurement, because they aren't "contained" in the observed thing at all-- they are properties of the measurement itself. It so happens that these

 * fine, so the observer-to-observed measurement process has properties too, probably mirroring some constraints in the foundation (like "dark matter" in observations of the universe perhaps).

interactions follow some pretty simple rules that let us predict things like what furute measurements will be, what the probability distributions will be, etc. That's very handy, otherwise science wouldn't be able to produce handy working gadgets out of these things. But to say that our "choices" (whatever

 * it's the production of "handy working gadgets" versus the production of actual insight into human action and choice that's at issue. Exactly that.

that is) affect reality is a mistaken interpretation; we choose what measurement devices to set up, and they behave the way the behave when they interact with things, which happens to be very strangely in some situations. --LDC

 * perhaps it would be less strange if you would accept the hidden third player - the foundation - and the necessity of the foundation ontology if only to end disputes on what constitutes reliable measuring devices. I repeat:  two Popper scholars had no answer to "infrastructure" as the buck-stopper.

 * Also the new cognitive bias article could use more update of that kind.

 * There have been occasionally interpretations of QM which said that the concious observer changes reality, but they are minority positions. There are no experiments to support the view; all experiments can be explained by saying that the measurement process itself affects reality, independent of whether a concious being later looks at the measurement outcome or not.

 * so, the culture or notation bias dominates, not the cognitive bias? OK.

 * I also wonder what this has to do with a cognitive science of mathematics; QM is just one example of a (probably false) physical theory. AxelBoldt

 * only relevant to the degree one considers the Four Bell States, the Uncertainty Principle, and physical constants to be part of a foundation ontology, e.g. the particle physics foundation ontology.

 * So if somebody were to consider these things as part of a "foundation ontology", what would that say about mathematics? Precisely nothing. If QM is disproven tomorrow, mathematics will still be exactly the same. You confuse physics with mathematics. AxelBoldt

 * assuming these things in a foundation ontology would validate the mathematics that predicts them. The question is the opposite way around - if one questions the objectivity of certain styles of mathematics, e.g. complex analysis, as Erdos did (else why bother with all those re-proofs?), then some highly mathematical fields like QM or PP will be called into direct question on falsifiability.  Also, physics and mathematics drive each other to new theories and proofs, regularly - read Greene's "The Elegant Universe".  Has this math been really widely inspected?  No, almost no one understands it.  Can the physical geometry proposed be tested?  No, not yet.  It's protoscience and "protomath".  It is *you* who confuse both physics and mathematics with the underlying "reality" whereby the universe-to-observer and observer-to-universe pointers get bound to each other, below measurable limits or outside cognition itself.  Bohm's "implicate order" or Plato's "ideal forms" or "sacred geometry" or whatever.

Best taken up in those entries, with new ones on culture bias (generalizing paradigm shift and such), and notation bias (generalizing this "cognitive science of mathematics" which is only one example of a claim of strong notation bias).

 * if we keep cognitive bias, culture bias, and notation bias separate in our own minds, I don't doubt we can find consistent non-controversial ways to express doubt regarding this Lakoff/Nunez thesis, and all the other epistemology problems it raises.

Removed this statement. It's not a consensus among physicists.

 * Among technically literate people, there is a general consensus that mathematics is a neutral point of view, indeed that if logic itself is a valid mode of investigation, mathematics must equally be one.

 * it came from someone else, but I liked it, and thought it valid of at least technologists and all 19th century scientists. So qualified, would you find it acceptable?  The link between logic and math probably has to be made here.  Also now that there is a good cognitive bias article it should make reference to it, and to culture bias and notation bias issues.

 * I also recall a *terrific* quote from Whitehead on this issue that impressed me so much I forgot it (like a joke that is just too good). It was in "Dialogues with Alfred North Whitehead and his wife", by Lucien Price, 1936, still the most illuminating book ever written on this topic I think... Remember, Whitehead had been educated in the 19th century in the classic way and then had participated with Russell in the biggest hack at the foundations that had yet occurred, before World War I, then after that war worked like Russell to prevent World War II (unsuccessfully).  An extremely interesting figure who will probably be ultimately credited with founding this thing that Lakoff thinks he founded.

