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Géza I of Hungary

Géza I (I. Géza; c. 1040 – 25 April 1077) was King of Hungary from 1074 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Béla I. His baptismal name was Magnus. With German assistance, Géza's cousin Solomon acquired the crown when his father died in 1063, forcing Géza to leave Hungary. Géza returned with Polish reinforcements and signed a treaty with Solomon in early 1064. In the treaty, Géza and his brother Ladislaus acknowledged the rule of Solomon, who granted them their father's former duchy, which encompassed one-third of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Géza closely cooperated with Solomon, but their relationship became tense from 1071. The king invaded the duchy in February 1074 and defeated Géza in a battle. However, Géza was victorious at the decisive battle of Mogyoród on 14 March 1074. He soon acquired the throne, although Solomon maintained his rule in the regions of Moson and Pressburg (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia) for years. Géza initiated peace negotiations with his dethroned cousin in the last months of his life. Géza's sons were children when he died and he was succeeded by his brother Ladislaus.

Early years (before 1064)
Géza was the eldest son of the future King Béla I of Hungary and his wife Richeza or Adelhaid, a daughter of King Mieszko II of Poland. The Illuminated Chronicle narrates that Géza and his brother Ladislaus were born in Poland, where their father who had been banished from Hungary settled in the 1030s. Géza was born in about 1040. According to the historians Gyula Kristó and Ferenc Makk, he was named after his grandfather's uncle Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. His baptismal name was Magnus.

In about 1048, Géza's father returned to Hungary and received one third of the kingdom with the title of duke from his brother, King Andrew I. Géza seems to have arrived in Hungary with his father. The king, who had not fathered a legitimate son, declared Béla his heir. According to the traditional principle of seniority, Béla preserved his claim to succeed his brother even after Andrew's wife Anastasia of Kiev gave birth to Solomon in 1053. However, the king had his son crowned in 1057 or 1058. The Illuminated Chronicle narrates that the child Solomon "was anointed king with the consent of Duke Bela and his sons Geysa and Ladislaus", which is the first reference to a public act by Géza. However, according to the contemporaneous text Annales Altahenses, Géza was absent from the meeting where Judith—the sister of the German monarch Henry IV—was engaged to the child Solomon in 1058.

Géza accompanied his father, who left for Poland to seek assistance against King Andrew. They returned with Polish reinforcements in 1060. Géza was one of his father's most influential advisors. Lampert of Hersfeld wrote that Géza persuaded his father to set free Count William of Weimar, one of the commanders of the German troops fighting on Andrew's side, who had been captured in a battle.

The king died during the civil war; his partisans took Solomon to the Holy Roman Empire and Géza's father Béla was crowned king on 6 December 1060. Although Géza remained his father's principal advisor, King Béla did not grant his former duchy to his son. According to the Annales Altahenses, Béla even offered Géza as hostage to the Germans when he was informed that the German court decided, in August 1063, to invade Hungary to restore Solomon. However, the Germans refused Béla's offer and he died on 11 September 1063, some days after the imperial troops entered Hungary.

Following his father's death, Géza offered to accept Solomon's rule if he received his father's former duchy. This offer was refused, which forced him and his two brothers—Ladislaus and Lampert—to leave Hungary for Poland. Duke Bolesław II of Poland provided them with reinforcements and they returned after the German troops were withdrawn from Hungary. The brothers wanted to avoid a new civil war and made an agreement with King Solomon. According to the treaty, which was signed in Győr on 20 January 1064, Géza and his brothers accepted Solomon's rule and the king granted them their father's duchy. The king and his cousins celebrated Easter together in the cathedral of Pécs, where Duke Géza ceremoniously put a crown on Solomon's head.

