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Martingale (probability theory)

In probability theory, a martingale is a sequence of random variables (i.e., a stochastic process) for which, at a particular time, the conditional expectation of the next value in the sequence is equal to the present value, regardless of all prior values.

History
Originally, martingale referred to a class of betting strategies that was popular in 18th-century France. The simplest of these strategies was designed for a game in which the gambler wins their stake if a coin comes up heads and loses it if the coin comes up tails. The strategy had the gambler double their bet after every loss so that the first win would recover all previous losses plus win a profit equal to the original stake. As the gambler's wealth and available time jointly approach infinity, their probability of eventually flipping heads approaches 1, which makes the martingale betting strategy seem like a sure thing. However, the exponential growth of the bets eventually bankrupts its users due to finite bankrolls. Stopped Brownian motion, which is a martingale process, can be used to model the trajectory of such games.

The concept of martingale in probability theory was introduced by Paul Lévy in 1934, though he did not name it. The term "martingale" was introduced later by, who also extended the definition to continuous martingales. Much of the original development of the theory was done by Joseph Leo Doob among others. Part of the motivation for that work was to show the impossibility of successful betting strategies in games of chance.

Definitions
A basic definition of a discrete-time martingale is a discrete-time stochastic process (i.e., a sequence of random variables) X1, X2, X3, ... that satisfies for any time n,

 * $$\mathbf{E} ( \vert X_n \vert )< \infty $$

 * $$\mathbf{E} (X_{n+1}\mid X_1,\ldots,X_n)=X_n.$$

That is, the conditional expected value of the next observation, given all the past observations, is equal to the most recent observation.

Martingale sequences with respect to another sequence
More generally, a sequence Y1, Y2, Y3 ... is said to be a martingale with respect to another sequence X1, X2, X3 ... if for all n

 * $$\mathbf{E} ( \vert Y_n \vert )< \infty $$

 * $$\mathbf{E} (Y_{n+1}\mid X_1,\ldots,X_n)=Y_n.$$

Similarly, a continuous-time martingale with respect to the stochastic process Xt is a stochastic process Yt such that for all t

 * $$\mathbf{E} ( \vert Y_t \vert )<\infty $$

 * $$\mathbf{E} ( Y_{t} \mid \{ X_{\tau}, \tau \leq s \} ) = Y_s\quad \forall s \le t.$$

This expresses the property that the conditional expectation of an observation at time t, given all the observations up to time $$ s $$, is equal to the observation at time s (of course, provided that s ≤ t). The second property implies that $$Y_n$$ is measurable with respect to $$X_1 \dots X_n$$.

General definition
In full generality, a stochastic process $$Y:T\times\Omega\to S$$ taking values in a Banach space $$S$$ with norm $$\lVert \cdot \rVert_{S}$$ is a martingale with respect to a filtration $$\Sigma_*$$ and probability measure $$\mathbb P$$ if
 * Σ∗ is a filtration of the underlying probability space (Ω, Σ, $$\mathbb P$$);
 * Y is adapted to the filtration Σ∗, i.e., for each t in the index set T, the random variable Yt is a Σt-measurable function;
 * for each t, Yt lies in the Lp space L1(Ω, Σt, $$\mathbb P$$; S), i.e.
 * $$\mathbf{E}_{\mathbb{P}} (\lVert Y_{t} \rVert_{S}) < + \infty;$$

 * for all s and t with s < t and all F ∈ Σs,
 * $$\mathbf{E}_{\mathbb{P}} \left([Y_t-Y_s]\chi_F\right) =0,$$
 * where χF denotes the indicator function of the event F. In Grimmett and Stirzaker's Probability and Random Processes, this last condition is denoted as
 * $$Y_s = \mathbf{E}_{\mathbb{P}} ( Y_t \mid \Sigma_s ),$$
 * which is a general form of conditional expectation.

It is important to note that the property of being a martingale involves both the filtration and the probability measure (with respect to which the expectations are taken). It is possible that Y could be a martingale with respect to one measure but not another one; the Girsanov theorem offers a way to find a measure with respect to which an Itō process is a martingale.

In the Banach space setting the conditional expectation is also denoted in operator notation as $$\mathbf{E}^{\Sigma_s} Y_t$$.

Examples of martingales

 * An unbiased random walk (in any number of dimensions) is an example of a martingale.
 * A gambler's fortune (capital) is a martingale if all the betting games which the gambler plays are fair. To be more specific: suppose Xn is a gambler's fortune after n tosses of a fair coin, where the gambler wins $1 if the coin comes up heads and loses $1 if it comes up tails. The gambler's conditional expected fortune after the next trial, given the history, is equal to their present fortune. This sequence is thus a martingale.
 * Let Yn = Xn2 − n where Xn is the gambler's fortune from the preceding example. Then the sequence { Yn : n = 1, 2, 3, ... } is a martingale.  This can be used to show that the gambler's total gain or loss varies roughly between plus or minus the square root of the number of steps.
 * (de Moivre's martingale) Now suppose the coin is unfair, i.e., biased, with probability p of coming up heads and probability q = 1 − p of tails.  Let

 * $$X_{n+1}=X_n\pm 1$$
 * with "+" in case of "heads" and "−" in case of "tails". Let

 * $$Y_n=(q/p)^{X_n}.$$

 * Then { Yn : n = 1, 2, 3, ... } is a martingale with respect to { Xn : n = 1, 2, 3, ... }. To show this

\begin{align} E[Y_{n+1} \mid X_1,\dots,X_n] & = p (q/p)^{X_n+1} + q (q/p)^{X_n-1} \\[6pt] & = p (q/p) (q/p)^{X_n} + q (p/q) (q/p)^{X_n} \\[6pt] & = q (q/p)^{X_n} + p (q/p)^{X_n} = (q/p)^{X_n}=Y_n. \end{align} $$
 * Pólya's urn contains a number of different-coloured marbles; at each iteration a marble is randomly selected from the urn and replaced with several more of that same colour. For any given colour, the fraction of marbles in the urn with that colour is a martingale. For example, if currently 95% of the marbles are red then, though the next iteration is more likely to add red marbles than another color, this bias is exactly balanced out by the fact that adding more red marbles alters the fraction much less significantly than adding the same number of non-red marbles would.
 * (Likelihood-ratio testing in statistics) A random variable X is thought to be distributed according either to probability density f or to a different probability density g. A random sample X1, ..., Xn is taken.  Let Yn be the "likelihood ratio"

 * $$Y_n=\prod_{i=1}^n\frac{g(X_i)}{f(X_i)}$$

 * If X is actually distributed according to the density f rather than according to g, then { Yn : n = 1, 2, 3, ... } is a martingale with respect to { Xn : n = 1, 2, 3, ... }.

 * In an ecological community (a group of species that are in a particular trophic level, competing for similar resources in a local area), the number of individuals of any particular species of fixed size is a function of (discrete) time, and may be viewed as a sequence of random variables. This sequence is a martingale under the unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography.
 * If { Nt : t ≥ 0 } is a Poisson process with intensity λ, then the compensated Poisson process { Nt − λt : t ≥ 0 } is a continuous-time martingale with right-continuous/left-limit sample paths

 * Wald's martingale

 * A $$d$$-dimensional process $$M=(M^{(1)},\dots,M^{(d)})$$ in some space $$S^d$$ is a martingale in $$S^d$$ if each component $$T_i(M)=M^{(i)}$$ is a one-dimensional martingale in $$S$$.

Submartingales, supermartingales, and relationship to harmonic functions
There are two popular generalizations of a martingale that also include cases when the current observation Xn is not necessarily equal to the future conditional expectation E[Xn+1 | X1,...,Xn] but instead an upper or lower bound on the conditional expectation. These definitions reflect a relationship between martingale theory and potential theory, which is the study of harmonic functions. Just as a continuous-time martingale satisfies E[Xt | {Xτ : τ ≤ s}] − Xs = 0 ∀s ≤ t, a harmonic function f satisfies the partial differential equation Δf = 0 where Δ is the Laplacian operator. Given a Brownian motion process Wt and a harmonic function f, the resulting process f(Wt) is also a martingale.
 * A discrete-time submartingale is a sequence $$X_1,X_2,X_3,\ldots$$ of integrable random variables satisfying
 * $$\operatorname E[X_{n+1}\mid X_1,\ldots,X_n] \ge X_n.$$
 * Likewise, a continuous-time submartingale satisfies
 * $$\operatorname E[X_t\mid\{X_\tau : \tau \le s\}] \ge X_s \quad \forall s \le t.$$
 * In potential theory, a subharmonic function f satisfies Δf ≥ 0. Any subharmonic function that is bounded above by a harmonic function for all points on the boundary of a ball is bounded above by the harmonic function for all points inside the ball. Similarly, if a submartingale and a martingale have equivalent expectations for a given time, the history of the submartingale tends to be bounded above by the history of the martingale. Roughly speaking, the prefix "sub-" is consistent because the current observation Xn is less than (or equal to) the conditional expectation E[Xn+1 | X1,...,Xn]. Consequently, the current observation provides support from below the future conditional expectation, and the process tends to increase in future time.