Who wrote this nonsense?

 * This nonsense was mostly written by a notorious contributor called "24" (after his IP number) who has since been forced to leave Wikipedia. The Lakoff book is very interesting, but this article is utter crap. AxelBoldt
 * according to the wikipedia-l, "24" was banned for two days and did not return, he she or it was not 'forced' to permanently leave. this is a lie.

We should probably remove it entirely, or reduce it to what one of us can say is verifiably true (and then probably give it a different title...). --Larry Sanger

I tried to do that; I read the book. It's not bad actually. AxelBoldt 00:24 Oct 12, 2002 (UTC)
 * if crap points you to non-crap, how crappy can it be? would you have read the book if not for "24"?  seems you are exposing your own bias here


text:
Ed Thompson (Wisconsin politician)

Allan Edward "Ed" Thompson (December 25, 1944 – October 22, 2011) was an American businessman and politician. He served as Mayor of Tomah, Wisconsin for two non-consecutive terms, and was the Libertarian candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in 2002, receiving nearly 11% of the vote in that race. His older brother, Tommy Thompson, was the 42nd governor of Wisconsin.

Early life, education, and business career
Thompson was born in Elroy, Wisconsin. His mother, Julie (née Dutton), was a teacher, and his father, Allan Thompson, owned and ran a gas station and country grocery store. A graduate of Royall High School in 1963, he was active in the drama department and competed in football, basketball, and track. Ed was the younger brother of Tommy Thompson. After high school, Ed briefly attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison before enlisting in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. After being honorably discharged from the Navy, he married Kathy Nelson; the couple settled in Elroy and had four children: Ann Marie, Kristin Beth, Allan Edward “Chip” Thompson, and Joshua Thompson.

Thompson was the owner of the Tee-Pee supper club, a restaurant in Tomah, and was the subject of the documentary A Remarkable Man. His older brother, Tommy Thompson, a Republican, was formerly Governor of Wisconsin and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Tomah politics
In 2000, he defeated incumbent mayor Bud Johnson with 57% of the vote. He served only one two-year term.

On April 5, 2005, Thompson won an unexpected victory in the common council election in Tomah. Thompson was not running for the position but was, unknown to him, the subject of a write-in campaign. He received 31 of 34 votes. His "opponent", John Buick, received one vote from Thompson himself. Thompson initially declined to accept the position, but later reconsidered. He was sworn in on April 15, 2005, and served two years on the Tomah common council.

In 2008, Thompson took the place of outgoing mayor Ludeking, whom he defeated in the mayoral election on April 1 by nearly a 2–1 margin. Thompson was sworn into office for his second (non-consecutive) two-year term as mayor of Tomah on April 15, 2008.

2002 gubernatorial campaign
Thompson became the Libertarian party nominee in April and ran against Democrat Jim Doyle, the state Attorney General, and incumbent Republican Governor Scott McCallum, the former Lieutenant Governor who had assumed the office in 2001 after Governor Tommy Thompson left to become U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The 2002 governor's race is considered by some to have been the most negative campaign in the state's history. In response Thompson, publicly critical of the negative campaigning of both major party candidates, became a more viable option for some voters, and garnered 10% of the vote. Doyle won the election with a plurality of 45% of the vote, becoming the state's first Democratic governor since Anthony Earl was defeated in 1986. Doyle was sworn in on January 6, 2003 at the State Capitol in Madison.

2010 State Senate campaign
Thompson announced in October 2009 that he would run as a Republican for the 31st district Wisconsin State Senate seat in 2010, against incumbent Kathleen Vinehout. The 31st District included all of Trempealeau, Buffalo, Jackson and Pepin counties, and parts of Monroe, Pierce, Dunn, Eau Claire and Clark counties. On November 2, 2010, Vinehout defeated Thompson, who was still campaigning for the office, despite being recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2010. On November 9, 2010, he requested a recount with only 352 votes separating Thompson from Vinehout. On November 19, 2010, he conceded the election to Vinehout.

