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Omega (navigation system)

OMEGA was the first global-range radio navigation system, operated by the United States in cooperation with six partner nations. It was a hyperbolic navigation system, enabling ships and aircraft to determine their position by receiving very low frequency (VLF) radio signals in the range 10 to 14 kHz, transmitted by a global network of eight fixed terrestrial radio beacons, using a navigation receiver unit. It became operational around 1971 and was shut down in 1997 in favour of the Global Positioning System.

Previous systems
Taking a "fix" in any navigation system requires the determination of two measurements. Typically these are taken in relation to fixed objects like prominent landmarks or the known location of radio transmission towers. By measuring the angle to two such locations, the position of the navigator can be determined. Alternatively, one can measure the angle and distance to a single object, or the distance to two objects.

The introduction of radio systems during the 20th century dramatically increased the distances over which measurements could be taken. Such a system also demanded much greater accuracies in the measurements – an error of one degree in angle might be acceptable when taking a fix on a lighthouse a few miles away, but would be of limited use when used on a radio station 300 mi away. A variety of methods were developed to take fixes with relatively small angle inaccuracies, but even these were generally useful only for short-range systems.

The same electronics that made basic radio systems work introduced the possibility of making very accurate time delay measurements, and thus highly accurate distance measurements. The problem was knowing when the transmission was initiated. With radar, this was simple, as the transmitter and receiver were usually at the same location. Measuring the delay between sending the signal and receiving the echo allowed accurate range measurement.

For other uses, air navigation for instance, the receiver would have to know the precise time the signal was transmitted. This was not generally possible using electronics of the day. Instead, two stations were synchronized by using one of the two transmitted signals as the trigger for the second signal after a fixed delay. By comparing the measured delay between the two signals, and comparing that with the known delay, the aircraft's position was revealed to lie along a curved line in space. By making two such measurements against widely separated stations, the resulting lines would overlap in two locations. These locations were normally far enough apart to allow conventional navigation systems, like dead reckoning, to eliminate the incorrect position solution.

The first of these hyperbolic navigation systems was the UK's Gee and Decca, followed by the US LORAN and LORAN-C systems. LORAN-C offered accurate navigation at distances over 1,000 km, and by locating "chains" of stations around the world, they offered moderately widespread coverage.

Atomic clocks
Key to the operation of the hyperbolic system was the use of one transmitter to broadcast the "master" signal, which was used by the "secondaries" as their trigger. This limited the maximum range over which the system could operate. For very short ranges, tens of kilometres, the trigger signal could be carried by wires. Over long distances, over-the-air signalling was more practical, but all such systems had range limits of one sort or another.

Very long-distance radio signalling is possible, using longwave techniques (low frequencies), which enables a planet-wide hyperbolic system. However, at those ranges, radio signals do not travel in straight lines, but reflect off various regions above the Earth known collectively as the ionosphere. At medium frequencies, this appears to "bend" or refract the signal beyond the horizon. At lower frequencies, VLF and ELF, the signal will reflect off the ionosphere and ground, allowing the signal to travel great distances in multiple "hops". However, it is very difficult to synchronize multiple stations using these signals, as they might be received multiple times from different directions at the end of different hops.

The problem of synchronizing very distant stations was solved with the introduction of the atomic clock in the 1950s, which became commercially available in portable form by the 1960s. Depending upon type, e.g. rubidium, caesium, hydrogen, the clocks had an accuracy on the order of 1 part in 1010 to better than 1 part in 1012 or a drift of about 1 second in 30 million years. This is more accurate than the timing system used by the master/secondary stations.

By this time the Loran-C and Decca Navigator systems were dominant in the medium-range roles, and short-range was well served by VOR and DME. The expense of the clocks, lack of need, and the limited accuracy of a long wave system eliminated the need for such a system for many roles.

However, the United States Navy had a distinct need for just such a system, as they were in the process of introducing the TRANSIT satellite navigation system. TRANSIT was designed to allow measurements of location at any point on the planet, with enough accuracy to act as a reference for an inertial navigation system (INS). Periodic fixes re-set the INS, which could then be used for navigation over longer periods of time and distances.

It was often believed that TRANSIT generated two possible locations for any given measurements one on either side of the orbit subtrack. Since the measurement is the Doppler shift of the carrier frequency, the rotation of the earth is sufficient to resolve the difference. The surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of 460 meters per second—or roughly 1,000 miles per hour.

OMEGA

Omega was approved for development in 1968 with eight transmitters and the ability to achieve a 4 mi accuracy when fixing a position. Each Omega station transmitted a sequence of three very low frequency (VLF) signals (10.2 kHz, 13.6 kHz, 11.333... kHz in that order) plus a fourth frequency which was unique to each of the eight stations. The duration of each pulse (ranging from 0.9 to 1.2 seconds, with 0.2 second blank intervals between each pulse) differed in a fixed pattern, and repeated every ten seconds; the 10-second pattern was common to all 8 stations and synchronized with the carrier phase angle, which itself was synchronized with the local master atomic clock. The pulses within each 10-second group were identified by the first 8 letters of the alphabet within Omega publications of the time.

The envelope of the individual pulses could be used to establish a receiver's internal timing within the 10-second pattern. However, it was the phase of the received signals within each pulse that was used to determine the transit time from transmitter to receiver. Using hyperbolic geometry and radionavigation principles, a position fix with an accuracy on the order of 5 - 10 km was realizable over the entire globe at any time of the day. Omega employed hyperbolic radionavigation techniques and the chain operated in the VLF portion of the spectrum between 10 and 14 kHz. Near the end of its service life of 26 years, Omega evolved into a system used primarily by the civil community. By receiving signals from three stations, an Omega receiver could locate a position to within 4 nmi using the principle of phase comparison of signals.

Omega stations used very extensive antennas to transmit at their very low frequencies (VLF). This is because wavelength is inversely proportional to frequency (wavelength in metres = 299,792,458 / frequency in Hz), and transmitter efficiency is severely degraded if the length of the antenna is shorter than 1/4 wavelength. They used grounded or insulated guyed masts with umbrella antennas, or wire-spans across both valleys and fjords. Some Omega antennas were the tallest constructions on the continent where they stood or still stand.

When six of the eight station chain became operational in 1971, day-to-day operations were managed by the United States Coast Guard in partnership with Argentina, Norway, Liberia, and France. The Japanese and Australian stations became operational several years later. Coast Guard personnel operated two US stations: one in LaMoure, North Dakota and the other in Kaneohe, Hawaii on the island of Oahu.

Due to the success of the Global Positioning System, the use of Omega declined during the 1990s, to a point where the cost of operating Omega could no longer be justified. Omega was shut down permanently on 30 September 1997. Several of the towers were then soon demolished.

Some of the stations, such as the LaMoure station, are now used for submarine communications.

Court case
In 1976 the Decca Navigator Company of London sued the United States government over patent infringements, claiming that the Omega system was based on a proposed earlier Decca system known as DELRAC, Decca Long Range Area Coverage, that had been disclosed to the US in 1954. Decca cited original US documents showing the Omega system was originally referred to as DELRAC/Omega. Decca won the case and was awarded $44,000,000 in damages. Decca had previously sued the US government for alleged patent infringements over the LORAN C system in 1967. Decca also won that case, but as the LORAN C navigation system was judged to be a military one without commercial use, no damages were paid by the US.

OMEGA stations
There were nine Omega stations in total; only eight operated at one time. Trinidad operated until 1976 and was replaced by Liberia:

Bratland Omega Transmitter
Bratland Omega Transmitter (station A – 66.42083°N, 13.15056°W) situated near Aldra was the only European Omega transmitter. It used a very unusual antenna, which consisted of several wires strung over a fjord between two concrete anchors 3500 m apart, one at 66.42417°N, 13.16694°W and the other at 66.41472°N, 13.08861°W. One of the blocks was located on the Norway mainland, the other on Aldra island. The antenna was dismantled in 2002.