 * Analogously, a discrete-time supermartingale satisfies
 * $$\operatorname E[X_{n+1}\mid X_1,\ldots,X_n] \le X_n.$$
 * Likewise, a continuous-time supermartingale satisfies
 * $$\operatorname E[X_t\mid\{X_\tau : \tau \le s\}] \le X_s \quad \forall s \le t.$$
 * In potential theory, a superharmonic function f satisfies Δf ≤ 0. Any superharmonic function that is bounded below by a harmonic function for all points on the boundary of a ball is bounded below by the harmonic function for all points inside the ball. Similarly, if a supermartingale and a martingale have equivalent expectations for a given time, the history of the supermartingale tends to be bounded below by the history of the martingale. Roughly speaking, the prefix "super-" is consistent because the current observation Xn is greater than (or equal to) the conditional expectation E[Xn+1 | X1,...,Xn]. Consequently, the current observation provides support from above the future conditional expectation, and the process tends to decrease in future time.

Examples of submartingales and supermartingales

 * Every martingale is also a submartingale and a supermartingale. Conversely, any stochastic process that is both a submartingale and a supermartingale is a martingale.
 * Consider again the gambler who wins $1 when a coin comes up heads and loses $1 when the coin comes up tails. Suppose now that the coin may be biased, so that it comes up heads with probability p.
 * If p is equal to 1/2, the gambler on average neither wins nor loses money, and the gambler's fortune over time is a martingale.
 * If p is less than 1/2, the gambler loses money on average, and the gambler's fortune over time is a supermartingale.
 * If p is greater than 1/2, the gambler wins money on average, and the gambler's fortune over time is a submartingale.
 * A convex function of a martingale is a submartingale, by Jensen's inequality. For example, the square of the gambler's fortune in the fair coin game is a submartingale (which also follows from the fact that Xn2 − n is a martingale).  Similarly, a concave function of a martingale is a supermartingale.

Martingales and stopping times
A stopping time with respect to a sequence of random variables X1, X2, X3, ... is a random variable τ with the property that for each t, the occurrence or non-occurrence of the event τ = t depends only on the values of X1, X2, X3, ..., Xt. The intuition behind the definition is that at any particular time t, you can look at the sequence so far and tell if it is time to stop. An example in real life might be the time at which a gambler leaves the gambling table, which might be a function of their previous winnings (for example, he might leave only when he goes broke), but he can't choose to go or stay based on the outcome of games that haven't been played yet.

In some contexts the concept of stopping time is defined by requiring only that the occurrence or non-occurrence of the event τ = t is probabilistically independent of Xt + 1, Xt + 2, ... but not that it is completely determined by the history of the process up to time t. That is a weaker condition than the one appearing in the paragraph above, but is strong enough to serve in some of the proofs in which stopping times are used.

One of the basic properties of martingales is that, if $$(X_t)_{t>0}$$ is a (sub-/super-) martingale and $$\tau$$ is a stopping time, then the corresponding stopped process $$(X_t^\tau)_{t>0}$$ defined by $$X_t^\tau:=X_{\min\{\tau,t\}}$$ is also a (sub-/super-) martingale.

The concept of a stopped martingale leads to a series of important theorems, including, for example, the optional stopping theorem which states that, under certain conditions, the expected value of a martingale at a stopping time is equal to its initial value.

title: Martingale (probability theory)


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Maynard Jackson

Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. (March 23, 1938 – June 23, 2003) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 54th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia from 1974 to 1982, and again as the city's 56th mayor from 1990 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first Black mayor of Atlanta and of any major city in the South; his three terms made him the second longest-serving mayor in the city's history, after six-term mayor William B. Hartsfield.

He is notable also for public works projects, primarily the new Maynard H. Jackson International terminal at the Atlanta airport, and for greatly increasing minority business participation in the city. After his death, the William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport was renamed Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport to honor his service to the expansion of the airport, the city and its people.

Family history, background and personal life
Jackson was born into a family that valued education and political activism. His maternal grandfather was civil rights leader John Wesley Dobbs, who worked to successfully overturn the white primary in Georgia. He also gained the hiring of black police officers in Atlanta and lighting of Auburn Street, the main retail street of the black community. Maynard's mother Irene (Dobbs) Jackson was one of six daughters; all graduated from Spelman College, encouraged by their parents. Irene earned a doctorate in France and became a professor of French at the college.

His father Maynard Holbrook Jackson was a Baptist minister from New Orleans. He became active in civil rights in Dallas, Texas, where he had grown up after his family moved. His grandfather Alexander Stephens Jackson had been a Baptist minister and educator in Louisiana and Texas. The young Jackson's father died when he was fifteen; his grandfather Dobbs became even more influential in his life.

Jackson attended David T. Howard High School in Atlanta and Morehouse College, a historically black college for men in Atlanta, graduating in 1956 at the age of eighteen. He sang in the Morehouse College Glee Club. After attending the Boston University Law School for a short time, Jackson held several jobs, including selling encyclopedias. He returned to graduate studies, attending the North Carolina Central University Law School. He graduated with a law degree in 1964. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Jackson married Burnella "Bunnie" Hayes, in 1965. The couple had three children, Elizabeth, Brooke, Maynard III. Prior to their divorce, Bunnie Jackson founded First Class, Inc. She was the first African-American woman to own a public relations and marketing firm in Atlanta.

Jackson married Valerie Richardson in 1977, to whom he was married for 25 years until his death. They have two daughters, Valerie and Alexandra. Valerie Jackson hosts Between the Lines each weekend on the WABE-FM radio station, the Atlanta Public Broadcasting station.

Early career
Jackson worked as a lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board and a legal services firm. He joined the Democratic Party.

Political career
In 1968, when Jackson was 30 years old, he decided to run for the US Senate against incumbent Herman Talmadge. His campaign was underfunded, and he lost, but Jackson won in Atlanta, gaining prominence in the city, which had a substantial black minority. The following year, he built on his strength, gaining election as vice mayor, who was presiding officer of the board of aldermen. At that time, Atlanta modified its city charter, strengthening the position of mayor and renaming the vice mayor as president of the city council (aldermen were now city council members).

In 1970, Jackson became Atlanta's first black Vice-Mayor, his first elected position which he held for four years. Later that year, Jackson supported sanitation workers in the city who had gone on strike, with his support contributing to their receiving a higher wage.

In 1973, Jackson was elected with 60 percent of the vote, as the first African-American mayor of Atlanta and any major southern city; he was supported by a coalition of white liberals/moderates and African Americans. At the age of 35, he unseated incumbent Sam Massell.

During his first term, Jackson worked to improve race relations in and around Atlanta after the polarization caused by the election campaign. As mayor, he led the beginnings and much of the progress on several huge public-works projects for the city and region. Affirmative action programs helped minority and women-owned businesses to participate. He helped arrange for the upgrade of the then-William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport's huge terminal (now Domestic Terminal) to modern standards. Jackson strongly opposed the construction of freeways through in-town neighborhoods, knowing that such actions destroyed thriving communities. In 1977, Jackson fired over 900 sanitation workers during the 1977 Atlanta sanitation strike. Following this act of strikebreaking, many of the workers returned to work by the end of the year.

Jackson was mayor through the period when the separate Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) obtained a large amount of federal funding for a rapid-transit rail-line system, when construction began, and when MARTA began its first rail transit service in Atlanta and in DeKalb County in 1979 and during its continual expansion thereafter. As mayor, he celebrated in September 1990 when Atlanta was selected as the host city for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. As mayor, he accepted the Olympic flag at the 1992 closing ceremonies in Barcelona, Spain. He oversaw the completion of many planned public works projects, such as improvements to freeways and parks, and the completion of Freedom Parkway, which were expedited from 1990 to 1996 in preparation for the Olympic Games that began in August 1996.

During Jackson's second term as mayor, the Atlanta Child Murders were ongoing between 1979 and 1981. He supported the Atlanta Police and other police forces in the area but also worked to calm public tensions aroused by the serial killings of black children. The accused killer, Wayne Williams, was caught in 1981. Williams was convicted to serve two consecutive life sentences for the murder of two adult males, but never charged with or tried for the murder of any of the child victims. He is currently being held in Telfair State Prison.

In 1974, Jackson received the Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.

Controversy
Maynard Jackson provoked a major racial crisis in May 1974 when he attempted to fire the incumbent white police chief, John Inman. Jackson believed the change was needed to grapple with Atlanta's growing crime problem and charges by the black community of police racial insensitivity toward African Americans. Whites opposed the firing and racial tensions rose, detracting from Atlanta's proud motto: "too busy to hate."

In August 1974 Mayor Jackson appointed A. Reginald Eaves, a college friend and fellow activist, as Public Safety Commissioner. Eaves was criticized for lacking police experience. He generated controversy by appointing an ex-convict as his personal secretary but was criticized more for what was considered as a system of quota promotions and hiring in the police department, which many described as "reverse discrimination."

Jackson fired Eaves after revelation of a police exam cheating scandal. Eaves was later convicted by a federal jury of extortion in 1988 after selling his vote on two rezonings.

In 1991 Jackson awarded transgender supermodel Caroline Cossey (known under the stage name "Tula") honorary citizenship to Atlanta, though he later rescinded it after he learned that she was transgender, saying “I wouldn’t have given it to somebody whose claim to fame was being transsexual” despite Cossey having a career for many years before her gender reassignment was public knowledge. Cossey stated that she felt insulted by his decision.