Death
Thompson died of pancreatic cancer on October 22, 2011, in Tomah.

2008 race for Mayor of Tomah

 * Ed Thompson (L), 66%
 * Charles Ludeking (Independent) (Inc.), 34%

2010 race for 31st District State Senator

 * Kathleen Vinehout (D) (Inc.), 50.3%
 * Ed Thompson (R), 49.6%

title: Ed Thompson (Wisconsin politician)


text:
The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid, who are the two founders and only consistent members of the band since its formation. They are recognized as key figures in the development of the shoegaze and noise pop subgenres. The band have had twelve top 40 entries and two top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart in the course of their career.

The Reid brothers recruited Douglas Hart on bass and Murray Dalglish on drums as their initial lineup. After signing to the independent label Creation Records, they released their first single "Upside Down" in 1984. Bobby Gillespie replaced Dalglish on drums, and their debut album Psychocandy was released to critical acclaim in 1985 on the major label WEA. After its release, Gillespie left the band to work on his own band Primal Scream. The band's biggest commercial success domestically was their second album Darklands, which reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart in 1987 and spawned the hit single "April Skies", peaking at No. 8 in the UK. It was the band's only top ten album. The band released their third album Automatic in 1989, which spawned their first charting singles in the US ("Blues from a Gun" and "Head On"). Hart departed from the band two years later.

The Jesus and Mary Chain then released the albums Honey's Dead in 1992 and Stoned & Dethroned in 1994, both of which continued their popularity in the US. "Sometimes Always", taken from Stoned & Dethroned, became the band's most commercially successful single in the US as it peaked at No. 94 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band departed from WEA after ten years, and then signed with Sub Pop Records in the US and re-signed with Creation Records in the UK for the release of the album Munki in 1998. The band broke up the following year as a result of an onstage altercation the year prior; William Reid prematurely left a tour after fighting with an intoxicated Jim Reid. They eventually reunited in 2007, and in 2017, they released Damage and Joy, their first studio album in 19 years and seventh overall. Their next album, Glasgow Eyes, was released in 2024 and became the band's first top 10 album in the UK since 1988.

Early years
Brothers Jim and William Reid had been inspired to form a band as far back as 1977, having heard groups of the British punk scene; in the early 1980s they formed their own. William said, "It was perfect timing because there weren't any guitar bands. Everybody was making this electronic pop music." Before forming the band, the brothers had spent five years on the dole, during which they wrote and recorded songs at home and worked out the sound and image of the band. Originally called The Poppy Seeds, and then Death of Joey, they initially told journalists that they had taken their eventual name from a line in a Bing Crosby film, although six months later they admitted that this was not true. Other accounts suggest that the name derived from an offer on a breakfast cereal packet, where customers could send off for a gold Jesus & Mary chain. As neither brother wanted to be the singer, they decided on Jim via coin toss.

The brothers started recording and sending demos to record companies in 1983 (using a Portastudio bought with £300 given to them by their father from redundancy pay after he lost his factory job), and by early 1984 they had recruited bass player Douglas Hart and teenage drummer Murray Dalglish. Early influences included The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and The Shangri-Las, William said in 1985, "We all love The Shangri-Las, and one day we're going to make Shangri-Las records." Jim mentioned his liking for Pink Floyd, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Monkees, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Muddy Waters. Early demos displayed a similarity to the Ramones, prompting the brothers to add another element to their sound; in William's words: "That's why we started using noise and feedback. We want to make records that sound different." They began playing live in spring 1984. In the early days William Reid's guitar would be left out of tune, while Dalglish's drum kit was limited to two drums, and Hart's bass guitar only had three strings, down to two by 1985; in Hart's words, "That's the two I use. I mean what's the __ point spending money on another two? Two is enough."