Trinidad Omega Transmitter
Trinidad Omega Transmitter (station B until 1976, replaced by station in Paynesville, Liberia) situated in Trinidad (at 10.69938°N, -61.63871°W) used a wire span over a valley as its antenna. The site buildings are still there. On April 26, 1988, the building which housed the omega transmitters was destroyed by an explosion caused by a bush fire which ignited explosives. There were severe casualties and six persons died in the blast.

On April 26, 1988, a brush fire in the vicinity of Camp Omega, Chaguaramas, quickly spread to the nearby Camp Omega Arms and Ammunition Bunker resulting in the explosion. Four firefighters and two soldiers died while attempting to bring the situation under control. Several National Security Officers suffered injuries as a result of the explosion. This explosion was recorded on the Richter Scale and parts of the bunker were found hundreds of metres away from ground zero. The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago dedicated April 26 each year as National Security Officers Day of Appreciation for the dead.

Paynesville Omega Transmitter
Paynesville Omega Transmitter (station B – 6.30556°N, -10.66222°W) was inaugurated in 1976 and used an umbrella antenna mounted on a 417-metre steel lattice, grounded guyed mast. It was the tallest structure ever built in Africa. The station was turned over to the Liberian government after the Omega Navigation System shutdown on 30 September 1997. Access to the tower was unrestricted, and it was possible to climb the abandoned mast until it was demolished on 10 May 2011. The area occupied by the transmitter will be used to build a modern market complex that will provide additional space for local merchants and reduce congestion at Paynesville's Red Light Market, Liberia's largest food market.

Kaneohe Omega Transmitter
Kaneohe Omega Transmitter (station C – 21.4047°N, -157.83082°W) was one of two stations operated by the USCG. It was inaugurated in 1943 as a VLF-transmitter for submarine communication. The antenna was a wire span over Haiku Valley. At the end of the 1960s it was converted to an OMEGA transmitter.

La Moure Omega Transmitter
La Moure Omega Transmitter (station D) situated near La Moure, North Dakota, USA at 46.36594°N, -98.33562°W) was the other station operated by the USCG. It used a 365.25 metre tall guyed mast insulated from ground, as its antenna. After OMEGA was shut down, the station became NRTF LaMoure, a VLF submarine communications site.

Chabrier Omega Transmitter
Chabrier Omega Transmitter (station E) near Chabrier on Réunion island in the Indian Ocean at -20.97417°N, 55.29°W used an umbrella antenna, installed on a 428-metre grounded guyed mast. The mast was demolished with explosives on 14 April 1999.

Trelew Omega Transmitter
Station F, Trelew, Argentina. Demolished in 1998.

Woodside Omega Transmitter
Station G, near Woodside, Victoria. Ceased Omega transmissions in 1997, became a submarine communications tower, and was demolished in 2015.

Omega Tower, Tsushima
Shushi-Wan Omega Transmitter (station H) situated near Shushi-Wan on Tsushima Island at 34.61472°N, 129.45361°W used as its antenna a 389-metre tall tubular steel mast, insulated against ground. This mast, which was built in 1973 and which was the tallest structure in Japan (and perhaps the tallest tubular steel mast ever built) was dismantled in 1998 by crane. On its former site, an approximately 8 metre-tall memorial consisting of the mast base (without the insulator) and a segment was built. On the site of the former helix building there is now a playground.

OMEGA test locations
In addition to the nine operational Omega towers, the tower at Forestport, NY was used for early testing of the system.

Cultural importance
The towers of some OMEGA-stations were the tallest structures in the country and sometimes even in the continent where they stood. In the German science-fiction novel "Der Komet" ( http://www.averdo.de/produkt/72105959/lutz-harald-der-komet/ ) a large comet, which threatens to hit the Earth, is defended against by a technology developed in Area 51 on the area of the abandoned OMEGA-transmission site Paynesville in Liberia, for which it delivers a required low-frequency electromagnetic field.

The season 2 finale of True Detective is called "Omega Station".

Episode 3 of the Netflix series Gamera Rebirth partially takes place at the Tsushima OMEGA-station.

title: Omega (navigation system)


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Talk:Murderball

Untitled
Is this the just same thing as dodgeball? Adam Bishop 04:23 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)
 * Probably. (They're certainly identical given what's in the page now.) - Hephaestos 04:30 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Not the same as dodgeball.
It's not the same as dodgeball. One of the definitions used is also used for dodgeball, but the more commonly used idea of muderball would be a mix of a rugby like sport in wheelchairs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mtarng (talk • contribs) 22:56, 28 September 2005

Playground game
I came here expecting an article on the playground game, similar to the more extreme versions of British Bulldog, involving getting a ball from one side of the playground to the other. Has anyone else heard of/played this definition of murderball? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.6.149.17 (talk) 12:04, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, this is what we used to play at school in the South of England. Basically, the entire school would charge from either end of the field at each other and fight it out to get the ball from the middle to the other end by any means possible. Total chaos. 86.134.199.201 (talk) 02:01, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Murderball


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The Workers Circle

The Workers Circle or Der Arbeter Ring (דער אַרבעטער־רינג), formerly The Workmen's Circle, is an American Jewish nonprofit organization that promotes social and economic justice, Jewish community and education, including Yiddish studies, and Ashkenazic culture. It operates schools and Yiddish education programs, and year-round programs of concerts, lectures and secular holiday celebrations. The organization has community branch offices throughout North America, a national headquarters in New York City.

Formed in 1900 by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, The Workmen's Circle at first acted as a mutual aid society, helping its members to adapt to their new life in America. It provided life insurance, unemployment relief, healthcare, social interaction, burial assistance and general education through its branches throughout the US as well as through its national office. Soon, the organization was joined by more politically focused socialist Bundists who advocated the anti-assimilationist idea of Yiddish cultural autonomy, led by education in Yiddish and socialist ideals. The Circle formed the Folksbiene Yiddish theatre troupe and promoted Jewish arts and music, Yiddish school programs for children and Yiddish summer camps. It became influential in the American labor movement and grew to serve more than 84,000 members through hundreds of branches around North America. It also became involved with the Yiddish newspaper The Forward and operated old-age homes, medical clinics and other services.

Politically, the Circle moved away from socialism towards liberalism by the time of the New Deal. By the 1960s, the Circle's membership began to decline, as Jews joined the middle class and moved from cities to suburbs; the Circle no longer seemed as essential to many as it had been. In the new century, the organization ended its direct health insurance program, streamlined its operations, separated from The Forward, and rededicated its mission to education and promoting Jewish community, secular Yiddish culture and social justice activism. It sold its former East side building and moved to new offices in the Garment District of New York City in 2011. The Workmen's Circle is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

Inception to 1930
With the pogroms in the 1880s and succeeding decades, more than 2 million Yiddish-speaking Jews fled Eastern Europe with their families, and most immigrated to the United States, many to New York City. They usually arrived penniless, and the bulk of them entered the fast-growing, but exploitative garment industry. Others found work as peddlers, jewelers, launderers, Hebrew tutors and even shopkeepers. To assist each other in adapting to their challenging new life in America, they formed several mutual aid societies.

The Workingmen's Circle Society of New York formed in 1892 thanks to the efforts of two Jewish cloak makers. The Workmen's Circle was established in New York City on September 4, 1900, as a national organization. The group held its first convention in 1901. It immediately provided to its members life insurance, some unemployment relief, healthcare, social interaction such as dances, and financial assistance in obtaining a graveyard plot. It also held general education sessions on the natural sciences and had the generally pro-labor and socialist goal "of helping to develop in working people a sense of solidarity, a clear, enlightened outlook, the striving, by means of their unity, to acquire that influence in ultimately, bringing on the day of their complete emancipation from exploitation and oppression." Unlike other mutual aid groups, the organization had a workers' social agenda that it took seriously. It "agitated to abolish child labor, establish social security and shorten the work day." The organization began to form a national network of autonomous branches soon after its founding, chartered through the national organization, that provided services to their local members. From 1905, greatly increased Jewish immigration to the US, following new pogroms in Russia, brought to America large numbers of politically sophisticated socialist Bundists. The Bundists advocated the anti-Zionist, anti-assimilationist idea of Yiddish cultural autonomy and a secular Jewish identity, led by education in Yiddish language and literature, socialist ideals, Jewish history and ethical and aesthetic culture, an idea championed by Chaim Zhitlowsky. Many of the Bundists joined The Workmen's Circle and pushed it both to fight exploitative labor practices and to expand its national activities toward Yiddish education and to focus on Yiddish culture, rather than simply providing financial aid. Many of the older members argued that the organization could barely afford to provide its traditional aid to members; this discussion continued for two decades. Zhitlowsky and the Bundists succeeded in persuading the organization to establish a range of cultural activities meant to inform and express the secular Jewish spirit, such as the Folksbiene Yiddish theatre troupe (1915), Yiddish book publishing, orchestras, and art expositions sponsored by the branches around the country, Yiddish after school programs for children and teens (beginning in 1918), adult lecture circuits, Camp Kinderland (1923) and the organization's own literary and political journal, The Friend, and Unser Schul (Our School), a monthly pedagogical journal for the teachers in its schools.