Atlanta's crime
In addition to the 1979–1981 Atlanta Child Murders mentioned above, residents were concerned about a rising crime rate during Mayor Jackson's tenure, which was consistent with national trends. In 1979, with a soaring murder rate and nationwide publicity about crime there, Georgia Governor George Busbee, acting on a request from Mayor Maynard Jackson, called in Georgia State Patrol troopers to help patrol the downtown. The business community accused Mayor Jackson and Police Chief George Napper of dismissing public concerns about crime. Atlanta had the highest murder rate and the highest overall crime rate of any city, and the numbers were rapidly climbing higher, with a 69% increase in homicides between 1978 and 1979 alone. Much of it was considered to be driven by drug wars.

Service to the Democratic National Committee
After leaving office as mayor, Jackson continued to be active with the Democratic Party. In 2001 he unsuccessfully sought the post as the Democratic National Committee chairman, losing to the fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe, who had the backing of former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Jackson was backed by presidential candidate Bill Bradley, among others.

Jackson was appointed as the National Development Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and was the first Chairman of the DNC Voting Rights Institute. In 2002, he founded the American Voters League, a non-profit and non-partisan effort to increase national voter participation. He appeared briefly in the 2001 documentary Startup.com.

Legacy and honors
Towards the end of his second mayoralty, a 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago ranked Jackson as the twenty-fourth-best American big-city mayor to have served between the years 1820 and 1993.

 * In 2008 the Southside Comprehensive High School was renamed the Maynard Holbrook Jackson High School.
 * In 2003, Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport had Jackson's name added to it, and in 2012 the airport's new international terminal was named for him.
 * In 2015 a documentary film about his life and work, entitled Maynard, was in preparation, directed by Samuel D. Pollard. It is expected to be released in 2016.
 * The Maynard Documentary was officially selected by DOC NYC to premiere at their film festival on November 16, 2017.

Death
Jackson died in 2003 at the age of 65, of a cardiac arrest at a hospital in Arlington, Virginia after suffering a heart attack at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. His remains are buried at the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta.

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

title: Maynard Jackson


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Ashton Kutcher

Christopher Ashton Kutcher (born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer and entrepreneur. Kutcher began his acting career portraying Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006). He made his film debut in the romantic comedy Coming Soon (1999), followed by the comedy film Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), which was a box office success. In 2003, Kutcher starred in the romantic comedies Just Married and My Boss's Daughter. That year, he created and produced the television series Punk'd, also serving as host for the first eight of its ten seasons. Kutcher starred in the science fiction film The Butterfly Effect (2004) and had a voice role in Open Season (2006).

Kutcher appeared in more romantic comedies, including Guess Who (2005), A Lot Like Love (2005), What Happens in Vegas (2008), and No Strings Attached (2011). From 2011 to 2015, he starred as Walden Schmidt on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. In 2013, Kutcher portrayed Steve Jobs in the biographical film Jobs. He also led the Netflix sitcom The Ranch (2016–2020). He has since starred in the comedy thriller Vengeance (2022).

Beyond entertainment, Kutcher is also a venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of the venture capital firm A-Grade Investments. At SXSW in March 2015, Kutcher announced Sound Ventures, the successor to A-Grade Investments, managing a fund backed by institutional funding. Kutcher has also invested in several high technology startups. He has investments in the companies Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb, Path and Fab.com. Kutcher has invested in six startups : Neighborly, Zenreach, ResearchGate, Duolingo, Kopari Beauty, and Lemonade.

Early life
Kutcher was born on February 7, 1978, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Diane (née Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble employee, and Larry M. Kutcher, a factory worker. He has Czech, German, and Irish ancestry.

Kutcher was raised in a "relatively conservative" Catholic family. He has an older sister named Tausha and a fraternal twin brother named Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. Michael also has cerebral palsy and is a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Reaching for the Stars. Michael's cardiomyopathy caused Kutcher's home life to become increasingly stressful. He has said he "didn't want to come home and find more bad news" about his brother, stating, "I kept myself so busy that I didn't allow myself to feel." Kutcher stated that, when he was 13, he contemplated committing suicide to save his brother's life with a heart transplant; when he told his father he was considering jumping from a Cedar Rapids hospital balcony, his father dissuaded him from doing so shortly before doctors announced that a transplant had become available from an accident victim in another state.

Kutcher attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids for his freshman year, before his family moved to Homestead, Iowa, where he attended Clear Creek–Amana High School. During high school, he developed a passion for acting and appeared in school plays. During his senior year, he broke into his high school at midnight with his cousin in an attempt to steal money; he was arrested leaving the scene. Kutcher was convicted of third-degree burglary and sentenced to three years of probation and 180 hours of community service. Kutcher stated that although the experience "straightened him out", he lost his girlfriend and anticipated college scholarships, and was ostracized at school and in his community.

Kutcher enrolled at the University of Iowa in August 1996, where his planned major was biochemical engineering, motivated by the desire to cure his brother's heart ailment. At college, Kutcher was kicked out of his apartment for being too "noisy" and "wild". Kutcher stated, "I thought I knew everything but I didn't have a clue. I was partying, and I woke up many mornings not knowing what I had done the night before. I played way too hard. I am amazed I am not dead." To earn tuition money, Kutcher worked as a college summer hire in the cereal department for the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids and sometimes sold his blood plasma. While at the University of Iowa, he was approached by a model scout at The Airliner bar in Iowa City, Iowa, and entered the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" modeling competition. Placing first, he won a trip to New York City's International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention. Leaving Iowa for a stay in New York City, Kutcher then returned to Cedar Rapids, before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.

Modeling
After participating in an IMTA competition in 1998, Kutcher signed with Next modeling agency in New York, appeared in commercials for Calvin Klein, and modelled in Paris and Milan.

Acting
Following his success in modeling, Kutcher moved to Los Angeles after his first audition. He was cast as Michael Kelso in the television series That '70s Show, from 1998 to 2006. Kutcher was cast in a series of film roles; although he auditioned but was not cast for the role of Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor (2001) (replaced by Josh Hartnett), he starred in several comedy films, including Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Just Married (2003), and Guess Who (2005). He appeared in the 2003 family film Cheaper by the Dozen as a self-obsessed actor. In the 2004 drama film The Butterfly Effect, Kutcher played a conflicted young man who time travels. While the film received negative reviews, it was a box office success.

In 2003, Kutcher produced and starred as the host in his own series, MTV's Punk'd, that involved hidden camera tricks performed on celebrities. He is also an executive producer of the reality television shows Beauty and the Geek, Adventures in Hollyhood (based around the rap group Three 6 Mafia), The Real Wedding Crashers, and the game show Opportunity Knocks. Many of his production credits, including Punk'd, come through Katalyst Films, a production company he runs with partner Jason Goldberg. A 2004 interviewer described Kutcher as a "hunky young actor [who] is heading in all different directions at once", including "the hot L.A. restaurant Dolce":

"'If anything, I'm a trier,' says Kutcher between puffs of filtered Lucky Strikes. 'I think, more than anything, it comes from the fact that my father always had several irons in the fire. Also, I don't want to fail. If something doesn't work out—if That '70s Show got canceled or if I wasn't going to have a film career—I always wanted to have backup contingency plans. So I just started doing other things; and on a half-hour sitcom, you're really only working for 30 hours a week. It allows a lot of time for sitting around, which I always kind of filled with work."

Because of scheduling conflicts with the filming of The Guardian, Kutcher was unable to renew his contract for the eighth and final season of That '70s Show, although he appeared in its first four episodes (credited as a special guest star) and returned for the series finale. Kutcher produced and starred in the 2010 action comedy, Killers, in which he played a hitman. In May 2011, Kutcher was announced as Charlie Sheen's replacement on the series Two and a Half Men.

Kutcher's contract was for one year and was believed to be worth nearly $20 million. His debut as the character Walden Schmidt, entitled "Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt", was seen by 28.7 million people on September 19, 2011. The Nielsen ratings company reported that figure was more than any episode in the show's first eight seasons, when Sheen starred in it. Kutcher earned $750,000 an episode on the show. The show ended with a forty-minute series finale "Of Course He's Dead" on February 19, 2015.

Kutcher appeared in a Popchips ad campaign in May 2012. The campaign featured Kutcher as an Indian man named Raj who was "looking for love" in a dating ad-style spoof. Kutcher's use of brown face paint and a stereotypical Indian accent received criticism from online viewers and members of the Indian-American community.

Kutcher appeared as a guest Shark during the seventh season of reality TV show Shark Tank, which premiered on September 25, 2015.

In 2016, he appeared in the "Candy, Quahog Marshmallow" episode of Family Guy. From 2016 to 2020, Kutcher co-starred in the Netflix series The Ranch alongside Danny Masterson, Elisha Cuthbert and Debra Winger, playing the role of Colt Bennett, the son of a Colorado rancher (Sam Elliott) returning home from a semi-pro football career to run the family business on the ranch. On April 30, 2022, it was announced that Kutcher would have a guest appearance in the follow-up sitcom, That '90s Show.