Struggling to get gigs, the band took to turning up at venues claiming to be the support band, playing their short set and making a quick exit. After failing to generate any interest from concert promoters and record labels in Scotland, the band relocated to Fulham, London, in May 1984, and soon afterwards their demo tape was passed to fellow Scot Alan McGee by Bobby Gillespie. Subsequently, McGee promoted a gig for the band at the Living Room in London in June 1984. On the strength of hearing the band sound check, McGee signed them to his Creation Records label on a one-off deal, and McGee also became the band's manager. Their debut single, "Upside Down", was recorded in October and released in November that year. The sessions were produced by Joe Foster, but McGee, unsatisfied with Foster's work, remixed the A-side, although the B-side, a cover version of Syd Barrett's "Vegetable Man", remained credited to Foster. The band were gaining increasing attention from the music press at this time with Neil Taylor of the NME describing them as "the best band in the world".

Dalglish left in November 1984 after a dispute over money and was replaced shortly afterwards by Gillespie who had also formed Primal Scream two years earlier in 1982. "Upside Down" topped the UK Indie Chart in February 1985 and then again in March and stayed on the chart for 76 weeks, selling around 35,000 copies in total, making it one of the biggest-selling indie singles of the 1980s.

Playing in front of small audiences, during early shows the Mary Chain performed very short gigs, typically fuelled by amphetamines and lasting around 20 minutes, and played with their backs to the audience, refusing to speak to them. In late December 1984, the band performed as part of the ICA Rock Week. During their performance, bottles were thrown on stage, with press reports exaggerating events and claiming that there had been a riot, and national newspaper The Sun running a story on the band concentrating on violence and drugs, the band attracting the tag "The new Sex Pistols". That led several local councils to ban the band from performing in their area.

Psychocandy
The success of "Upside Down" led to interest from WEA-subsidiary Blanco y Negro Records which signed the group in early 1985. The group released the single "Never Understand" in February which reached number forty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. The label had initially refused to press the single due to its B-side, "Suck", but went ahead given the alternative put forward by the band, a song called "Jesus __". The band were eager to get "Jesus__" released, and McGee got as far as producing test pressings of a re-issue of "Upside Down" with the song on the B-side, before the band insisted that Blanco y Negro include the track on their next single. The follow-up, "You Trip Me Up", was delayed due to staff at the pressing plant refusing to press it due to the presence of the song, now re-titled "Jesus Suck"; The single was released in June 1985 with a new B-side, "Just Out of Reach". John Peel got the band to record a second session for his BBC Radio 1 show in February 1985 (the first was only a few months earlier), and the band also made a TV appearance on Whistle Test in March and The Tube the same year. The third single for Blanco y Negro, "Just Like Honey", released in October, was their biggest hit to date, reaching No. 45.

Eager to avoid the violence of earlier gigs and to give an opportunity for their songs to be heard without distortion and feedback, the band planned to perform several unannounced acoustic sets supporting Sonic Youth, but this was abandoned when the plans were leaked. Their debut album Psychocandy followed in November that year. The album fused together the Reids' two primary influences: the guitar noise of the Stooges and the Velvet Underground with the pop songwriting and melodies of the Beach Boys, The Shangri-Las and Phil Spector; In fact, the album's opening song, "Just Like Honey," borrows Hal Blaine's famous drum intro from The Ronettes 1963 classic, "Be My Baby", produced and co-written by Spector. The record received unanimously positive reviews and is now considered a landmark recording. Drummer Gillespie announced his departure from the band in October 1985, to concentrate on Primal Scream. He had recorded most of the drums on Psychocandy, with John Moore filling in when Gillespie was unavailable, eventually joining the band to replace him. John Loder also acted as a stand-in drummer when Gillespie was unavailable for live performances.

When the band signed to Blanco y Negro in January 1985, there were stories reporting that they had stolen money from managing Director Rob Dickens's jacket and destroyed his office, all untrue but seen as good publicity by manager McGee. In a performance on Belgian television in March 1985, the band did smash the set and the audio equipment, but this was at the request of the TV producer. Such behaviour became expected of the band and many shows culminated with the Reids trashing their equipment, which was often followed by the audience throwing projectiles onto the stage and damaging equipment.