In the meantime, especially after a series of garment workers' strikes in New York beginning in 1910, the Circle became influential in the American labor movement through the United Hebrew Trades, later helping to found the Jewish Labor Committee. Members of The Workers Circle helped found such labor unions as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.

At the same time, the Workmen's Circle continued its role as a mutual aid society. In 1917 it adopted the National Fraternal Congress of America mortuary table, and by 1920 it established a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients at Liberty, New York, where members could receive free treatment for nine months. In the 1920s, the organization reached its peak of 84,000 members, 125 schools nationwide and numerous branches nationwide; for example, the Philadelphia district had 17 branches in 1924. But during that decade, members of The Workmen's Circle sympathetic to the Communist Party initiated a power-struggle in the Circle's national organization and many of its branches around the country, but they were rejected in 1929 and formed a separate organization, taking with them about 5,000 members and some of the Circle's establishments, like Camp Kinderland.

1930s to 2000
In 1930, the International Workers Order split off form The Workmen's Circle as a parallel Communist fraternal benefit society.

In the middle of the 20th century, The Workmen's Circle continued to operate old age homes and medical clinics and offer burial assistance, affordable health and life insurance; it established Camp Kinder Ring to replace Camp Kinderland (and some branches also operated camps); and it continued to have a hand in operating the Yiddish-language newspaper The Forward, which shared its office building in New York. The organization continued to emphasize Yiddish education and the arts (klezmer music; Folksbiene theatre; choral groups), mutual aid and social interaction. It also emphasized social justice, such as efforts to oppose the repression of Soviet Jewry, and support of humanitarian relief efforts, as its political perspective had moved away from socialism towards liberalism by the time of the New Deal, and its members enthusiastically supported America's entry into World War II and even became pro-Israel. In 1949, the Workmen's Circle included 700 local branches with 70,000 members in the United States and Canada.

Beginning by the 1960s, the Circle's membership slowly declined, reaching a level of about 50,000 members by the 1980s. When the federal Medicare program began in 1966, the Circle's healthcare programs became less urgently needed. More generally, as its then-president Dr. Barnett Zumhoff explained to The New York Times in 1985, with the opening up opportunities for Jews in American society, and their move into the middle class and dispersion geographically from cities to suburbs and small towns, the Circle was no longer as essential to the Jewish community as it had been. Its membership was no longer predominantly workers, but had become small-business owners, professionals and schoolteachers. Still, the Circle believed that it offered a secular alternative to synagogue attendance and Zionist groups in its preservation of Ashkenazic Yiddish culture.

By 1996, the Circle's membership had declined to 28,000. By then, it considered itself the only organization promoting Eastern European Yiddish culture. It continued to teach Yiddish language and literature, to promote secular Jewish community and Jewish arts, music and culture, to provide its aid and insurance programs, to operate its old age homes, schools, camps and to host "holiday observances interpreting Jewish history in the traditionally secular Workmen's Circle spirit." It also continued its liberal agenda, supporting universal health care, for example. Its then-president, Mark Mlotek, noted: "this is an organization that says that the language of the murdered people in Eastern Europe was Yiddish ... there is a vibrant Yiddish culture [that] has to be maintained. Without it, a heart and soul will really go away."

21st century
In the first decade of the 21st century, the organization ended its direct health insurance program and closed its old age homes, streamlined its operations, separated itself from The Forward, hired a new executive director, Ann Toback, in 2008, reorganized its board and appointed a new president, Madelon "Maddy" Braun, in 2010. It rededicated its mission to education and promoting Jewish community, Yiddish culture and social justice activism. "The plan is to reboot by offering something [the Circle] feels religious Judaism has failed to provide: an education toward a cultural Jewish identity that uses religion as a trigger for activism and connects with a legacy of progressivism and commitment to universal values." The organization sold its former East side building and moved to new offices in the Garment District of New York City in 2011.

By 2010, the Circle had 10,000 members and 20 branches. It used proceeds from the sale of its building to begin to regrow its membership and community and school network, and to hire more educators. Toback said, "Our expression of Judaism is through activism, and we also believe that young people come to activism through being literate Jews. The two things go together." Continuing to teach children Yiddish is "a way of opening their minds and souls to something in our collective past that it is extremely important to connect to." In 2012, the Circle commissioned a study that showed that one in six American Jews "are actively seeking Jewish expression and engagement outside of synagogue life."

The Circle continues to sponsor holiday and community events, coordinate its branches around the country and partner with Jewish school programs. No longer a mutual aid society, it operates seven schools for children (kindershuls) and offers the largest adult Yiddish language instruction program in the world, which also collaborates with New Yiddish Rep. to teach a Yiddish language through theatre class. Its social justice activism includes opposing unfair labor practices, genocide and racism and supporting comprehensive immigration reform, single-payer universal health care, gun control, strong relations between the US and Israel, humanitarian relief, human rights, environmental conservation, women's equality, an increased minimum wage and separation of church and state.

On December 2, 2019, the organization unveiled its new name: the Workers Circle. This name embraces the tenor of the times in gender-neutral fashion and with a nod to the organization's century of activism at the fore of the labor movement, supporting worker rights to this day.

On September 28th, 2023, the organization announced it was separating from Camp Kinder Ring and that both organizations will continue to operate independently.

Publications
As an organization organically linked to the historic Jewish labor movement, many of the Workmen's Circle's leaders were involved from its inception until the start of the 21st century with The Forward. Through much of the 20th century, the organization's newsletter was called The Workmen's Circle Call. From 2005 to 2009, The Workmen's Circle published Jewish Currents magazine and supplied it to the members of the Circle.

Youth programs
The youth section of the Workmen's Circle in its early years was the Young Circle League of America (YCLA), established in 1930. The group self-identified as "first and foremost a cultural organization," sponsoring lectures, debates, and educational and recreational programs for its members. The YCLA also published its own magazine, The Call of Youth.

The Arbeter Ring runs seven kindershuls, or children's schools of Jewish culture, as after-school and Sunday school programs for elementary through middle schoolers. These are located in the Northeastern US and Chicago. Kindershuls emphasize the teaching of Jewish history, from Abraham onward. Jewish culture, including klezmer music and traditional Jewish cooking, is also emphasized, along with the Yiddish language and surrounding culture. Students learn to sing traditional songs in Yiddish, as well as in English and Hebrew. At the end of a student's time at kindershul, when he or she reaches age 12, a secular Bar/Bas Mitzvah ceremony, called a commencement, is held. Commencement students prepare a research paper, a family history paper, and a writeup on community service they have performed through the year. At the group commencement itself, students give a talk on their research topic of choice, often also telling their family history.

title: The Workers Circle


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Talk:Kellogg–Briand Pact

The person who came up with the idea for this pact
Hello. I am high schooler from Poland. Recently we have talked about this pact on our history lesson. Our teacher told us, that the person, who came up with this idea was August Zalewski - polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. I cant give any references, just letting you know, if someone was interested.