Venture capital
Beyond the entertainment world, Kutcher has invested in several high technology startups. Kutcher has invested in six startups : Neighborly, Zenreach, ResearchGate, Duolingo, Kopari Beauty, and most recently, Lemonade.

He is a co-founder of the venture capital firm A-Grade Investments with Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle and fund manager Chris Hollod. Kutcher, Oseary, and Burkle started by initially investing $30m of their own funds in 2010 when they founded the firm, by 2016 Forbes valued the firms holdings at $236 million. At SXSW on March 14, 2015, Kutcher announced Sound Ventures, the successor to A-Grade Investments managing a fund backed by institutional funding.

On October 29, 2013, Lenovo announced that it hired Kutcher as product engineer. Kutcher was part of the management team for Ooma, a tech start-up launched in September 2007. Ooma is in the Voice over Internet Protocol business and Kutcher's role was as Creative Director. He spearheaded a marketing campaign and produced viral videos to promote this service. Kutcher also created an interactive arm of Katalyst called Katalyst Media, with his partner from Katalyst Films, Jason Goldberg. Their first site was the animated cartoon Blah Girls. Ooma revamped its sales and marketing strategy with a new management team in the summer of 2008, replacing Kutcher as their creative director. Rich Buchanan, from Sling Media, became Ooma's Chief Marketing Officer.

Kutcher has invested in an Italian restaurant called Dolce (other owners include Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama) and a Japanese-themed restaurant named Geisha House with locations in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York City. Geisha House went out of business on June 1, 2013. In 2019 Ashton Kutcher, Mark Cuban, Steve Watts, and Watts' wife Angela, invested a 50% stake in Veldskoen Shoes fledgling US business.

Other work
In 2009, Kutcher established an international human rights organization with his then-wife Demi Moore. DNA Foundation, later known as Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, works to address the sexual exploitation of children and the proliferation of child pornography on a global scale. On March 23, 2011, Kutcher launched his own Twitter client with UberMedia called A.plus. While the app was initially available exclusively for desktop computers with Adobe Air installed, it eventually became available on mobile platforms, for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. In order to download on one of the 3 mobile platforms, users must first have the UberSocial client installed on their device and then proceed to the device's browser to download A.plus.

In 2013, Kutcher and Evan Beard and Kendall Dabaghi launched A Plus, where Kutcher is chairman of the board. Initially, a product discovery service, it morphed in April 2014 to a social media-driven content platform focused on upbeat stories. It was officially launched in that incarnation in January 2015. It has reported 27.5 million monthly uniques in the United States, has an Alexa rank of about 11787 (4019 in the US), and is ranked by Quantcast as a top-50 site in the US in terms of unique visitors.

In 2022, Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis started a gofundme page to help two online companies (Airbnb and Flexport) to aid refugees fleeing the violence in Ukraine perpetrated by Russia's military. They raised $34 million. These two organizations are on the ground helping people in Poland and Romania. The couple promised to match the funding. Kunis is a native of Ukraine.

Marriages and relationships
In February 2001, Ashley Ellerin, whom Ashton Kutcher was dating at the time, was murdered. While never a suspect, Kutcher testified at the 2019 trial of serial killer Michael Gargiulo. Kutcher stated that on the night that Ellerin was murdered, Kutcher had arrived to pick her up for a date, but that she had not answered the door. His information helped establish the time of death. Gargiulo was found guilty and sentenced to death on July 16, 2021, for her murder.

In late 2002, he began dating Brittany Murphy, his co-star in Just Married.

Kutcher and Demi Moore met in 2003 and married on September 24, 2005. Six years later, on November 17, 2011, Moore announced her intention to end the marriage. After more than a year of separation, Kutcher filed for divorce from Moore on December 21, 2012, in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized on November 26, 2013.

Kutcher began dating his former That '70s Show co-star Mila Kunis during the first half of 2012. After they became engaged in February 2014, she gave birth to a daughter in October 2014. Kunis married Kutcher in July 2015. She gave birth to a son in November 2016. The family resides in a sustainable farmhouse, designed by the couple and architect Howard Backen, in Beverly Hills.

Interests and beliefs
In 2009, Kutcher described himself as a fiscal conservative and socially liberal. He is a gun owner but supports new gun laws to help stop mass shootings. Following the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, he said on Twitter "I've had a gun since I was 12 yrs old but enough is enough. I'm a hunter and a sportsman but nobody needs assault rifles. Let's pray. Then let's change the law."

He trains in the martial art Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and is a brown belt under Rigan Machado.

On September 17, 2008, Kutcher was named the assistant coach for the freshman football team at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. However, he was unable to return in 2009 because he was filming Spread.

In February 2011, Kutcher sold his Hollywood Hills home, which he originally bought in 2004 for $1 million.

Kutcher grew up as a Catholic. As an adult, he practices Kabbalah, and has visited Israel and studied the Torah; his wife Mila Kunis stated that he "taught [me] everything I never knew" about her religion, Judaism, though as of 2018, he has not converted. On trips to Israel, Kutcher visited Kabbalah centers in Tel Aviv and in Tsfat. In 2013, Kutcher remarked, "Israel is near and dear to my heart ... coming to Israel is sort of coming back to the source of creation – trying to get closer to that. And as a creative person, going to the source of creation is really inspiring. And this place has been really inspiring for me – not only on a spiritual level, but also on an artistic and creative level."

In April 2012, Kutcher became the 500th paying customer to sign up to ride Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo.

On November 6, 2022, Kutcher ran and completed the 2022 New York City Marathon in 3:54:01.

Social media presence
On April 16, 2009, Kutcher became the first Twitter user to reach more than 1 million followers, beating CNN in the site's "Million followers contest". There were reports indicating that Twitter prevented users from "unfollowing" Kutcher or CNN.

In November 2011, Kutcher received heavy criticism for his tweet in response to the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal, calling the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno "in poor taste". Kutcher subsequently turned over management of his Twitter account to his team at the Katalyst Media company.

On March 8, 2015, Kutcher sparked a national debate regarding the lack of equal access to diaper changing facilities in men's restrooms with this Facebook post: "There are NEVER diaper changing stations in mens [sic] public restrooms. The first public men's room that I go into that has one gets a free shout out on my FB page!"

Kutcher has leveraged his social media presence, particularly on Facebook, to post and promote content published by A Plus, a social media-driven content platform and associated company of which he is the chairman.

In April 2011, Kutcher and then-wife Demi Moore began a public service announcement campaign to end child sex trafficking. Kutcher claimed that 100,000 to 300,000 American children were sold into sexual slavery. The number was criticized by newspaper The Village Voice. Kutcher and others including The New York Times, C-SPAN, and CNN used a peer-reviewed study referring to minors at risk for sexual exploitation. The Village Voice, from their research, said it was only hundreds of children. Kutcher claimed the criticism by the Village Voice promoted child prostitution and used Twitter to request that Village Voice advertisers withdraw their advertising from publications owned by its parent company.

Health
In August 2022, Kutcher revealed that two years earlier he had been diagnosed with vasculitis, which had impaired his hearing, vision, and mobility during the course of a year.

Danny Masterson trial
After the conviction of That '70s Show and The Ranch cast mate, Danny Masterson, for rape, Kutcher, along with Mila Kunis, wrote letters to the judge in support of Masterson. The letters stated that Masterson was a good person and that he treated people with "decency, equality, and generosity." After the letters were made public, Kutcher and Kunis received immediate backlash and criticism for their support of Masterson, especially due to Kutcher and Kunis' involvement in Thorn, a charity to expose the sexual exploitation of children. After the backlash, Kutcher and Kunis apologized in a video, in which the two claimed that the letters were only intended for the judge and not for the public. The apology was similarly criticized as "performative and insincere." In response to the further backlash, Kutcher stepped down as chairman of the board of Thorn.

Awards and nominations
Since he started acting, Kutcher has been nominated by the Teen Choice Awards the most. He has also won awards for his romantic comedies A Lot like Love, What Happens in Vegas and No Strings Attached. In 1999, he was nominated by the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series by a Supporting Young Actor as Michael Kelso in That '70s Show. He has also been nominated by the Kid's Choice Awards, MTV Movie Awards, People's Choice Awards, and the Golden Raspberry Awards.

title: Ashton Kutcher


text:
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (July 6, 1888February 24, 1973) was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond. Born in Berlin, Germany into a non-observant Jewish family, the son of a prosperous banker, he converted to Christianity in his late teens, and thereafter the interpretation and reinterpretation of Christianity was a consistent theme in his writings. He met and married Margrit Hüssy in 1914. In 1925, the couple legally combined their names. They had a son, Hans, in 1921.

Rosenstock-Huessy served as an officer in the German army during World War I. His experience caused him to reexamine the foundations of liberal Western culture. He then pursued an academic career in Germany as a specialist in medieval law, which was disrupted by the rise of Nazism. In 1933, after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, he emigrated to the United States where he began a new academic career, initially at Harvard University and then at Dartmouth College, where he taught from 1935 to 1957.