"Being a newcomer and not yet established in his kingdom, King [Solomon] was afraid that [Géza] would perhaps attack him with a Polish army, and he therefore retired for a time with his forces and took up a safe station in the strongly fortified castle of [Moson]. The bishops and other religious men strove most earnestly to bring about a peaceful settlement between them. Especially bishop Desiderius softened Duke [Géza]'s spirit with his gentle admonitions and sweet pleadings that he should peaceably restore the kingdom to [Solomon], even though he was the younger, and should himself assume the dukedom which his father had held before him. [Géza] listened to his words of wise persuasion and laid aside his ill feeling. At [Győr], on the feast day of SS Fabian and Sebastian the martyrs, King [Solomon] and Duke [Géza] made peace with each other before the Hungarian people."

- The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle

Duke in Hungary (1064–1074)
According to Ján Steinhübel and other Slovak historians, Géza only retained the administration of the region of Nyitra (present-day Nitra, Slovakia) and gave the eastern territories of their father's duchy, which were centered around Bihar (present-day Biharia, Romania), to his brother, Ladislaus. The Hungarian historian Gyula Kristó likewise says that this division of Béla's one-time duchy is "probable". The historians Gyula Kristó and Ferenc Makk write that Géza seems to have married a German countess named Sophia around this time. Géza had the right to coinage in his duchy. The silver half-denars minted for him bore the inscriptions DUX MAGNUS ("Duke Magnus") and PANONAI ("Kingdom of Hungary").

Géza closely cooperated with the king between 1064 and 1071. For instance, they jointly routed an invading army which had plundered the eastern territories of the kingdom at Kerlés (present-day Chiraleş, Romania) in 1068. The identification of the invaders is uncertain: the Annales Posonienses writes of Pechenegs, the Illuminated Chronicle and other 14th- and 15th-century Hungarian chronicles refer to Cumans, and a Russian chronicle identifies them as Cumans and Vlachs. Modern historians have concluded that they were Pechenegs.

Géza's and Solomon's relationship only began to worsen during the siege of the Byzantine fortress of Belgrade in 1071. Its commander preferred to surrender to Géza instead of the king and the Byzantine envoys who arrived in the Hungarian camp after the fall of Belgrade only negotiated with Géza. The division of the booty also gave rise to a new conflict between Solomon and Géza. Although Géza accompanied the king on a new campaign against the Byzantine Empire in 1072, his brother Ladislaus stayed behind with half of the troops of their duchy.

The conflict between the king and his cousins was sharpened by Solomon's main advisor, Count Vid, who wanted to acquire the dukes' domains for himself. However, Solomon and Géza, who were convinced that they needed foreign reinforcements before attacking the other party, concluded a truce which was to last from 11 November 1073 to 24 April 1075. Géza sent his brothers to Poland and Rus' to seek assistance against Solomon. At a meeting in the Szekszárd Abbey, Count Vid persuaded the king to break the truce in order to unexpectedly attack Géza who was "hunting in Igfan Forest" to the east of the river Tisza. Although the abbot of the monastery, which had been established by Géza's father, warned the duke of the king's plans, the royal army crossed the river and routed Géza's troops in the battle of Kemej on 26 February 1074.

A legend preserved in the Illuminated Chronicle mentions that before the battle, Ladislaus "saw in broad daylight a vision from heaven" of an angel placing a crown on Géza's head. Another legendary episode also predicted the dukes' triumph over the king: an "ermine of purest white" jumped from a thorny bush to Ladislaus's lance and then onto his chest.

From the battlefield, Géza and his retinue hastened towards Vác where he came upon his brother Ladislaus and their brother-in-law, Duke Otto I of Olomouc. The latter, accompanied by Czech reinforcements, arrived in Hungary in order to assist Géza against Solomon. In the ensuing battle, fought at Mogyoród on 14 March 1074, Géza "with the troops from Nitria was stationed in the centre", according to the Illuminated Chronicle. During the battle, Géza and Ladislaus changed their standards in order to bewilder Solomon who was planning to attack Géza. Géza and his allies won a decisive victory and forced the king to flee from the battlefield and to withdraw to Moson at the western frontier of Hungary. Géza "made" Kapuvár, Babót, Székesfehérvár and "other castles secure with garrisons of the bravest soldiers", thus taking possession of almost the entire kingdom.