 * Unfortunately, without a reference, we shouldn't add information to this article. I did a quick Google search, and except for this Time Magazine article, I was unable to find anything giving Mr. Zaleski (preferred spelling, it appears) any credit for the creation of the League. The magazine article says "Insiders call him the real author of the Briand-Kellogg Peace Pact", and that, in totality, is all the relevant text. That's not enough, particularly since Time Magazine in the early 1930s was not particularly scholarly. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 02:54, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Kellogg–Briand Pact


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Menhir

A menhir (from Brittonic languages: maen or men, "stone" and hir or hîr, "long" ), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found individually as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Menhirs' size can vary considerably, but they often taper toward the top.

Menhirs are found across Europe, Africa, and Asia, with a concentration in Western Europe, notably in Ireland, Great Britain, and Brittany. Their purpose remains speculative, with theories ranging from druidic rituals to territorial markers or elements of an ideological system. Some menhirs feature engravings, including anthropomorphic figures and symbols, and are often associated with ancient religious ceremonies and burial chambers.

Etymology
The word menhir was adopted from French by 19th-century archaeologists. The introduction of the word into general archaeological usage has been attributed to the 18th-century French military officer Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne. It is a combination of two words of the Breton language: maen and hir. In modern Welsh, they are described as maen hir, or "long stone". In modern Breton, the word peulvan is used, with peul meaning "stake" or "post" and van which is a soft mutation of the word maen which means "stone". In Germany and Scandinavia the word Bauta is used (e.g., de:Bautastein and no:bautastein) and this occasionally makes its way into English with the term "bauta stone".

History
Almost nothing is known of the social organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. Their language is also unknown. It is known, however, that they buried their dead and had the skills to grow crops, farm and make pottery, stone tools and jewelry. Identifying the purpose or use of menhirs remains speculative. Until recently, standing stones were associated with the Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age—later third millennium BC, c. 2800–1800 BC. However, recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, perhaps back to six to seven thousand years ago.

During the European Middle Ages, standing stones were believed to have been built by the giants who lived before the biblical flood. Many of the megaliths were destroyed or defaced by early Christians; it is estimated that some 50,000 megaliths once stood in Northern Europe, where almost 10,000 now remain. Menhirs have also been found in many other parts of the world.

Many menhirs are engraved with megalithic art, some with anthropomorphic features. Other common carvings are identified as images of stone axes, ploughs, shepherds' crooks, and yokes; and are named after these motifs. However, these identifications are not secure except for those of the stone axe images, and the names used to describe them are largely a matter of convenience. Some menhirs were broken up and incorporated into later passage graves, where they had new megalithic art carved with little regard for the previous pictures. It is not known if this re-use was deliberate or if the passage grave builders just saw menhirs as a convenient source of stone.

Where menhirs appear in groups, often in a circular, oval, henge, or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers. The exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European prehistory. Over the centuries, they have variously been thought to have been used by druids for human sacrifice, used as territorial markers, or elements of a complex ideological system, used as mnemonic systems for oral cultures, or functioning as early calendars. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have substantial knowledge of prehistory, and their only reference points were provided by classical literature. The developments of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology have significantly advanced scientific knowledge in this area.

Geographical distribution
Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa, and Asia, but are most numerous in Western Europe; particularly in Ireland, Great Britain, and Brittany, where there are about 50,000 examples, and northwestern France, where there are some 1,200 further examples. Standing stones are usually difficult to date. They were constructed during many different periods across prehistory as part of the larger megalithic cultures in Europe and near areas. Some menhirs stand next to buildings that have an early or current religious significance. One example is the South Zeal Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century monastery built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms hotel, at South Zeal, and the standing stone remains in place in the snug bar at the hotel.

It is believed that practitioners of megalithic religions travelled via the sea, as the mass majority of menhirs are located on coasts, islands, and peninsulas.

In popular culture
The French comic book series Asterix features the character Obelix, who is known for carrying menhirs, as a sculptor and deliveryman.

title: Menhir


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Talk:Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis Spoke Japanese?
Upon seeing a partial interview of Dean Martin he had a comment on how Martin had never had the ability to speak Japanese as Lewis had. Which brings up the question: Did Jerry Lewis actually speak Japanese, or was he only mimicking Japanese as most Americans always thought?

Date of death?
2 different dates HockeyCowboy (talk) 18:56, 28 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Different person. Jerry Lee Lewis was the one who was reported to have died in Oct 2022. Donald D23   talk to me  19:08, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Insane number of citations
What's going on that we should have such a huge number of citations in the Personal Life section? I mean, why do we need six citations attesting to Lewis' first marriage, five attesting to one son, seven attesting to his second marriage? Is there something controversial being cleared up by all these? --jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇 20:34, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

 * Yes, there is a woman who claims to be his illegitimate daughter and some editors used to keep adding her to this section Donald D23   talk to me  23:22, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
 * But why does that require multiple citations? What the hell is going on here? There was also a New York Friars Club roast in honor of Lewis with Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer.[178][179][180][181] Martin Scorsese recalls working with him on The King of Comedy, "It was like watching a virtuoso pianist at the keyboard".[182][183][184][185][186][187][188][189] Lewis was the subject of a documentary Jerry Lewis: Method to the Madness.[190][191][192][193][194][195][196] And this is just nutty. Lewis wed Patti Palmer (née Esther Grace Calonico; 1921–2021), a singer with Ted Fio Rito, on October 3, 1944.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Such sources: a strongly negative review of a ghost written bio; an anonymously authored memorial page; and an entry in a catalog for the same bio? Same paragraph also includes as source a stock photo of Lewis with a wife at a footprint ceremony...it's like these things were tacked on not as references but like popular culture sections, "Jerry Lewis had a picture taken with a wife and someone else, and we just mentioned that wife, so let's put the picture as a reference." This over-referencing does not in any way improve the article; and arguably detracts from it by hiding the actual verifiable reliable sources to support our statement of facts. --jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇 03:19, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Jerry Lewis


text:
User:Hlavac

I am a graduate of New York University with a degree in Politics and Business. I have been published in numerous magazines and directories in the Gulf South states, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, on a number of different subjects. In addition I have set up dozens of websites, providing much content, as well as design.

Not to mention that I am a piano player in New Orleans, where I also frequently exhibit my maze art.

I am not thrilled with formulaic recitations of "what is," but am driven by "what could be."

I am not thrilled with semantic adherence to western terminology which treats the history of all things in one part of the world as wholly different than in other parts of the world.

I am firmly of the belief that there are underlying principles that apply to all aspects of humankind, separate from a definition that we might use in the West or might be used in the East, or the South, North, or Middle for that matter.

I find that too often people think that because we know of something from Europe, or from China, that somehow they are wholly different because we are from different cultures -- the underlying principles that govern all societies can be discerned. After we strip away the terminology of today's language we find the concepts unnervingly the same all over the world.

I am also highly appreciative of people who edit my contributions for spelling, and who give more detailed information than I might have provided.

I am not thrilled with people who make wholesale removals of my articles because of their Eurocentric views or pedantic ideas that words can only mean what their sources say they mean. Words sometimes gather new nuances in meaning, therefore requiring modifiers. Such as the difference between royal prerogative and European Royal Prerogative.

=
The problem is that in your discussions of the Royal Prerogative and the Divine Right of Kings, you are trying to fit history into your own vision of how things should be rather than how things were rather than seeing them as how they really were. *Some* things about China and the West are the same. *Some* things about China and the West are different. Figuring out which is which requires careful research. The problem I have with your mixing terminology is that it makes clear thinking and intercultural communication impossible. By using the same name for a Chinese concept and a Western one, it makes it impossible to compare and contrast them.

The other problem is that you are intentionally contributing to cultural imperialism. Royal prerogative and divine right of kings are Western terms which simply do not make sense in a Chinese imperial context. There are a lot of Chinese terms which do not make sense in a Western context, and I've been systematically creating encyclopedia entries to describe them. By forcing the use of Western terms and concepts to describe Chinese practices rather than using the Chinese terms and concepts, you are craming down Western and Euro-centric viewpoints which I don't think is your intent, and this does not increase cross-cultural understanding. Rather it decreases it.