Although never part of the mainstream of intellectual discussion during his lifetime, his work drew the attention of W. H. Auden, Harold Berman, Martin Marty, Lewis Mumford, Page Smith, and others. Rosenstock-Huessy may be best known as the close friend of and correspondent with Franz Rosenzweig. Their exchange of letters is considered by scholars of religion and theology to be indispensable in the study of the modern encounter of Jews with Christianity. In his work, Rosenstock-Huessy discussed speech and language as the dominant shaper of human character and abilities in every social context. He is viewed as belonging to a group of thinkers who revived post-Nietzschean religious thought.

Early life
Rosenstock-Huessy was born Eugen Friedrich Moritz Rosenstock in Berlin, Germany on July 6, 1888, to Theodor and Paula Rosenstock. His father, a scholarly man, was a banker and a member of the Berlin Stock Exchange. He was the only son among seven surviving children.

Despite his parents' Jewish heritage, his family "celebrated some Christian holidays, in keeping with other German families at the time." He joined the Lutheran Protestant Church at age 17 and was christened at age 18. He remained a proponent of Christianity's foundational significance throughout the rest of his life.

After graduating from a secondary school (gymnasium) with very high academic standards and an emphasis on classical languages and literature, Rosenstock-Huessy pursued law studies at the universities of Zurich, Heidelberg, and Berlin. He corresponded with Franz Rosenzweig and Hans Ehrenberg, regarding the relationship of man with God, as understood through Judaism and Christianity. In 1909 the University of Heidelberg granted him a doctorate in law. In 1912 he became a Privatdozent, a preliminary qualification to becoming a professor, at the University of Leipzig, where he taught constitutional law and the history of law until 1914.

In 1914 Rosenstock-Huessy visited Florence, Italy to conduct historical research. There he met Margrit Hüssy, a Swiss art history major. They married later that year. World War I broke out shortly thereafter.

World War I
At the onset of World War I, the German Army drafted Rosenstock-Huessy and stationed him at the Western Front, including 18 months at Verdun, until the war's end. "During this period he organized courses for the troops, replacing the limited instruction in patriotism with broader topics. In 1916, he and his friend, the Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, also on active duty, exchanged letters on Judaism and Christianity." That correspondence has become well known as a dialog between proponents of the two related religions. Rosenstock-Huessy's work, Judaism Despite Christianity, contains much of this correspondence.

Interwar period
After World War I, Rosenstock-Huessy became active in labor issues, focusing on improving education as a means to improve the societal standard of living. He returned to academia and started publishing his first noted works.

Labor education
Rosenstock-Huessy did not return to his teaching post at the University of Leipzig. Instead, he obtained a position with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, the German car manufacturer, in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1919, he founded and became the editor until 1921 of the first factory newspaper in Germany, the Daimler Werkzeitung (Work Newspaper).

In 1921, Rosenstock founded Die Akademie der Arbeit (the Academy of Labor) in Frankfurt am Main. "This institution offered courses and seminars for blue-collar workers, but he resigned in 1923 over differences with the trade union representatives. Nevertheless, he did not give up his involvement with adult education and his efforts to give industrial workers a voice of their own in society." He co-founded the Patmos Verlag publishing house, which published works on "new religious, philosophical, and social perspectives."

Return to academia

In 1923, Rosenstock-Huessy received a second doctorate in philosophy from the University of Heidelberg. He then lectured at the Technical University of Darmstadt in the faculty of social science and social history until he was offered a job at the University of Breslau as a full professor of German legal history, a position he held from 1923 until January 30, 1933.

During this period, Rosenstock-Huessy became active in many other ways at the University of Breslau. He helped organize voluntary work service camps—Löwenberger Arbeitslager (Löwenberg Work Camp)—for students, young farmers, and young workers to address the living and labor conditions at coal mines in Waldenburg, Lower Silesia.

In 1926, Joseph Wittig, a reform-minded Roman Catholic priest, was excommunicated and thus lost his right to teach church history at the University of Breslau. Rosenstock-Huessy stood by his friend, Wittig, in this affair. In 1927 and 1928, they co-authored Das Alter der Kirche (The Age of the Church), which contained two volumes of essays on the history of the Church and a third volume devoted to documents leading up to Wittig's excommunication.

In 1925, he co-founded a journal, Die Kreatur (The Creature), which was edited by Wittig, Martin Buber, and Viktor von Weizsäcker, men of widely different perspectives, and which lasted until 1930. According to his recent publishers, "Among the contributors [of Die Kreatur] were Nicholas Berdyaev, Lev Shestov, Franz Rosenzweig, Ernst Simon, Hugo Bergmann, Edgar Dacque, Hans Ehrenberg, Rudolf Ehrenberg, Marie Luise Enckendorff, Hermann Herrigel, Rudolf Hallo, Edith Klatt, Fritz Klatt, Ernst Michel, Wilhelm Michel, Werner Picht, Florens Christian Rang, Heinrich Sachs, and Margarette Susman. Each of these [people] had, between 1910 and 1932, in one way or another, offered an alternative to the idealism, positivism, and historicism that dominated German universities."

Soon after January 30, 1933, when the National Socialists (Nazis) assumed power in Germany, Rosenstock-Huessy resigned from the University of Breslau and departed Germany that year. By the end of 1933, he received an appointment as lecturer in German Art and Culture at Harvard University with the help of a professor of government there.

Publications, 1914–1933
Rosenstock-Huessy published his medieval study Königshaus und Stämme in Deutschland zwischen 911 und 1250 (The Royal House and the Tribes in Germany between 911 and 1250) in 1914, which he had written in Leipzig and was the source of recognition for his second doctorate. In 1920, Rosenstock-Huessy published Die Hochzeit des Krieges und der Revolution (The Marriage of War and Revolution), "a collection of current events essays that were replete with visionary thinking and practical warnings of conflicts to come." In 1921, Rosenstock-Huessy published Angewandte Seelenkunde (Practical Knowledge of the Soul) wherein he developed a new method for the social sciences based on language, the spoken word, and his "grammatical approach." He later called this approach "metanomics." Together with Josef Wittig, a Roman Catholic, he published Das Alter der Kirche (The Age of the Church) in 1927-28. That work contained two volumes of essays on the life of the Church and a third volume devoted to documents leading up to Wittig's excommunication."

"While he was still teaching at Breslau, Rosenstock wrote and published the first of his major works: Die Europäischen Revolutionen: Volkscharaktere und Staatenbildung (The European Revolutions and the Character of Nations; 1931). This book showed how 1,000 years of European history had been created from five different European national revolutions that collectively came to an end in World War I."

Dartmouth College
Rosenstock-Huessy encountered strong opposition at Harvard University to the presentation of his ideas in social history and other topics, all of which were based on his Christian faith. Reportedly, Rosenstock-Huessy frequently mentioned God in class. He also often attacked non-religious academic thinking, a teaching tradition assumed by the Harvard faculty to be a prerequisite for high scholarship. Profound differences of opinion ensued and led, in 1935, to his accepting an appointment as professor of social philosophy at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He made his home in nearby Norwich, Vermont. He taught at Dartmouth until his retirement in 1957.

At Harvard, he had made friends there who helped him in his publishing efforts. His first major writing task was to develop an English-language revision of his earlier book on revolutions, and he soon published Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western Man in 1938. George Allen Morgan, a former Harvard student under Alfred North Whitehead and himself the author of the classic What Nietzsche Means, subsequently assisted Rosenstock-Huessy in the preparation of The Christian Future or the Modern Mind Outrun in 1946. Further, Whitehead had strongly supported Rosenstock-Huessy in his disagreements with members of the Harvard faculty.

Renewed labor education
In 1940 he presented a request to US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and was granted approval to organize a youth training program for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Dorothy Thompson were champions of the proposal. He then founded Camp William James in Tunbridge, Vermont as a prototype for a national peacetime volunteer labor service. "Involving mainly students from Dartmouth, Radcliffe, and Harvard, its purpose was to train young leaders to expand the 7-year-old CCC from a program for unemployed youth into a work service program that would accept volunteers from all walks of life." The entrance of the United States into World War II in 1941 ended this and all other CCC programs because men were needed in the armed services and women became a greater part of the workforce. This concept anticipated the Peace Corps by more than two decades.

Publications, 1933–1973

Rosenstock-Huessy published Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western Man in 1938, an English-language revision of his earlier book on revolutions. Together with George Allen Morgan, he published The Christian Future or the Modern Mind Outrun in 1946. In Out of Revolution, Rosenstock-Huessy wrote: "The present time is bound (...) to attempt an organization of future society by which the dynamite of revolution may be manipulated as persistently and consciously as contractors use real dynamite in building tunnels or roads." During 1956 through 1958, Rosenstock-Huessy developed the principle of metanomics in his two-volume Soziologie (Sociology)—Volume I: On the Forces of Common Life (When Space Governs) and Volume II: On the Forces of History (When the Times Are Obeyed). During 1963 through 1964, he further developed this principle in Volumes I & II of, Die Sprache des Menschengeschlechts: Eine Leibhaftige Grammatik in Vier Teilen  (The Speech of Mankind: A Personal Grammar in Four Parts). Whereas Soziologie is unavailable in English, Rosenstock-Huessy's Speech and Reality is an English-language introduction to that work. A collection of his writings, I Am an Impure Thinker offers a good overview of Rosenstock-Huessy's thought processes.