On 15 March 1985, the Jesus and Mary Chain played a gig at the North London Polytechnic in front of one of their largest crowds up to that point. The organizers had overbooked the venue, leaving hundreds of fans locked outside. When Gillespie and Hart attempted to break the locks, the police were called. Support band Meat Whiplash had stirred up violence before the Mary Chain set foot onto the stage when singer Paul McDermott threw an empty wine bottle into the audience, prompting four members of the crowd to attack him, leading to their set being abandoned. Second act The Jasmine Minks got through their set without incident, but The Jesus and Mary Chain then kept the audience waiting for over an hour before taking the stage, and then left the stage after playing for less than twenty minutes. Members of the audience began throwing cans at where the band were hiding behind the stage curtains, before mounting the stage to smash the equipment that remained there. The violence continued for some time before police eventually took control. The venue blamed the band's late appearance and two equipment breakdowns, while McGee issued a statement saying that "the audience were not smashing up the hall, they were smashing up pop music", going on to say "This is truly art as terrorism". The violence soon started to become a hindrance to the band, with people attending concerts simply for the violence rather than the music, William commenting "I hate it, I despise it. It gets in the way in terms of getting more gigs, and it gets in the way of our image". Many performances were cancelled during the remainder of 1985, with promoters or local councils not prepared to risk a riot. The violence flared up again at a performance at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town in September, with bottles thrown at the band while they played, and a section of the audience smashing up the amplification equipment and smashing the lights afterwards, with several people injured by flying glass. A major factor in the audience reaction was the length of the band's sets at the time, which lasted less than twenty-five minutes, Jim explaining this with "there's never been a group good enough to play any longer". Lack of songs was also a factor, according to Jim: "We've only got enough songs to play for that long".

After the success of the album in the UK, the band embarked on a tour of the United States in late 1985 and 1986, followed by a tour of Japan. On returning to the UK they toured the UK, this time without the trouble that had marred earlier performances. The band revived their acoustic intentions with a stripped-down session for John Peel in November 1985, which included "Psychocandy", the original album title track that was omitted from the release, and "Some Candy Talking", a song which they had been performing for over a year, but had been left off the album. A second version of "Some Candy Talking" was issued on a free EP issued with the NME in January 1986, and the song was released as the band's next single in July. It reached number thirteen in the UK Singles Chart, but attracted controversy when BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Smith decided that the song was a paean to illegal drugs (denied by the band at the time, but admitted by William a year later) and convinced the station to ban it from being played.

Darklands and Automatic
In September 1986, the band parted ways with manager Alan McGee, and came close to splitting up later in the year, with Jim Reid suffering from "exhaustion". John Moore had become an established member, but moved to rhythm guitar, with former Redskins member Martin Hewes joining the band briefly (although he strongly denies ever joining) and former Dead Can Dance percussionist James Pinker taking over on drums. Blanco y Negro manager Geoff Travis took over management duties, and the band returned in December with two gigs at the National Ballroom in Kilburn, London where they premiered new songs including "April Skies" and "Hit". Early in 1987, they entered the studio to record their second album. The first fruits of these sessions were released on the "April Skies" single in April, which saw the band have their first top ten hit. The Beach Boys influence was evident on the B-side, which included "Kill Surf City", a reworking of Brian Wilson's "Surf City". The various formats released also included a cover of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?", a tribute to him with "Bo Diddley is Jesus", and a live version of Can's "Mushroom". "Happy When It Rains" was the second pre-album single, strongly influenced by Smokey Robinson's "My Girl", but it failed to match the success of "April Skies", only reaching number twenty-five. The band set out on another UK tour, this time with sets stretching to 45 minutes, although to a mixed reaction from the music press. They toured without a drummer, instead using a drum machine.

The band's second album, Darklands, was released during the tour, in September, described by writer Steve Taylor as "the definitive blend of light and shade". Featuring a more melodic sound, the album was recorded almost entirely by the Reids themselves, replacing live drums with a drum machine, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews by the British music press. The album's title track was released as a single in October, and the band were thrown off the ITV music show The Roxy when they failed to mime well enough to it.

The band's dangerous reputation culminated at a gig at the RPM club in Toronto in November 1987, when after being heckled throughout the gig by a group in the audience, Jim Reid thrust his microphone stand towards them, hitting one on the head. Jim was arrested and spent a night in jail, before being bailed to return the following February. He was subsequently given an absolute discharge after agreeing to give around £500 to a Salvation Army charity and apologise to the complainant.