You think you know how European royalty worked. You are assuming without studying the subject that Chinese Emperors worked the same way. I don't see how one could get more Eurocentric than that. There is a huge amount of nonsense in Western views of Chinese history that arises because people see a superficial similarity and then assume a deep one without studying the topic.

-- User:Roadrunner

Just as an example of a concept that *is* cross cultural. Look at rule of law.

-- User:Roadrunner

--- Given the vehemence and invective directed at me about royal prerogative and divine right I went ahead and created a non-wiki page on the subject:

http://www.geocities.com/practicalist/royal

that further delves into this idea without fear of retribution. Y'all have fun with this, now, hear.

title: User:Hlavac


text:
Talk:Wernher Von Braun

I've heard from a japanese wikipedian that johnson island mentioned in the article should probably be "johnston" island. So I made the change accordingly. If anyone can confirm or correct that change, I would appreciate it (and bring back to ja. wiki). Tomos 04:46 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)
 * I think "Johnston" is almost certainly correct. I find a lot of Google hits for "Johnson" (including some gov and mil sites, who should know better), but I find this one  fairly definitive, coupled with the fact that I've never personally heard of any South Pacific island called "Johnson". - Hephaestos 04:55 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)
 * It is also called Johnston Atoll. Rmhermen 04:57 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for your inputs. I just told the japanese wikipedian writing most of the related content about your opinions. But then s/he quickly pointed out that on that military web page Hephaestos cited as "definitive", there are instances of both Johnson and Johnston. Tomos 04:03 28 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Hi, Peenemünde is a town, not an island, Peenemünde is situated on the island of Rügen, I made changes accordingly. I am also pretty sure that von Braun did not receive a B.S. degree, as those were not awarded in Germany at that time, he most probably got a "Diplom", which would compare rather to a Master's Degree. I don't know if his Diplom was awarded in Engineering or Physics though, so I won't change it before I can come up with the fact. He also didn't have a Ph.D. but the German title of Dr. rer. nat. from the University of Berlin. I haven't committed these changes as I guess the titles may confuse readers accustomed to angle-saxon academic titles, I would appreciate input on that point.

Wernher von Braun redirects to Wernher Von Braun, but the content says "von Braun", and isn't this the correct capitalization in any case? Thanks Dysprosia 11:27, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Wernher Von Braun


text:
Airbrush

An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that atomizes and sprays various media, most often paint, but also ink, dye, and foundation. Spray painting developed from the airbrush and is considered to employ a type of airbrush.

History
Up until the mid-2000s, it was widely published that the airbrush was invented in 1893, but following research undertaken in collaboration with New York University's Conservation Department, and personal support from Professor Margaret Holben Ellis, a more detailed history emerged, which required many authorities such as Oxford Art to update their dictionaries and references.

Depending on the definition requiring compressed air or not, the first spray painting device that could be called an airbrush was patented in 1876 (Patent Number 182,389) by Francis Edgar Stanley of Newton, Massachusetts. This worked akin to a diffuser/atomiser and did not have a continuous air supply. Stanley and his twin brother later invented a process for continuously coating photographic plates (Stanley Dry Plate Company) but are perhaps best known for their Stanley Steamer. No artistic images that used this 'paint distributor/atomiser' exist or are as yet known.

According to the research prepared by Professor Andy Penaluna, the first instrument to use a compressed air supply was named the "paint distributor" was developed by Abner Peeler "for the painting of watercolors and other artistic purposes" and used a hand-operated compressor to supply continuous air. It was rather crude, being based on a number of spare parts in a jeweller's workshop such as old screwdrivers and welding torches. It took four years of further development before a working prototype was developed by Liberty Walkup of Mt. Morris, Illinois. Walkup repatented the work under the name of "air-brush", a name his wife Phoebe Walkup came up with. Thus according to the research, the formal birth of the name 'Air Brush' can be traced to a documented stakeholders' meeting of the new Air Brush Manufacturing Co. at 7:00 p.m. on 6 October 1883, when the name was formally born. In modern times the date is used to celebrate airbrush art around the world, using the Twitter hashtag #airbrushartistday. Walkup's wife would later go on to be the founder of the Illinois Art School where airbrushing was taught to students from all over the world. In that same rented 4 story building Rockford Air-Brush would be established under Liberty Walkup. Amongst others, the Walkups taught airbrush technique to American Impressionist master Wilson Irvine at the Air Brush School in Rockford, Illinois. The first certain 'atomising' type airbrush was invented by Charles Burdick in 1893 and presented by Thayer and Chandler art materials company at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Burdick founded the Fountain Brush Company in the US, and launched the first series of airbrushes onto the market. However, Burdick initially re-cased the Walkup design into a finger-operated instrument, and as many of his designs echoed those being developed by Walkup, a legal row resulted over the name Air Brush. This device was essentially the same as a modern airbrush, resembling a pen and working in a different manner than Peeler's device. Aerograph, Burdick's original company, still makes and sells airbrushes in England. Thayer and Chandler were acquired by Badger Air-Brush Co. in 2000. Badger Air-Brush continues the Thayer and Chandler tradition of manufacturing quality airbrush guns, tools and compressors out of Franklin Park, Illinois.

Design
An airbrush works by passing a stream of fast moving (compressed) air through a venturi, which creates a local reduction in air pressure (suction) that allows paint to be pulled from an interconnected reservoir at normal atmospheric pressure. The high velocity of the air atomizes the paint into very tiny droplets as it blows past a very fine paint-metering component. The paint is carried onto paper or other surfaces. The operator controls the amount of paint being blown by using a variable trigger which manipulates the position of a very fine tapered needle that is the control element of the paint-metering component. An extremely fine degree of atomization is what allows an artist to create such smooth blending effects using the airbrush.

The technique allows for the blending of two or more colors in a seamless way, with one color slowly becoming another color. Freehand airbrushed images, without the aid of stencils or friskets, have a floating quality, with softly defined edges between colors, and between foreground and background colors. A skilled airbrush artist can produce paintings of photographic realism or can simulate almost any painting medium. Painting at this skill level involves supplementary tools, such as masks and friskets, and very careful planning.

Some airbrushes use pressures as low as 20 psi (1.38 bar) while others use pressures in the region of 30-35 psi (2-2.4 bar). Larger "spray guns" as used for automobile spray-painting need 100 psi (6.8 bar) or more to adequately atomize a thicker paint using less solvent. They are capable of delivering a heavier coating more rapidly over a wide area. Even with small artist airbrushes using acrylic paint, artists must be careful not to breathe in the atomized paint, which floats in the air for minutes and can go deep into the lungs. With commercial spray guns for automobiles, it is vital that the painter have a clean air source to breathe, because automotive paint is far more harmful to the lungs than acrylic. Certain spray guns, called High-Volume Low-Pressure (HVLP) spray guns, are designed to deliver the same high volumes of paint without requiring such high pressures.

Types

Airbrushes are usually classified by three characteristics. The first characteristic is the action performed by the user to trigger the paint flow. The second is the mechanism for feeding the paint into the airbrush. The third is the point at which the paint and air mix.

Trigger action
Most airbrushes can be grouped into two types of trigger action: Single-action or double-action.

The simplest airbrushes work with a single-action mechanism, where the depression of the trigger actuates air flow through the airbrush, immediately outputting paint. The airbrush's color flow and spray pattern are adjusted separately from the trigger action. This is done through an adjustment of the airbrush's needle placement within its paint tip, by the turning of the paint tip on an external mix airbrush (Badger 350 or Paasche Model H are good examples of single-action external mix airbrushes) or the turning of a needle setting dial on an internal mix airbrush (Badger 200 or Iwata SAR are good examples of single-action internal mix airbrushes). The color volume and spray pattern are maintained at a fixed level until the airbrush user re-adjusts the setting. Adjusting the color volume and spray pattern while painting is possible, but not by design. Single-action airbrushes are simpler to use and are generally less expensive, but they present limitations in applications in which the user wishes to do something more artistic than simply apply a large, uniform coat of color.