Transitions
Rosenstock-Huessy's wife, Margrit, died in 1959. In 1960, Freya von Moltke became Rosenstock-Huessy's companion. She was the widow of Helmuth James von Moltke, who had opposed National Socialism and was executed by the Nazis.

After World War II and continuing through his retirement from Dartmouth, Rosenstock-Huessy was a frequent guest professor at many universities in Germany and the United States. He remained active in lecturing and writing until his final years. His output comprises more than 500 essays, articles, and monographs, as well as 40 books. He was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in 1958 at the University of Münster. Rosenstock-Huessy died on February 24, 1973. He and his wife are buried at the Hillside Cemetery in Norwich, Vermont.

Quotations

 * "The French Revolution first introduced into Europe the notion of the tissue-paper frontier. Hitherto, all boundaries had been marshes, forests, mountains, dikes; that is to say, significant boundaries.  But when boundaries can be drawn on paper, they need have no more significance than the stroke of a pen or a piece of chalk."
 * "Grammar and logic free language from being at the mercy of the tone of voice. Grammar protects us against misunderstanding the sound of an uttered name; logic protects us against what we say having a double meaning."
 * "He who believes in nothing still needs a girl to believe in him."

In English

 * Hans Ehrenberg, Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstock (Sons for Peace), "Ways of Peace, Lights of Peace", Vol 1 & 2, (Rome: Vatican Press, 1910, New York: Bible Society, 1910).

title: Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy


text:
Opposition

Opposition may refer to:

Arts and media

 * Opposition (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars
 * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band
 * The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, a late-night television series on Comedy Central

Politics

 * Opposition (politics), a party with views opposing those of the current government
 * Loyal opposition
 * Parliamentary opposition, a form of political opposition
 * Leader of the Opposition

Opposition parties

 * Opposition (Australia)
 * Opposition (Queensland), Australia
 * Ministerialists and Oppositionists (Western Australia)
 * Bahraini opposition
 * Official Opposition (Canada)
 * Opposition (Croatia)
 * Opposition Party (Hungary)
 * Official Opposition (India)
 * Opposition Front Bench (Ireland)
 * Opposition (Malaysia)
 * Opposition (Montenegro)
 * Official Opposition (New Zealand)
 * His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (United Kingdom)

United States

 * Opposition Party (Northern U.S.) (1854–1858), a Northern anti-slavery party absorbed by the Republican Party
 * Opposition Party (Southern U.S.) (1858–1860), a Southern anti-secession party just before the Civil War
 * Opposition Party (Illinois) (1874), a coalition opposing Republican Party rule in Chicago and Cook County

Other uses

 * Binary opposition, a pair of related terms that are opposite in meaning
 * Opposition (boolean algebra), two terms with a shared literal, one positive, the other negative
 * Opposition (chess), the position of the kings relative to each other
 * Opposition (astronomy), the position of a celestial body
 * Opposition (astrology), astrological aspect in horoscopic astrology
 * Opposition proceeding, an administrative process available under some patent or trademark laws
 * Opposition of the thumb, the location of the thumb opposite to the fingers so that the hand can grasp objects
 * Square of opposition, a type of logic diagram

title: Opposition


text:
Talk:The Magic Roundabout

Line removed
I've removed the line:

The French thought that Dougal in the series was a reference to De Gaulle, the collaborating general in the Second World War.
 * a) because I'm not sure whether they did think that, but mostly
 * b) De Gaulle was most certainly not a collaborator in WW2.
 * c) In any case, surely the French would have referred to him as the President, which he was for most of the time the Roundabout was in production?

Arwel 20:10 21 Jul 2003 (UTC)

In answer to this.

 * a) You can't know everything.
 * b) I apoligise in thinking that De Gaulle was a collabarator but I thought that was why the French people thought that was why the English were having a go at him.
 * c) This was after De Gaulle was in power. In the same way we don't call the Duke of Wellington Prime Minister Wellesley we tend to think of him as General De Gaulle rather than President De Gaulle.

Adrian

This article should probably treat the original french version first, and then discuss the english variant. Morwen - Talk 15:07, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Dougal/De Gaulle
I've updated the text to cite directly the 1968 Joan Bakewell interview with Serge Danot on Late Night Line Up, which I have on VHS recorded on January 6th 1992 from Channel 4's The Return Of The Magic Roundabout. Danot appeared with an associate, Jean Biard (or perhaps Billard - I have to rely on Ms. Bakewell's French accent, the name is not shown in any caption), who translated for him. Biard at one point said to Bakewell "Can I tell you something about the French reaction about the Dougal name?" He then turned to Danot and said (in French) "I'm telling her the story that is told of De Gaulle." He continued "We all thought that when you spoke of Dougal we are very afraid about our, er, I mean, our Ministry, our Foreign Ministry, and we thought it was Mr. De Gaulle, the President, you know." He and Bakewell laughed briefly, and he continued, as the image cut to an image of De Gaulle overlaid by the caption DE GAULLE RESIGNS, "Yes, we were afraid about that, but it's alright."

Professor Eugene Q Thrung III (talk) 09:35, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Dillon
"Dillon" has been consistently mispelled as "Dylan" in this article. -- Derek Ross | Talk 02:13, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * So I've fixed it... -- Derek Ross | Talk 02:19, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Dylan
Dylan has not been "mispelled" Please cite your source before making any further revisions Lion King 02:44, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Fair enough. Radio Times back issues circa 1970. And perhaps you could cite your source for the rabbit's name being Dylan. -- Derek Ross | Talk 04:46, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Radio Times is not accurate, they were unaware that Eric Thompson had named him after Bob Dylan. They only heard the name being said during the narration because there were no scripts as he made it up as he went along.  Try typing The Magic Roundabout into Google, you will only find Dylan, not Dillon.  Plus I still have books from my childhood that name him as Dylan.Lion King 05:20, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

 * , so the BBC was lying to us all those years ago! Well, well. I see that they have now changed their minds about the spelling. So "Dylan" is the spelling we should be using after all. However rightly or wrongly, Google will return you a couple of sites which use the Dillon spelling if you type in magic roundabout... -- Derek Ross | Talk 06:55, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

 * It's Dylon.. just look at the film! -- 9cds(talk) 14:03, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

 * LOL. Lion King 14:51, 20 February 2006 (UTC) P.S. "Dylon" is a spelling mistake it happens. After all, we all make mistook's, we're onley humon. Lion King

 * Definitely Dylan. DJ Clayworth 16:41, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Time of the news
IIRC The Magic Roundabout went out at 17.35, before the BBC's main evening news which was always at 17.40. The BBC news moved from 17.40 to 18.00 some time in the eighties. From 1969, the main news, starting at 17.40, was followed by a magazine type programme called "Nationwide". The first part was local news from your BBC regional studio. At 18.20, it went "Nationwide" from Lime Grove in London, looking at stories and bringing in reports and contributions from presenters around the regions. Nationwide ran until August 5th 1983. This may be when the main evening news moved from 17.40 to 18.00. Alternatively it moved to 18.00 in February 1985, coinciding with the launch of Wogan and East Enders at 19.00 on alternate weekdays. I may be nit picking (apols) but when invoking strong childhood memories these little details count!
 * Uh-uh. The news went out at 17:45 originally, before they added 5 minutes to the beginning. -- Arwel (talk) 00:38, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

 * "Sort it out you two", said Zebedee! Lion King 10:45, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Drug Reference Theory
Despite the denial of there being any drug references in The Magic Roundabout, to the best of my recall it runs something like this:
 * Dougal: Hippyish long hair, has "dreams" after eating sugar cubes. (LSD)
 * Brian: Red nose, flighty attention span, aggressive personality, delusions of grandeur. Snails leave white lines behind them. (Cocaine or Amphetamines)
 * Ermintrude: Finds everything funny, constantly hungry - and cows eat grass. (Cannabis)
 * Zebedee: Flushed red, constantly twitching, hyperactive, looks like a pill. (Uppers, Poppers or Amyl nitrite)
 * I always reckoned it was for Zebedee read CBD but maybe just my addled mind. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.254.149.122 (11:10, 9 October 2018 (UTC) (talk)
 * Presumably you mean CBD-DMH? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:22, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

 * Dylan: Dopey, unfocused; in Dougal and the Blue Cat he utters the line "Man, you're right. I'm watching these crazy mushrooms grow". (Possibly Magic Mushrooms)

Obviously this is no more than idle speculation, which is why it's in the talk page.
 * Astatine 10:45, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Obviously true: "Magic Roundabout star homeless and broke after years of drug abuse"! But see also this 2005 article which says this: "Interviewed last year, Danot's widow, Martine, was aghast at the idea. "On drugs? No, absolutely not. They were all sweet characters created entirely for children, Of course, they were products of their age, the 1960s, but drugs? No, maybe that's the way you saw it in Britain, but I can assure you that here in France nobody thinks or thought that." Martinevans123 (talk) 12:24, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

Traffic roundabouts
The stuff at the end about traffic roundabouts should be mostly merged into Magic roundabout.Ben Finn 20:41, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree, and have made a reference to the main article, Magic Roundabout. --Portnadler 09:11, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

French article
There is surprisingly little reference to the UK version in the French Wikipedia article. Jooler 07:52, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Dougal's Breed

 * "The main character was Dougal or Pollux, (a Maltese dog, albeit of a non-standard colour)."