His reign (1074–1077)
Legend says that Géza decided to build a church dedicated to the Holy Virgin in Vác after Ladislaus explained the significance of the wondrous appearance of a red deer at the place where the church would be erected:"As [King Géza and Duke Ladislaus] were standing at a spot near [Vác], where is now the church of the blessed apostle Peter, a stag appeared to them with many candles burning upon his horns, and it began to run swifly before them towards the wood, and at the spot where is now the monastery, it halted and stood still. When the soldiers shot their arrows at it, it leapt into the Danube, and they saw it no more. At this sight the blessed Ladislaus said: 'Truly that was no stag, but an angel from God.' And King [Géza] said: 'Tell me, beloved brother, what may all the candles signify which we saw burning on the stag's horns.' The blessed Ladislaus answered: 'They are not horns, but wings; they are not burning candles, but shining feathers. It has shown to us that we are to build the church of the Blessed Virgin on the place where it planted its feet, and not elsewhere.'"

According to the Illuminated Chronicle, Géza accepted the throne "at the insistence of the Hungarians" after Solomon had taken refuge in Moson. However, he was not crowned because the royal jewels were still in the dethroned king's possession. The German monarch Henry IV, who was Solomon's brother-in-law, launched an expedition against Hungary in mid-1074. The Germans marched as far as Vác, but Géza applied scorched earth tactics and bribed German commanders, who persuaded the German monarch to retreat from Hungary.

"[Géza], hearing that the Emperor had come to Vacia, with prudent policy gave instructions to approach and win over the patriarch of Aquilegia, to whose counsels the Emperor most readily listened, and also all the [German] dukes, promising them much money if they would make the Emperor turn back. The patriarch, therefore, and the dukes, seduced by the gifts and possessed with love of gold, invented various false stories to induce the Emperor to turn back. The patriarch pretended that he had a dream whose interpretation most plainly was that the Emperor's army would be wholly destroyed by the divine vengeance unless he returned with the utmost speed. The dukes pretended likewise to be awestricken by divine warnings ..."

- The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle

In early 1074, Géza had approached Pope Gregory VII to obtain international recognition of his rule. However, the pope wanted to take advantage of the conflict between Solomon and Géza and attempted to persuade both of them to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Holy See. Géza did not obey the pope and asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas for a crown. The emperor sent Géza a gold and enamel diadem, which bore the legend "Géza, the faithful king of Hungary" on one of its plaques. This "splendid work of art" became the lower part of the Holy Crown of Hungary by the end of the 12th century. Géza was crowned king with this diadem in early 1075. In this year he styled himself as "anointed king of the Hungarians by the grace of God" in the charter of the foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of Garamszentbenedek (present-day Hronský Beňadik, Slovakia).

Géza married a niece of Nikephoros Botaneiates, a close advisor of Emperor Michael VII. However, Solomon still controlled Moson and Pressburg; the royal troops—which were under the command of Géza's brother, Ladislaus—could not take Pressburg in 1076. According to the Illuminated Chronicle, Géza considered renouncing the crown in favor of Solomon from the end of the year. Géza died on 25 April 1077 and was buried in the cathedral of Vác, which he had erected in honor of the Holy Virgin. His brother Ladislaus succeeded him. A grave discovered in the center of the medieval cathedral in August 2015 was identified as Géza's burial site by Zoltán Batizi, the leader of the excavations.

"[King Géza] celebrated Christmas at [Szekszárd]. ... When the Mass had been celebrated and all observances had been duly performed, the King instructed that all should leave except the bishop and the abbots. Then the King prostrated himself with tears before the Archbishop and the other ecclesiastical personages and prelates. He said that he had sinned because he had possessed himself of the kingdom of a lawfully crowned king; and he promised that he would restore the kingdom to [Solomon], and that these would be the conditions of firm peace between them: He would by lawful right hold the crown with that third part of the kingdom belonging with the duchy; the crowned [Solomon] would hold the two parts of the kingdom which he had held before. ... Then King [Géza] sent messengers to King [Solomon] with letters setting forth the terms of peace. Messengers passed to and fro, but feelings on this side and that were at variance, and so the reconciliation found no consummation. Meanwhile King [Géza] fell gravely ill, and on April 25, adorned with virtues, he went the way of all flesh. He was most devoted to God in the Catholic faith, and he was a most Christian Prince."