With the court case hanging over the band, they compiled a collection of B-sides and rarities for release in April 1988 as Barbed Wire Kisses. They also selected live tracks from a Detroit concert the previous November for release while they planned further studio work. Dave Evans, former Mary Chain soundman and bass player with Biff Bang Pow! (which also featured Alan McGee and Dick Green of Creation Records) was recruited in September 1987 to replace Moore, who formed John Moore and the Expressway. Richard Thomas joined on drums in early 1988. The band had been using drum tapes on tour before Thomas. Their next release was the new recording "Sidewalking", released in March 1988, and backed by some of the live tracks, followed a month later by Barbed Wire Kisses. Later that year, they did a remix for the single "Birthday" by The Sugarcubes.

In September 1989, The band provided backing vocals for the Erasure single "Drama!".

The band's third studio album Automatic was released in October 1989, by which time Evans had been replaced by Ben Lurie. Boasting heavy use of synthesized bass and keyboards, the album was not received quite as well as its predecessors. It contained the singles "Head On" and "Blues from a Gun". By this time, the violence that was originally associated with the band was practically non-existent and the Reid brothers were less antagonistic and aggressive in general. The Rollercoaster EP (August 1990) would be their last release for over a year, the band undertaking a tour of the same name with My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., and Blur.

The 1990s
Douglas Hart had moonlighted with the Acid Angels in 1988, and left the band in 1991, to have a career in film making, before picking up his bass again in 2006, playing with the Sian Alice Group, Le Volume Courbe, and Cristine. Thomas also quit the band to join Renegade Soundwave. The fluid nature of the Mary Chain's line up continued throughout their entire career, with a revolving door of drummers, bassists and guitarists being recruited for TV appearances and gigs whenever they were required, the only constants being the Reid brothers. The Reid brothers recruited former Starlings rhythm section Matthew Parkin and Barry Blackler to replace Hart and Thomas.

The brothers bought their own recording studio in 1991 in Elephant & Castle in South London, which they dubbed The Drugstore, and they returned in February 1992 with the first fruits of the new studio, their next single, "Reverence", which gave them their biggest hit single in almost five years, reaching No. 10 in the UK. Spitting feedback and punk rock bile in every direction, the track was banned from being played on BBC Radio 1 and from Top of the Pops, due to its potentially offensive lyrics ('I wanna die just like JFK, I wanna die in the USA'...'I wanna die just like Jesus Christ, I wanna die on a bed of spikes'). The single was followed by the release of the album Honey's Dead (1992), which received mixed reviews. After the Rollercoaster Tour to support the album, the band concentrated on cracking the United States' market, with an appearance on David Letterman's show, and a tour as part of the Lollapalooza line-up, which William later described as "the worst experience of our lives," followed by their own headlining tour. In December 1992, the Reids again lost their rhythm section, with Ben Lurie returning and Steve Monti joining on drums. Another compilation was released in 1993, The Sound of Speed, before they returned to the studio to record their fifth album proper, Stoned & Dethroned which would see release in 1994, and featured guest appearances from Shane MacGowan and William's then-girlfriend Hope Sandoval. The album was originally planned as an acoustic album, but this idea was abandoned because, in Jim's words, "We couldn't do enough interesting things with acoustic guitars to make an album". In the 1995 EP released under American Records, a number of new works and B-sides were published which were later collected in the album Munki.

After the release of the 1995 compilation Hate Rock 'N' Roll, the Mary Chain parted ways with Blanco y Negro, their record label of over a decade, and re-signed to their original label Creation Records, and Sub Pop in America. The band now included former Lush bassist Phil King. They then recorded 1998's Munki album, which would turn out to be their last before splitting the following year. Munki was commercially the least successful album the band released, peaking at number forty-seven in the UK Album Chart. The album featured the Reids' sister Linda, who sang on the track "Mo Tucker" as well as vocals from Hope Sandoval on "Perfume".