Dual-action (or double-action) airbrushes enable the simultaneous adjustment of both air and color at the trigger, by allowing the user to actuate air by depressing the trigger and simultaneously adjust color and spray pattern by rocking the trigger back and forth. This ability to adjust color flow while spraying the airbrush, coupled with the user's adjustment of distance from the painting surface allows for the variation of fine to wide lines without stopping to re-adjust the spray pattern (as is necessary with a single-action airbrush). This allows for greater spray control and enables a wider variety of artistic effects. The use of this type of airbrush requires practice to achieve proficiency, both with triggering technique and control. The effort is worthwhile, as airbrushing offers greater artistic versatility. Dual-action airbrushes (Badger Patriot 105, Paasche VL, Iwata CM-C are all good examples of dual-action airbrushes) are of a more sophisticated design model than single-action airbrushes, which tends to make them the more expensive of the two.

Feed system
Paint can be fed into the airbrush by gravity from a paint reservoir sitting atop the airbrush (called gravity feed or top feed), or siphoned from a reservoir mounted below (bottom/suction/siphon feed), or on the side (side feed). Each feed type carries unique advantages and disadvantages. Gravity feed airbrushes require less air pressure to operate, as gravity helps assist the flow of paint into the mixing chamber. Typically instruments with the finest mist atomization and detail requirements use this method since less air pressure allows for finer control of paint flow and less overspray. However, the paint capacity of gravity feed airbrushes is limited. Side- and bottom-feed airbrushes allow the artist to see over the top of the airbrush, with the former sometimes offering left-handed and right-handed options to suit the artist. The bottom paint reservoir can be a variety of sizes, and so a bottom feed airbrush typically holds a larger capacity of paint than the other types, and is often preferable for larger scale work such as automotive applications and clothing design. Side feed airbrushes are a hybrid of the two, and are able to use both a gravity style cup or a suction-style bottle.

Mix point
Airbushes can be divided into internal mix and external mix. With an internal mix airbrush, the paint and air mix inside the airbrush body (in the tip), creating a finer atomized "mist" of paint. With an external mix airbrush, the air and paint meet outside of the tip before mixing with each other, which creates a larger, coarser atomization pattern. External mix airbrushes are cheaper and more suited for covering larger areas with more viscous paints or varnishes, while internal mix airbrushes are more expensive and more suited for fine detail work with thinner paints.

Spray guns
The airbrush led to the development of the spray gun: a similar device that typically delivers a higher volume of paint and for painting larger areas.

The first paint spraying machine was developed in 1887. Equipment by DeVilbiss and Binks is typical of modern sprayguns.

The addition of a simple pistol grip adapter to an aerosol paint spray can create a cheap alternative to a spray gun.

Technique
Airbrush technique is the freehand manipulation of the airbrush, medium, air pressure, and distance from the surface being sprayed in order to produce a certain predictable result on a consistent basis with or without shields or stencils. Airbrush technique will differ with the type of airbrush being used (single-action or dual/double-action).

Double-action airbrush technique involves depressing the trigger on the top of the airbrush with the index finger to release air only, and drawing it back gradually to the paint release threshold. The most important procedural dynamic is to always begin with air only and end with air only. By observing this rule, precise control of paint volume and line width and character can be achieved. The single most important airbrush stroke consistently utilized by professionals is the dagger stroke. This describes a stroke which begins wide and ends as a narrow line, created by starting with the brush far from the support and moving it evenly closer as the line is drawn.

Single-action airbrush technique derives its name from the fact that only one action is required for operation. The single action of depressing the trigger releases a fixed ratio of paint to air. Achieving different line widths requires either changing the tip and nozzle combination or adjusting the spray volume manually between spray width changes. The most important aspect of proper single-action airbrush technique is to keep the hand moving before the trigger is depressed and after the trigger is released. This avoids the "bar bell" line.

Art and illustration
Since the inception of airbrush technology, commercial artists and illustrators realized airbrushes allowed them to create highly rendered images and a high level of realism. Artists often use the airbrush in combination with cut stencils or items held freehand to block in controlled manner the flow of paint onto the paper (or digital alternatives) with fantasy and science fiction artists. Airbrush images can be found today in advertising, publishing (e.g., book covers), comic books and graphic novels.

Photo retouching
Airbrushing was long used to alter photographs in the pre-digital era, and prior to airbrush a similar effect was achieved through the use of a pastel type of crayon. The very first design by Stanley alluded to this: "My invention relates to such improvements in atomizers that may be employed for finishing photographs in water-colors, india-ink, and crayon". In skilled hands an airbrush can be used to help hide signs that an image has been extensively retouched or "doctored".

In the 20th century Soviet Union, as a result of Stalin's purges and later destalinization, many photographs of officials from the periods show extensive airbrushing; often entire human figures have been removed. The term "airbrushed out" has come to mean rewriting history to pretend that something was never there. In contemporary academic discourse, the process of removing components from an image is formally known as object removal.

The term "airbrushed" or "airbrushed photo" has also been used to describe glamour photos in which a model's imperfections have been removed, or in which their attributes have been enhanced. The term has often been applied in a pejorative manner to describe images of unrealistic female perfection and has been particularly common in reference to pictures in Playboy, and later Maxim.

Using today's digital imaging technology, this kind of picture editing is now usually done with a raster image editor, which is capable of even more subtle work in the hands of a skilled touch-up artist. In the fine retouching industry, the airbrushing technique is often considered a low-end practice, with significantly inferior quality to that found in the most important fashion photography publications.

Murals
Airbrushes are also suitable for painting murals.

Hobby
Airbrushes are commonly used by scale modeling enthusiasts to paint models because finer coats can be laid down, as well as opaque effects like weathering, adding stains etc. The fine atomization of paint in modern airbrushes also makes it possible to accurately reproduce soft-edged mottled camouflage schemes, which are very hard to do convincingly by hand-brushing (Luftwaffe aircraft are a good example of this).

Many radio-controlled model hobbyists also use the airbrush to create works of art on the Lexan bodies. The paint jobs range from a basic one-color paint job to fine detailed works of art.

Airbrushes have also become common tools in cosplay, costuming, and prop-making.

History
Airbrushed makeup was used in Hollywood movies at least as early as the 1930s. Monte Westmore is sometimes credited with developing the technique for Gone With the Wind, but his brother Wally was using it at least five years earlier in Pre-Code films such as Murder at the Vanities.

Airbrush makeup has recently been re-popularized by the advent of high-definition television and digital photography, wherein the camera sees more detail than ever before. Liquid foundations that are high in coverage but thin in texture are applied with the airbrush for full coverage without a heavy build-up of product. It is also a highly popular technique for special effects makeup as well as for the funeral industry.

Alcohol-based mediums are best suited for waterproof make-up; this makeup lasts longer, is smudge proof, is rich and opaque in colour. But alcohol-based foundations can be too matte, and can lead to over-drying of the skin. They also can rub off due to excessive itching or fidgeting.

Water based mediums are great for clown make-up, i.e., for short-term artistic or skin-friendly make-ups, these are easy to apply, and easy to remove, with minimal damage to the skin, but water-based make-up does not last a long while, and comes off easily, even more so with perspiration.

Silicone-based airbrush foundation, S/B foundation, is found in professional and premium retail airbrush brands, primarily for bridal make-ups, or mature skin. Silicone based foundations have the advantage of being medium to high coverage.

Silicone-based airbrush foundation has another advantage of mimicking the skin texture, as to give no obvious sign of make-up, thereby giving a more natural look to the model.

Silicone-based airbrush foundations are comparatively water-resistant but not waterproof; they do not overdry the skin, and are relatively easy to apply and remove with a mild make-up remover.

Temporary airbrush tattoos (TATs)
Airbrushes can also be used to apply temporary airbrush tattoos. An artist sprays ink onto the skin through a stencil. Often, the resulting design mirrors the look of a permanent tattoo, without any pain or discomfort. In the past, TATs might only last a week, but now, the best inks can last up to two weeks or longer.