- The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle

Family
Géza married twice. The family of his first wife Sophia, whom he married in the late 1060s, is unknown. After his coronation in 1075, he married his second wife, who was the niece of the future Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros III.

It is uncertain which wife bore Géza's children, but the historians Gyula Kristó and Márta Font say that Sophia was their mother. Kristó adds that Géza fathered at least six children. Although only two of them—Coloman and Álmos—are known by name, the Illuminated Chronicle states that Coloman had brothers who "died before him". Both Coloman and Álmos were apparently born around 1070.

The following family tree presents Géza's ancestors and some of his relatives who are mentioned in the article.

*Whether Géza's first or second wife was his children's mother is uncertain. **Géza had at least two further children, but their names are unknown.

title: Géza I of Hungary


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Joe Namath

Joseph William Namath (born May 31, 1943), nicknamed "Broadway Joe", is an American former football quarterback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the New York Jets. Namath played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, where he won the national championship as a senior, and was selected by the Jets first overall in the 1965 AFL draft.

During his five AFL seasons, Namath was a two-time MVP and twice led the league in passing yards, while winning one AFL championship and one Super Bowl. Both victories remain the Jets' only championships. Following the 1970 AFL–NFL merger, he joined the NFL with the Jets, where he was the league's passing yards and touchdowns leader during the 1972 season. He played in New York for seven more seasons and spent his final year as a member of the Los Angeles Rams.

Namath cemented his legacy in 1969 when he guaranteed his heavy underdog Jets would win Super Bowl III before defeating the NFL's Baltimore Colts in one of the greatest sports upsets of all time. The Super Bowl victory was the first for an AFL franchise, helping dismiss notions that its teams were inferior to the NFL's and demonstrating they would enter the merger as equals. Namath received Super Bowl MVP honors in the game, while also becoming the first quarterback to win both a college national championship and a major professional championship. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

Early life
Namath was born and raised in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. He grew up in the Lower End neighborhood of Beaver Falls. He is the son of Roman Catholic parents, Rose (née Juhász) and János "John Andrew" Namath, a steelworker, both of Hungarian descent. His Hungarian-born grandfather, András "Andrew" Németh, known as "A.J." to his family and friends, came to Ellis Island on the steamer RMS Pannonia (1902) in 1911, and worked in the coal and steel industries of the Greater Pittsburgh area.

While growing up, Namath was close to both of his parents, who eventually divorced. Following his parents' divorce, he lived with his mother. He was the youngest of four sons, with an older adopted sister.

Namath excelled in all sports at Beaver Falls High School and was a standout quarterback in football, guard in basketball, and outfielder in baseball. In an age when dunks were uncommon in high school basketball, Namath regularly dunked in games. Namath later clarified a story about being the only white player on his high school basketball team on The James Brown Show in 2018, where he was the guest. He stated that although he was one of several white players on the team, he was the only white starter. Coached by Larry Bruno at Beaver Falls, Namath's football team won the WPIAL Class AA championship with a 9–0 record in 1960. Coach Bruno later presented Namath to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

Upon graduation from high school in 1961, he received offers from several Major League Baseball teams, including the Yankees, Indians, Reds, Pirates, and Phillies, but football prevailed. Namath told interviewers that he wanted to sign with the Pirates and play baseball like his idol, Roberto Clemente, but elected to play football because his mother wanted him to get a college education. He enrolled at the University of Alabama, but left before graduating in order to pursue a career in professional football. However, a college degree was finally conferred on Namath at age 64, after he completed an external-program Bachelor of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies at the University of Alabama in 2007.