Disbandment
Though it was not until October 1999 that the split was made official, on 12 September 1998, William had a falling out in the tour bus with Lurie, the guitarist, before they were to play a sold out performance at the famous Los Angeles House of Blues. Jim appeared onstage apparently drunk and barely able to stand or sing. William walked offstage about 15 minutes into their set, and the show ended. The audience was later refunded the price of their tickets. The band finished up their U.S. and Japanese dates without William, but from that point, it was clear that the band was at its end. Jim Reid said in 2006 of the tension between himself and William: "After each tour we wanted to kill each other, and after the final tour we tried". On the final night of the tour in Providence, Rhode Island, the band's promoter ran off with the money and the band reportedly got in a fight with the cast of the show Riverdance.

Post-split
Immediately after the split, William Reid went solo as Lazycame—having already released a solo EP in April 1998—and Jim Reid founded Freeheat along with Lurie and ex-Gun Club bassist Romi Mori and Earl Brutus drummer Nick Sanderson, although neither act received much attention or found any success. In October 2005, it was announced that the Reids were reunited; Jim Reid's track "Song for a Secret" a duet with his wife Julie Barber, was released as a single, paired up with Sister Vanilla's "Can't Stop The Rock", which was written and produced by William and the brothers' younger sibling, Linda. The single was released by Transistor Records on 17 October. Jim promoted his side of the single with a very rare solo gig at London's Sonic Cathedral club on John Peel Day, Thursday 13 October 2005. He finished the appearance with a performance of the early Mary Chain classic "Never Understand". Jim also performed new material at low-key gigs with a new band comprising Phil King on guitar, Loz Colbert (Ride) on drums and bassist Mark Crozer (International Jetsetters).

In 2006 five albums were reissued through Rhino Records: Psychocandy, Darklands, Automatic, Honey's Dead and Stoned & Dethroned on 11 July 2006. Each album was released with a DVD containing three promo videos from that particular album.

Reunion: 2007–present
The Jesus and Mary Chain reunited to perform at Coachella on 27 April 2007. During "Just Like Honey", Scarlett Johansson, who starred in the film Lost in Translation featuring the song, performed with the band on the main stage. The band held a warm-up gig the day before in Pomona, California with Giant Drag's Annie Hardy as the guest. The band's first UK performance since reforming was at the Meltdown festival in June.

In June 2007, Jim Reid revealed that the band was working on a new album. In March 2008, the band released "All Things Must Pass" for the soundtrack to NBC's television series Heroes, their first new song since 1998. In September 2008, Rhino Records released the 4-CD compilation The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides & Rarities. In 2010, a greatest hits album, Upside Down: The Best of The Jesus and Mary Chain, was released via Music Club Deluxe.

The band toured North America in 2012 and also played China for the first time in May. The lineup featured guitarist John Moore and Fountains of Wayne drummer Brian Young replacing Loz Colbert. Mark Crozer replaced Moore beginning with the band's Tel Aviv shows in October. In 2013, it was announced that a full-discography vinyl box set, dubbed as The Complete Vinyl Collection, would be released for the band's 30th anniversary, via Demon Music Group. In 2014, the band became the first to sign to the newly reformed Creation Management, helmed by Alan McGee. The band played Psychocandy in full through 2015 to celebrate the album's 30th anniversary.

In September 2015, Jim Reid announced that the band were recording their first studio album since 1998. The album titled Damage and Joy was produced by Youth and released on 24 March 2017. On 24 August 2017, Bobby Gillespie joined the band on drums for three Psychocandy songs during their performance at Vilar de Mouros Festival in Portugal. In autumn 2018, they opened for Nine Inch Nails' "Cold and Black and Infinite" North American tour. The band announced a Darklands tour of Europe in March and April 2020, which was ultimately postponed to November and December 2021. In June 2021, the band sued Warner Music Group for control of their debut album Psychocandy, and later albums, and seeking $2.55 million in damages. Under Section 203 of the United States' Copyright Act of 1976, artists may reclaim the rights to their recordings after 35 years, provided that they serve timely and proper notice upon the current record label. The case was settled out of court in March 2023

On 29 November 2023, the band released "Jamcod", the lead single from their eighth album Glasgow Eyes, which was released on 22 March 2024.