Airbrush tanning
Airbrushes are used to apply special tanning solutions as a form of sunless tanning that simulates the appearance of a natural sun tan. It is promoted as a safer and healthier alternative to the damaging effects of long term exposure to the sun. It is often performed by companies also offering other sun tanning alternatives like sun beds.

Finger nail art
Airbrushes are also used to apply images onto human finger nails as well as synthetic ones that are later glued to the person's actual finger nail.

Clothing
T-shirt airbrushing is popular—many T-shirt airbrush shops offer to paint any textile that will hold paint, including jeans, denim jackets, leather apparel, pillow cases, and hoodies.

One well-known producer of airbrushed clothing is Marc Ecko, who used to airbrush T-shirts when he started his clothing company.

Automotive
Airbrushes are used to spray murals, graphics, and other artwork on automobiles, motorcycles and helmets. This art form has been around since at least the fifties, but more recently it has seen an increase in popularity thanks to such shows as Rides and American Chopper. Most professionals prefer to use automotive grade bases through top-of-the-line gravity fed airbrushes. The cost to hire a professional artist will vary from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on location, skill level and reputation.

Planetary cartography
Airbrush was a novel technique in the scientific portraying of the Moon and other planets in the 1960s. Airbrush maps were produced by USGS Astrogeology Branch to support the NASA Apollo missions.

Street artists
Many street artists use airbrushing to create names and pictures for tourists, such as around Jackson Square in New Orleans. In the mid-1970s, Panama City Beach, Florida was the airbrush capital of the world, with hundreds of artists painting custom designs on T-shirts.

Safety
When inhaled, finely dispersed paint and solvents can produce serious health hazards. Regulatory provisions such as those issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration dictate strict requirements to prevent unsafe use in work environments.

title: Airbrush


text:
Division sign

The division sign (÷) is a mathematical symbol consisting of a short horizontal line with a dot above and another dot below, used in Anglophone countries to indicate the operation of division. This usage, though widespread in some countries, is not universal and the symbol has a different meaning in other countries. Its use to denote division is not recommended in the ISO 80000-2 standard for mathematical notation.

In mathematics
The obelus, a historical glyph consisting of a horizontal line with (or without) one or more dots, was first used as a symbol for division in 1659, in the algebra book Teutsche Algebra by Johann Rahn, although previous writers had used the same symbol for subtraction. Some near-contemporaries believed that John Pell, who edited the book, may have been responsible for this use of the symbol. Other symbols for division include the slash or solidus /, the colon :, and the fraction bar (the horizontal bar in a vertical fraction). The ISO 80000-2 standard for mathematical notation recommends only the solidus / or "fraction bar" for division, or the "colon" : for ratios; it says that the ÷ sign "should not be used" for division.

In Italy, Poland and Russia, the ÷ sign was sometimes used to denote a range of values, and in Scandinavian countries it was used as a negation sign.

The same symbol has been used to represent subtraction in north-eastern Europe: the Unicode Consortium has allocated a separate code point, for this usage uniquely;  the exact form of the symbol displayed is typeface (font) dependent.

Encoding
The symbol was assigned to code point 0xF7 in ISO 8859-1, as the "division sign". This encoding was transferred to Unicode as U+00F7. In HTML, it can be encoded as ÷ or ÷ (at HTML level 3.2), or as ÷.

Unicode provides various division symbols:

Keyboard entry
In Microsoft Windows, this division sign is produced with Alt+0247 (or 246 with no zero) on the number pad, or by pressing Alt Gr when an appropriate keyboard layout is in use. In classic Mac OS and macOS, it is produced with ⌥ Option.

On UNIX-based systems using Screen or X with a Compose key enabled, it can be produced by composing : (colon) and - (hyphen/minus). It may also be produced using its Unicode code-point (F7), by pressing Control.

In LaTeX, the division sign is obtained by the command \div.

In ChromeOS (with International/Extended keyboard setting), the division sign is obtained by pressing. Otherwise, the Unix-style methods may be used.

title: Division sign


text:
Krautrock

Krautrock (also called kosmische Musik, German for "cosmic music" ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, among other eclectic sources. Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation, musique concrète techniques, and early synthesizers, while the music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music. Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu!, Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II and Harmonia.

The term "krautrock" was popularised by British music journalists as a humorous umbrella-label for the diverse German scene, and although many such artists disliked the term, it is no longer considered controversial by German artists in the 21st century. Despite this, English-language authors remain critical of it. The movement was partly born out of the radical student protests of 1968, as German youth rebelled against their country's legacy in World War II and sought a popular music distinct from traditional German music and American pop. The period contributed to the development of ambient music and techno, and influenced subsequent genres such as post-punk, new-age music, and post-rock.

Characteristics
Krautrock has been described as a broad genre encompassing varied approaches, but commonly drawing on psychedelia, avant-garde collage, electronic sounds, and rock music, while typically featuring "improvisation and hypnotic, minimalistic rhythms." Los Angeles Magazine summarized the genre as "American psychedelica meets icy Germanic detachment." Melody Maker described the style as "where the over-reaching ambition and untethered freakitude of late '60s acid rock is checked and galvanised by a proto-punk minimalism ... music of immense scale that miraculously avoided prog-rock's bombastics.” AllMusic described it as expanding on the territory associated with art rock and progressive rock, but diverging from the American and British groups' emphasis on jazz and classical elements in favor of "a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll."

Some common musical features exhibited by krautrock artists include:

 * A blend of elements from psychedelic rock with electronic music or avant-garde sources
 * Hypnotic or minimalistic rhythms, including the common 4/4 "motorik" beat pattern
 * Emphasis on long-form repetition, texture, and drone elements rather than song structure
 * Use of synthesizers and musique concrète techniques
 * A movement away from rock's traditional rhythm & blues roots
 * Extended improvisation

Despite a common approach and generational attitude among artists, the New Statesman argues that "in truth, no two Krautrock acts sound remotely alike. Compare the dreamy synthesiser washes of Tangerine Dream with the alien noise collages of Faust or the psychedelic funk of Can." However, a common feature is the "motorik" beat: the 4/4 beat often used by drummers associated with krautrock, characterised by a kick drum-heavy, pulsating groove, that created a forward-flowing feel. The motorik beat was used by Can in the song "Mother Sky", by Neu! on their debut album, and by Kraftwerk in the song "Autobahn" on their album of the same name, later being adopted by other krautrock bands. It has been widely used in many different styles of music beyond krautrock. According to XLR8R, the term krautrock is often used by critics to signify the "mesmerizing motorik rhythms pioneered by Can and Neu!", but contested that "they represent merely a tiny fraction of the music that emerged from Germany during krautrock's Golden Age".

Origins and influences

Krautrock emerged in West Germany during the 1960s and early 1970s. The music was partially inspired by broad cultural developments such as the revolutionary 1968 German student movement, with many young people having both political and aesthetic concerns. Youth rebelled against both dominant American influence and conservative German entertainment such as schlager music, seeking to liberate themselves from Germany's Nazi legacy in World War II and create a new popular culture. Dieter Moebius, of the bands Cluster and Harmonia, noted that "we were a lot of the times on the streets instead of studying. As young people we were not very proud to be German [...] we were all tired of listening to bad German music and imitations of American music. Something had to happen." The movement saw artists merge elements of varied genres such as psychedelic rock, avant-garde forms of electronic music, funk rhythm, jazz improvisation and "ethnic" music styles, typically reflecting a "genuine sense of awe and wonder."

Core influences on these German artists included avant-garde composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley, and bands such as the Mothers of Invention, the Velvet Underground, the Beatles, and Pink Floyd. A significant influence was the work of American minimalists such as Riley, Tony Conrad, and La Monte Young, as well as the late '60s albums of jazz musician Miles Davis, particularly his jazz fusion work on In a Silent Way (1969). The influence of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown on krautrock musicians was also notable. Some artists drew on ideas from 20th century classical music and musique concrète, particularly composer Stockhausen (with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied), and from the new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960s and 1970s (mainly the free jazz pieces by Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler). Moving away from the patterns of song structure and melody of much rock music in America and Britain, some in the movement were drawn to a more mechanical and electronic sound.