Namath had many offers from Division I college football programs, including Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, and Notre Dame, but initially decided upon the University of Maryland after being heavily recruited by Maryland assistant coach Roland Arrigoni. He was rejected by Maryland because his college-board scores were just below the school's requirements. After ample recruiting by Coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant, Namath accepted a full scholarship to attend Alabama. Bryant stated his decision to recruit Namath was "the best coaching decision I ever made."

College football career
Between 1962 and 1964, Namath quarterbacked the Alabama Crimson Tide program under Bryant and his offensive coordinator, Howard Schnellenberger. A year after being suspended for the final two games of the regular season, Namath led the Tide to a national championship in 1964. During his time at the University of Alabama, Namath led the team to a 29–4 record over three seasons.

Bryant called Namath "the greatest athlete I ever coached". When Namath was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, he teared up during his induction speech upon mentioning Bryant, who had died of a heart attack in 1983.

Namath attended college at the height of the civil rights movement (1955–1968) in the Southern United States.

Namath was eleventh in the voting for the 1964 Heisman Trophy, which was won by quarterback John Huarte of Notre Dame.

Professional football career
In 1964, despite suffering a nagging knee injury in the fourth game of his senior year at Alabama, Namath limped through the undefeated regular season to the Orange Bowl. The cartilage damage to Namath's right knee later designated him class 4-F for the military draft, a deferment from service during the Vietnam War.

In late 1964 the then still separate NFL and upstart AFL were at the height of their bidding war, and held their respective drafts on the same day, November 28. Namath was a first-round draft selection by both leagues: the St. Louis Cardinals selected him 12th overall in the 1965 NFL draft, while the Jets made him the first overall pick in the AFL draft.

When meeting with executives of the Cardinals, Namath's salary request was $200,000 and a new Lincoln Continental. While initially surprised at Namath's demands, the Cardinals told Namath they would agree to his terms only if he would sign before the Orange Bowl, which would have made Namath ineligible to play in the game. The day after the Orange Bowl, Namath elected to sign with the Jets, under the direction of Sonny Werblin, for a salary of US$427,000 over three years (a pro football record at the time). Offensive tackle Sherman Plunkett came up with the nickname "Broadway Joe" in 1965, following Namath's appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated in July.

New York Jets
In Namath's rookie season the 1965 Jets were winless in their first six games with him splitting time with second-year quarterback Mike Taliaferro. With Namath starting full-time they won five of the last eight of a fourteen-game season and Namath was named the AFL Rookie of the year.

He became the first professional quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season when he threw for 4,007 yards during a 14-game season in 1967, a record broken by Dan Fouts in a 16-game season in 1979 (4,082). Although Namath was plagued with knee injuries through much of his career and underwent four pioneering knee operations by Dr. James A. Nicholas, he was an AFL All-Star in 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1969. On some occasions, Namath had to have his knee drained at halftime so he could finish a game. Later in life, long after he left football, he underwent knee replacement surgery on both legs.

In the 1968 AFL title game, Namath threw three touchdown passes to lead New York to a 27–23 win over the defending AFL champion Oakland Raiders. His performance in the 1968 season earned him the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. He was an AFC–NFC Pro Bowler in 1972, is a member of the Jets' and the American Football League's All-Time Team, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.

Super Bowl III
The high point of Namath's career was his performance in the Jets' 16–7 win over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in January 1969, shortly before the AFL–NFL merger. The first two interleague championship games had resulted in blowout victories for the NFL's Green Bay Packers, and sports writers from NFL cities insisted the AFL would take several more years to be truly competitive. The 1968 Colts were touted as "the greatest football team in history", and former NFL star and Atlanta Falcons head coach Norm Van Brocklin ridiculed the AFL before the game, saying "I'll tell you what I think about Joe Namath on Sunday night—after he has played his first pro game." Three days before the game, Namath was tired of addressing the issue in the press, and he responded to a heckler at a sports banquet in Miami with the line: "We're going to win the game. I guarantee it."