In popular culture
They were referenced in season 24, episode 22 of The Simpsons, "Dangers on a Train". The men of Springfield are helping Homer restore a train for Homer and Marge's anniversary. Reverend Lovejoy is reading a book called The Jesus and Mary Train. The song "Ebin" by Sublime references the Jesus and Mary Chain in the lyrics "Ebin was a cooly that I used to know / Now he's down with the PLO / He's cold kickin' it live with the KKK / No JMC, no JFA".

Their song "Just Like Honey" from Psychocandy was featured in the closing scene of the Sofia Coppola film Lost in Translation. In the 2000 movie High Fidelity, the album Psychocandy is recommended to a record store customer, with The Jesus and Mary Chain cited as picking up where Echo and the Bunnymen left off. The acoustic version of their song "Taste of Cindy" was featured in the 2009 Greg Mottola film Adventureland. The song "Reverence" from their Honey's Dead album was featured in the 1992 film Pet Sematary II. "Snakedriver" was featured on The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. “Why’d You Want Me” was featured in the 1992 Pauly Shore film Encino Man. A poster for the band is seen in the 1995 Bottom episode "Terror" in the scene where Richie (Rik Mayall) and Eddie (Ade Edmondson) fight three boys dressed as devils.

They were referenced by their acronym J.A.M.C. by the band Death Cab for Cutie in the song "We Looked Like Giants" from their fourth studio album Transatlanticism. Jimmy Eat World also referred to the band and their third album ("The DJ never has it, J.A.M.C. Automatic") in the lyrics of "The Authority Song" from their fourth album Bleed American. In addition, Jesus and Mary Chain are referenced in the song "Mildenhall" from The Shins's fifth full-length studio album, Heartworms. James Mercer mentions them as a band he frequently listened to as child in his time abroad in Suffolk, England. The song "April Skies" was featured in the AMC TV series The Walking Dead in a scene from the episode entitled "Stradivarius". "Jesus", a character on the show, is seen listening to the song on a record player. Pixies have covered Head On, famously including the cover on their Trompe Le Monde album.

In the episode of "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" from the TV series "Black Mirror", there is a poster of "Damage and Joy" album coming from Jack's room. A poster of the artwork of "I Hate Rock 'n' Roll" appears in the 2006 film Lake Mungo.

Members
Current members
 * Jim Reid – vocals, guitar, bass (1983–1999, 2007–present)
 * William Reid – guitar, bass, vocals (1983–1999, 2007–present)
 * Mark Crozer – guitar (2007–2008, 2012), bass (2013–present)
 * Scott Von Ryper – guitar (2015–present)
 * Justin Welch – drums (2021–present)

Former members
 * Douglas Hart – bass (1984–1991)
 * Murray Dalglish – drums (1984)
 * Bobby Gillespie – drums (1984–1986, 2017)
 * John Moore – guitar (1986–1987, 2012), drums (1985–1986)
 * Martin Hewes – drums (1986)
 * James Pinker – drums (1986)
 * Dave Evans – rhythm guitar (1987–1989)
 * Richard Thomas – drums (1988–1990)
 * Ben Lurie – rhythm guitar/bass (1989–1998)
 * Steve Monti – drums (1990–1995)
 * Matthew Parkin – bass (1992)
 * Barry Blackler – drums (1992)
 * Nick Sanderson – drums (1993–1998; died 2008)
 * Lincoln Fong – bass (1994–1995)
 * Geoff Donkin – drums (1998)
 * Phil King – bass/guitar (1998, 2007–2015)
 * Loz Colbert – drums (2007–2008)
 * Brian Young – drums (2012–2021)

Discography

 * Psychocandy (1985)
 * Darklands (1987)
 * Automatic (1989)
 * Honey's Dead (1992)
 * Stoned & Dethroned (1994)
 * Munki (1998)
 * Damage and Joy (2017)
 * Glasgow Eyes (2024)

title: The Jesus and Mary Chain