I think the reason for the non-standard colour would be that he's not a Maltese. I always thought he was intended to be a Puli. -Pennoir 21:42, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
 * While he does slightly look like a Maltese, he does more closely resemble a puli. Maybe a source for the breed (if any) could be obtained? Antisora 12:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I always thought he was a Yorkshire terrier! This definitely needs sourcing. Rissa (talk) 18:27, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Am I the only one who wants a DVD release?
Nowhere can I find anything about the original series of The Magic Roundabout getting a DVD release, and nor can I find a campaign to support. Annoying when so many of its contemporaries are available. The market must be there, surely? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.157.212.77 (talk) 15:15, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Differences between the French and English version?
The article mentions that the two shows have different narration but doesn't go into any details. Could anyone expand on the difference between the two versions? Ke11ett 15:10, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
 * It's said that Eric Thompson just watched what was happening and made the stories up as he went along live, and his narration was not recorded, hence there being no scripts for Nigel Planer to follow. Hope this helps. Lion King (talk) 13:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry, Lion King, but that just makes things more confusing… For a start, there is nothing to suppose that Eric Thompson just sat and narrated over the top without a script - he wrote them to fit the on-screen action, without knowing what the original French script had said, so the story needn’t be the same, but he didn’t make them up as he went along. They are too finely crafted for that. He later adapted his scripts as children’s books. Secondly, I don’t know why that would have had anything to do with Nigel Planer; he replaced Eric Thompson as narrator (who had died some years previously), but he was dealing with episodes which Thompson had never had anything to do with, he wasn’t re-dubbing Thompson’s episodes. Jock123 (talk) 19:55, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Zebedee reference in media
The character Zebedee was referenced in this newspaper article here: in regards to these new poweriser/powerbocker things which are spring-footed much like Zebedee. I found it referenced in the article. I'm not sure if this news website is notable enough to mention for media exposure regarding Zebedee? Tyciol (talk) 03:22, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Remake

 * I've seen a remake of The Magic Roundabout on Australian TV. Are there any official sources that comply with this (not the movie). Kausill (talk) 12:34, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Lost episodes
This can only be partially correct:
 * Of the 441 episodes that were made, 25 are currently missing. Three episodes from series 2 and seven from series 3 were wiped and the tapes reused for reasons of cost.

The series was stop animation and could only have been made on film. "Wiped" must be a minomer, and I have removed this passage. Philip Cross (talk) 22:45, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The original French masters were on film, but the English-dubbed shows could easily have been on tape, either as supplied by the French TV company to the BBC that way for broadcast, or to allow Eric Thompson’s new narration to be added; so it isn’t possible to say that because it was stop-motion animation that episodes weren’t indeed wiped, and thus now lost to us. Jock123 (talk) 19:59, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

The BBC would have been sent film prints, this was the norm, not until mid 80's early 90's were series supplied on VT, at around the time they phased out the standard practice of transmitting directly from the film prints via telecine, so Philip is more than likely correct, tape copies may have been made, at a later date, of the BBCs b/w and colour prints with Thompsons narrations, which they still have, some of which may or may not have been wiped? But anyway the french would still have all the original films, so technically none of the episodes are missing, possibly?. Also the episodes would have been dubbed on film as VT dubbing of this kind was extremely difficult until around 1973/74. The BBC only bought b/w film copies of the series until 1970 when they started broadcasting the series in colour.

Having now checked, only six of the 441 episodes bought by the BBC are missing and not 25 as the original copy stated. Four b/w episodes first broadcast 19/01/67-20/01/67-23/01/67-29/01/68 and two colour episodes txed 15/03/74 and 31/03/74. 81.111.127.132 (talk) 01:43, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
 * The BBC actually started exporting programmes in colour VT (PAL and NTSC) quite a bit earlier, around 1973 in fact. Before that, programmes were only exported on b/w telecine.  (The BBC never used colour kinescopes, although some ITV companies did.) 2.28.124.15 (talk) 19:55, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Zebulon/ Zebedee
The line in the section about the German version (“The name of the magician "Zebedee" in German is "Zebulon", a reference to of one of the twelve tribes of Israel”) is redundant because a) the character is named that in the original French anyway, and b) because “Zebulon” is just a boy’s name, albeit one of Joseph’s brothers in the Bible, which could belong to anyone without it being a reference to the tribe of the same name: you wouldn’t expect to find every instance of someone called “Joseph” or “Benjamin” being cited as a reference to the tribes of Israel, so why this one? Jock123 (talk) 20:04, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

 * Sounds reasonable - I've removed it. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:03, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

I have seen a version that seem to be computer generated or something
What version could that be. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.208.86.142 (talk) 23:43, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

It could be the 2005 film or the 2006 redub Doogal. Or the TV Series that was on for a short time in 2007. I have also capitalized your words. 109.153.9.10 (talk) 01:18, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Jasper Carrott and the Magic Roundabout
There is a cite request for Jasper claiming the Funky Moped single sold on the back of the poularity of the Magic Roundabout monologue on the B-side, I don't know if there is printed ref that can be cited but please note the "Carrott in Notts" LP track Local Radio Promotion (DJM 1976) in which Jasper Carrott makes this claim during this comedy track. Sure he did on many TV appearences also, anyone know a printed ref? possibly one of Jaspers books?81.111.126.82 (talk) 00:47, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Magic Roundabout and the RAF
I've added brief info on the Shackleton that crashed (Dylan) in 1990, as it seems relevant. Penfolderoldo (talk) 20:35, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

That one, WR965, actually seems to have been called Dill, after the dog in The Herbs, but it may have been known later as Dylan. (The Magic Roundabout was better remembered than The Herbs by the 1980s.) Seven of the twelve Shackleton AEW2s operated by No.8 Squadron from 1972 to 1991 (reduced to six from 1981) were named after Magic Roundabout characters. Originally, a Shackleton T4 navigation trainer operated by the RAE at Farnborough was given the name Zebedee, because of the Shackleton's tendency to bounce on landing. This became a popular nickname for Shackletons, but when 8 Sqn took up the airborne early-warning role in 1972 they named aircraft after Florence, Mr Rusty, Brian, Mr McHenry, Dougal and Ermintrude. They seem to have run out of Magic Roundabout names and started using names from The Herbs as well. Ermintrude was renamed Parsley, after the green lion, but another aircraft was then given the name Ermintrude; when that one was retired in the '81 defence cuts, Parsley seems to have become Ermintrude again. The names and pictures of the characters were painted on the aircraft, though squadron COs do not seem to have approved of such a practice in peacetime.

Of surviving Shackletons, the one in taxiing condition at Coventry is WR963 Ermintrude, formerly Parsley. The one in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry is WR960 Dougal. The one at Pima, Arizona is WL790 Mr McHenry. WL747 Florence and WL757 Brian are standing abandoned in the open at Paphos airport, Cyprus, and slowly deteriorating. Khamba Tendal (talk) 14:48, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Video game
It looks like there is a video game named "The Magic Roundabout" (PC, NDS, Wii), I think it should be mentioned in the article:      Amazon:   —  Ark25  (talk) 12:32, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

It's is a French tv series
The series is not British produced in anyway whatsoever Bob3458 (talk) 14:35, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

 * Le Manège enchanté is totally French, yes, but The Magic Roundabout is a weird blend - a mash-up, maybe? - that is due as much to British work. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 15:13, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

 * I understand what you're saying but the series in general was never made in the United Kingdom it was a French produced series Bob3458 (talk) 01:14, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

 * Yes, it was. It was rerecorded and edited and given new characters and a whole new plot line in Britain - that is a pretty good definition of "made". It is possible to watch both Le Manège enchanté and The Magic Roundabout and they are two different shows.
 * I'm trying to think of a parallel but nothing exactly the same comes to mind. You wouldn't say that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was written by Shakespeare ... that's about as close as I can get. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 11:01, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Apparently we're going to disagree on this ... anybody else have an opinion? - DavidWBrooks (talk) 23:52, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

Categories
I am not convinced that this really belongs in Category:British comedy television programmes or Category:Parody television series. It could be argued that there was satirical material and humour (that was in many cases over the heads of the target audience), but I do not see how the series can be described as a parody - the article certainly does not discuss this - and I think calling it a comedy is a stretch at best. Dunarc (talk) 22:24, 29 April 2018 (UTC)

My opinion is that the 1990s version sometimes falls into the category of parody because although it was an attempt at making the revised programmes accessible to a new, young, audience, it occasionally ridicules itself, as was the tendency in British television humour since the 1970s. (Mention of things that couldn't have existed in the 1960s does help to spoil the idea of revising them, if the intention had been to restore them - assuming they actually needed restoring.) David Rule, 6.1.19 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.151.177.201 (talk) 22:14, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

Who was Dylan named after?
This article says that Dylan was named after Bob Dylan. I have read that this was only a rumour and that Dylan was, in fact, named after Dylan Thomas. Vorbee (talk) 18:29, 17 February 2019 (UTC)

 * The source in the article (www.screenonline.org.uk) says Bob Dylan. Do you have a source that says Dylan Thomas? - DavidWBrooks (talk) 19:50, 17 February 2019 (UTC)

 * For what it's worth, Bob Dylan named himself after Dylan Thomas.Romomusicfan (talk) 14:04, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Language links
This page, about the British version, links in the Language bar on the left to the French Wikipedia article Le Manège enchanté on the original French serial. There is also an English Wikipedia article on the original French show Le Manège enchanté. Shouldn't the French article link to the article on the original French series? Also the other language links should be checked to see to which article the different language should be linked.2.28.124.15 (talk) 20:06, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Fourth wall break - which episode?
"Sometimes, the series broke the fourth wall. At the end of one episode, when Zebedee called his catchphrase of "Time for bed.", Florence asked "Already?", and Zebedee replied that "It is nearly time for the news, and there has been enough magic for one day." The news was broadcast just after The Magic Roundabout. This story was later republished in print from Bloomsbury's 1998 book The Adventures of Brian." What is the name of the episode which had that? 77.98.202.112 (talk) 18:28, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

"A Peaceful Day". 77.98.202.112 (talk) 15:00, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Books
I have added details of two books by Eric Thompson published in 1971 using the characters from the TV series. Re-reading them, the humour is aimed at adults as much as children - they are actually still very funny. PhilUK (talk) 16:15, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

Netherlands
I've moved this text to here from out of the article.