Etymology
Until around 1973, the word Deutsch-Rock ("German Rock") was used to refer to the new groups from West Germany. Other names thrown around by the British and American music press were "Teutonic rock", "Überrock" and "Götterdämmer rock". West Germany's music press initially used Krautrock as a pejorative, but the term lost its stigma after the music gained success in Britain. The term derives from the ethnic slur "kraut". "Kraut" in German can refer to herbs, weeds, and drugs.

The term was originally used by Virgin records in 1972. Various sources claim that "krautrock" was originally a humorous term coined in the early 1970s, either by British disc jockey John Peel or by the UK music newspaper Melody Maker, in which experimental German bands found an early and enthusiastic following. The first use of the term however, was found in a full-page advertisement from Popo Music Management and Bacillus Records promoting German Rock in the UK, in April 1971. The music emerging in Germany was first covered extensively in three concurrent issues of the UK music paper New Musical Express in the month of December 1972, by journalist Ian MacDonald.

Its musicians tended to reject the name "krautrock". This was also the case for "kosmische Musik". Musicologist Julian Cope, in his book Krautrocksampler, says "krautrock is a subjective British phenomenon", based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew. For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust, recorded a seminal 12-minute track they titled "Krautrock", they would later distance themselves from the term, saying: "When the English people started talking about krautrock, we thought they were just taking the piss... and when you hear the so-called 'krautrock renaissance', it makes me think everything we did was for nothing."

Kosmische Musik
Kosmische Musik ("cosmic music") is a term which came into regular use before "krautrock" and was preferred by some German artists who disliked the English label; today, it is often used synonymously with krautrock. More specifically, it may describe 1970s German electronic music which uses synthesizers and incorporates themes related to space or otherworldliness; it is also used as a German analogue to the English term "space rock". The style was often instrumental and characterized by "spacy", ambient soundscapes. Artists used synthesizers such as the EMS VCS 3 and Moog Modular, as well as sound processing effects and tape-based approaches. They often rejected rock music conventions, and instead drew on "serious" electronic compositions.

The term "kosmische Musik" was coined by Edgar Froese and later used by record producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser as a marketing name for bands such as Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze. The following year, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's Ohr Records used the term when he released the compilation Kosmische Musik (1972) featuring tracks by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, and Popol Vuh. Kaiser eventually began referring to the style as "cosmic rock" to signify that the music belonged in a rock idiom. German producer Conny Plank was a central figure in the kosmische sound, emphasizing texture, effects processing, and tape-based editing techniques. Plank oversaw kosmische recordings such as Kraftwerk's Autobahn, Neu!'s Neu! 75, and Cluster's Zuckerzeit.

Several of these artists would later distance themselves from the term. Other names for the style, and for sub-genres were "Berlin School" and "Dusseldorf School", both of which are recognised and actively contributed to by artists such as Node, Martin Sturtzer, Propaganda, Kraftwerk, Tannheuser and Fritz Mayr, from the 1980s through to the present day. The style would later lead to the development of new-age music, with which it shared several characteristics. It would also exert lasting influence on subsequent electronic music and avant-garde rock.

Legacy and influence
Krautrock has proved to be highly influential on a succession of other musical styles and developments. Early contemporary enthusiasts outside Germany included Hawkwind and in particular Dave Brock who supposedly penned the sleeve notes for the British edition of Neu!'s first album. Faust's budget release The Faust Tapes has been cited as a formative teenage influence by several musicians growing up in the early 1970s such as Julian Cope, who has always cited krautrock as an influence, and wrote the book Krautrocksampler on the subject. The genre also had a strong influence on David Bowie's Station to Station (1976) and the experimentation it inspired led to his 'Berlin Trilogy'.

Ash Ra Tempel's first album, released in 1971, informed later krautrock music.

Kosmischer Läufer, a Scottish-German music project with its first installment launched in 2013, presents itself as a music collection supposedly used by East German athletes in their training. The music bears excessive inspiration and techniques of the Krautrock genre.

Modern bands, such as Osees, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Minami Deutsch have been described as krautrock, or have noted krautrock as influential on their styles.

title: Krautrock


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Talk:Airbrush

The most modern airbrushes today are ironically manufactured in Japan
 * Errr... what?  Is it ironic that Japan manufactures airbrushes.  Nothing mentioned in the article explaining it.  Or are should I imagine a japanese production line where all the workers have a strong sense of irony.  I may well delete this sentence or change or just delete the word ironically. Jackliddle 01:22, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I believe airbrushing predates use on cars by quite some margin. For example, airbrushing has been used in photography for many decades, definitely prewar. Movie posters are usually airbrushed, back to the 1920s or so. This needs a lot more research and fleshing out - airbrushing in general is not limited to cars, nor is that the chief example of it. GRAHAMUK 05:20 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * never mind, I filled in some of the essentials. I think there's a lot more could go here though, a search turned up a lot of info! Fascinating topic... GRAHAMUK 05:53 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Airbrushes have a lot of other uses. Scale modeling is a major application; model builders use airbrushes for general paiting (to obtain even finishes) as well as for camoflage marking and weathering. They are also used by makeup artists and for applying bodypaint for theatrical productions. Also; the article could describe different types of airbrush; from cheap external mix brushes, to single-action, hybrid and double action airbrushes. What appears to be missing is information on where folks use airbrushes and related safety considerations. Does one need a spay booth as with larger spray guns or do people get away with using a desk covered with newspaper and a fan to blow any fumes away? Do you need a hood with a fan to suck the air outside? Is it essential to wear a mask/respirator even with vwater based paints?

Photo request
The article needs both diagrams and photographs. Most of these uses should be easy to acquire! --Knulclunk 02:52, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

MS Paint image
this article makes no mention of digital airbrushes. I am fine with that. But for that reason, I don't believe the MS Paint image is appropriate for this article, nor do I think it adds anything to the article. I'm removing it. On the other hand, a decent example of true airbrush art would be quite appropriate, and a welcome addition. -Verdatum (talk) 01:59, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

New section for airbrush
im thinking of adding more to the spray guns section of the acticle and put in a section on digital retouching. Also add a bit about Technique. Sherdonna (talk) 18:43, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Eh??
"Photo retouching is a technique that helps in editing the photos as it helps in bump out all of the worries as professional tools uses in it to retouch the photo such as adobe products. With the help of this technique photographer can restraint of the camera use. photo retouching is the relevance of the photo editing as it help in the retouching of the photos in better way."

Say what?! And this is supposedly a B-class article?? Draggleduck (talk) 15:00, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

"Your Definition"
"The first airbrush, depending on your definition, was patented in 1876 (Patent Number 182,389) by Francis Edgar Stanley of Newton, Massachusetts." Depending on my definition? If that is considered as an encyclopedic sentence then I may as well write something as: "An airbrush is, depending on your definition, a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye..." That sentence should be modified, in my opinion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.143.169.182 (talk) 00:26, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

A picture of an airbrush in use please?
This article needs at least one picture of an aibrush being used, both to show what the spray looks like between the device and the canvas and to show at least one example of how people hold them. --201.83.149.171 (talk) 22:53, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Commons files used on this page have been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page have been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 19:07, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
 * The Commissar Vanishes 2.jpg
 * Voroshilov, Molotov, Stalin, with Nikolai Yezhov.jpg

Electric painting
No mention of the electric air compressor as a source of pressurized air, but I have come across the term "electric painting" as an art form and means of tinting photographs, and wonder whether this is an obsolete term for airbrushing. Doug butler (talk) 13:02, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

True Innovators
Why does nobody mention the development of the past 50 years? The triple H&S? Hokushin Seiki - Harder & Steenbeck - Haosheng. I do not understand that. It's not only much more interesting, but also important for this article, isn't it? エアーブラシ (talk) 19:06, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Translation
hey guys, I happened to come across a german-language wikipedia article that seems to be very interesting for the topic of airbrushing. If someone here can read enough german to translate it into our wikipedia, it would be very helpful and could open doors for understanding about Japanese made airbrushes. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokushin_Seiki TadashiYanai2 (talk) 18:47, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Airbrush