 * Whether Wim Meuldijk used the French or the British dialogue scripts or a self composed storyline is unknown. According to the 'Beeld en geluid' database, the second run of 'De Minimolen' started on 17 August 1976 and ended on September the first that year, being on air irregularly. The website www.waarkeekjijvroegernaar.nl ('What Did You Watch At The Time?') reports reruns from 1 June till 30 August 1980. This website should be regarded to as more accurate and better researched than the 'Beeld en geluid' database.

There are problems with it:
 * 1) First sentence ("...unknown") would only be significant if this was truly a piece of vanished history but that's very unlikely.
 * 2) "According to the 'Beeld en geluid' database" is probably referring to Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision but I can't find the database there
 * 3) "started on 17 August 1976 and ended on September the first that year" would mean it only ran for two weeks, which sounds unlikely
 * 4) it says "The website www.waarkeekjijvroegernaar.nl ('What Did You Watch At The Time?') reports reruns" but the link is dead and the page is not archived
 * 5) No evidence or rationale is offered for the claim that "This website should be regarded to as more accurate and better researched than the 'Beeld en geluid' database."

These should be resolved before the text is reinstated but it needs someone who understands the topic a bit more. --Northernhenge (talk) 18:34, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

Television infobox parameters
I understand what you are saying about dates reflecting different shows. However Template:Infobox television's first_aired/last_aired do not account for this type of entry. The parameters specifically need to use and  and per the template docs, only reflect the date it first aired on it's original network (which in this instance would be the France date). Reverting my change just means this page will continue to show up in Category:Pages using infobox television with nonstandard dates, which we are trying to clear out. Ultimately, if they are truly different shows, then a second infobox is probably needed to reflect the other version. Please reconsider your reversion. Butler Blog  (talk) 21:37, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

 * We shouldn't mislead or confuse readers just to fit within software limitations. If the current template doesn't allow accurate depiction of this admittedly confusing scenario, then so be it - I don't think it matters that this article shows up in a "bad" category. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 00:19, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

The Magic Roundabout never appeared in Jack and Jill
Why revert my edit? The characters also appeared in TV Toyland, Bonnie, and Playgroup as well. I used a blog as a source so people can navigate to a magazine, then download an issue, and go from there. But I guess that wasn't enough. How am I supposed to use CBR files as a source?

American TV Airings
What were all the channels that the 2007 version of the show aired on? I know I watched it in America when I was slightly younger, but I can't remember the channel. I ask because I don't want to find an American dub, but rather because I've been having a strange cartoon illude me that was paired with The Magic Roundabout, and I'm thinking maybe if I find the channel, I can find out that show's name. If this isn't the best place to ask, please direct me to another place, if it's not any trouble. Triviatronic9000 (talk) 03:34, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Magic Roundabout


text:
Talk:List of world's fairs

List
This is a very nice list of international fairs. However it includes many things that were not World's Fairs of any sort. It also misses several exhibition listed on the BIE website. I propose moving this list to List of international exhibitions and replacing this one with the list from the BIE website with the addition of unsanctioned fairs that billed themselves as World's fairs. On the present list you cannot tell which ones the realy big fairs were. Rmhermen 20:11 21 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Of course, feel free to add any BIE fairs. But, just because the BIE endorsed/didn't endorse it, doesn't make it more or less worldly. Granted, in an effort towards completeness, this is too long and should be separated into major and minor fairs, or BIE and non-BIE fairs. But the BIE should be on the List of international exhibitions, since that is consistent with the BIE, while world's fair is colloquial. There were world's fairs of a sort before the BIE existed. dml
 * The BIE website lists the pre-BIE fairs. What I think we need is a list of the major world-changing fairs. Of course the BIE fairs should stay on this list whereever it ends up. But I doubt most of the fairs on this list were considered "World's fairs". Rmhermen 04:21 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I added the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago to this list. Actually, I was surprised it wasn't on the list, as it was one of the most famous world's fairs in history, at least in my opinion. Gujuguy 19:06, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
 * It was, until someone went and hacked the list. I restored the previous version. dml 21:19, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

State Flags
Why is it that all the fairs that occurred in California have a state flag next to them, but all the other fairs that occurred in the United States (even ones in New York City) have an American flag? Is this just blatant Californian arrogance? Are we to modify ALL the American fairs to have their state flags too? While the country is called the United States, the states are effectively provinces. It is silly and inconsistent to have California be the only state flag on the list. Making them all that way would be confusing, so all the California flags should be merely American flags. --StringRay (talk) 06:25, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Good point, StringRay - the same's true of Australia, where ONLY state flags are presented. WTF? --LaffABit (talk) 06:25, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

 * I think with Australia it's not simply that there are state flags, but that the fairs were hosted by crown colonies whose flags are the same as the modern day state that replaced them. For example Victoria Colony's flag from 1851 to 1901 was superseded by the Australian national flag and a state flag identical (to my eye at least) the colony's flag.
 * The two Australian world's fairs since 1901 (1 held in 1988, 1 proposed for 2022/2023) when there was an Australi flag do have the Australian flag.
 * Icarusgeek (talk) 17:02, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Lausanne.CH 1964/65
On this webpage and others I can find references to a "Lausanne" fair held in 1964 or 1965; from which the Blackpool Pleasure Beach monorail was apparently purchased. Does anyone have any information, I've failed to dig up much. —Sladen (talk) 01:05, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

 * Hi Sladen, This website: http://www.expo-archive.ch/eng/html/index.html@sitesect=1000.htm has information. It's interesting, but it seems to be more of a national fair, than a world's fair Icarusgeek (talk) 17:13, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Durban Expo 85
There was a large (I was young at the time, so I can't recall the scale accurately) expo in Durban, South Africa. The substantial facilities built for the expo are still in use today, but there is very little information on it on the net. I am guessing that because of apartheid, it wasn't officially sanctioned by any world body. Should it be included in this list? 196.213.166.66 (talk) 14:08, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

 * Hi 196.213.166.66
 * My first port of call is always my encyclopedia of world's fairs, which has chapters about the bigger expos, and a handy an appendix of world's fairs that they haven't covered in the main text. And it's not there.
 * But unlike you I have managed to find a bit on the web: http://www.gordonfranks.co.za/?page_id=4, http://www.sahistory.org.za/image/tid/19461, http://www.destinationisleofman.com/about.shtml, http://www.ifp.org.za/Archive/MGButhelezi/DOC00139.pdf, http://bteq.com.au/completed.html, from these (and numerous shopping pages with stamps from the expo) it certainly seems to have been called an expo; but I don't get the feeling that it was a world's fair as such
 * Icarusgeek (talk) 10:34, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

Paris 1881
International Exposition of Electricity, Paris seems to be notable and should possibly be on this list. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:14, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

1898 Jerusalem
The Universal Scientific and Philanthropic Exposition has been added, with a flagicon of Palestine; but that flag was only in use since 1964 (Palestine Flag). I think it was in the Ottoman Empire in 1898 (from British Mandate for Palestine / WW1/Ottoman Empire / Timeline of the Ottoman Empire) so flag should be

Does anyone know for sure?

In the absence of wiser words I'll change it in a week or so to Ottoman Empire

(and I hope for a non-red link version, a quick surf makes it look an intesting expo)

 * Icarusgeek (talk) 16:13, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Most wanted page?
Ok - this will sound rather random, but which listed fair that doesn't currently have a page would readers most want, or be most ready to expand? I'm not saying that I'd be able to get much info (especially if hosted in a country where the main language is one unfamiliar one to me). And it could be very stubby. But I'll give the most popular one a bash sometime in March '12 Icarusgeek (talk) 13:45, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Are World Fairs obsolete in the US?
As I read this list, the US hasn't had one in 30 years. Is there any explanation for that? Terry Thorgaard (talk) 22:18, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

 * Possibly because of Orlando Expo '82-and-Ever-After? 73.194.9.155 (talk) 15:32, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of world's fairs