Namath backed up his boast, which became legendary. The Colts' vaunted defense (highlighted by Bubba Smith) was unable to contain either the Jets' running or passing game, while the ineffective offense gave up four interceptions to the Jets. Namath was the Super Bowl MVP, completing eight passes to George Sauer Jr. alone for 133 yards. The win made him the first quarterback to start and win a national championship game in college, a major professional league championship, and a Super Bowl.

The Jets' win gave the AFL instant legitimacy even to skeptics. When he was asked by reporters after the game whether the Colts' defense was the "toughest he had ever faced", Namath responded, "That would be the Buffalo Bills' defense." The AFL-worst Bills had intercepted Namath five times, three for touchdowns, in their only win in 1968 in late September.

Later career with the Jets
After not missing a single game because of injury in his first five years in the league, Namath played in just 28 of 58 possible games between 1970 and 1973 because of various injuries. After winning division championships in 1968 and 1969, the Jets struggled to records of 4–10, 6–8, 7–7, and 4–10. His most memorable moment in those four seasons came on September 24, 1972, when he and his boyhood idol Johnny Unitas combined for 872 passing yards in Baltimore. Namath threw for 496 yards and six touchdowns and Unitas 376 yards and three in a 44–34 New York victory over the Colts, its first against Baltimore since Super Bowl III. The game is considered by many NFL experts to be the finest display of passing in a single game in league history. Another notable moment was in 1970, when the head of ABC's televised sports, Roone Arledge, made sure that Monday Night Football's inaugural game on September 21, featured Namath. The Jets met the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland Municipal Stadium in front of both a record crowd of 85,703 and a huge television audience. However, the Jets set a team record for penalties and lost on a late Namath interception.

The Chicago Winds of the World Football League (WFL) made an overture to Namath prior to the start of its 1975 season. First, they designed their uniforms nearly identically to that of the Jets, dropping red and going with green and white, to allow Namath to continue marketing his number 12 jersey in Jets colors. Then they offered Namath a contract worth $600,000 a year for three years; a $2 million annuity ($100,000 per year for 20 years); a $500,000 signing bonus; and terms for Namath's eventual ownership of a WFL franchise. The WFL's television provider, TVS Television Network, insisted on the Winds signing Namath to continue broadcasts. Upon this development, Namath, in turn, requested the lofty sum of 15 percent of the entire league's television revenue, which was rejected by the league. Without a national television deal, the WFL instead opted to fold a month later.

Los Angeles Rams
After twelve years with the Jets, Namath was waived prior to the 1977 season to facilitate a move to the Los Angeles Rams when a trade could not be worked out. Signing on May 12, Namath hoped to revitalize his career, but knee injuries, a bad hamstring, and the general ravages of 13 years as a quarterback in professional football had taken their toll. After playing well in a 2–1 start, Namath took a beating in a one-point road loss on a cold, windy, and rainy Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears, throwing four interceptions and having a fifth nullified by a penalty. He was benched as a starter for the rest of the season (in favor of Pat Haden) and retired at its end.

Acting career
Building on his brief success as a host on 1969's The Joe Namath Show, Namath transitioned into an acting career. Appearing on stage, starring in several movies, including C.C. and Company with Ann-Margret and William Smith in 1970, on stage in "Picnic" with Donna Mills in 1971 and in a brief 1978 television series, The Waverly Wonders. He guest-starred on numerous television shows, often as himself, including The Love Boat, Married... with Children, Here's Lucy, The Brady Bunch, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Flip Wilson Show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Dean Martin Show, The Simpsons, The A-Team, ALF, Kate & Allie, and The John Larroquette Show. Namath was a candidate to host the 1988 revival of the American game show Family Feud, before the job went to comedian Ray Combs.

Namath appeared in summer stock productions of Damn Yankees, Fiddler on the Roof, and Li'l Abner, and finally legitimized his "Broadway Joe" nickname as a cast replacement in a New York revival of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial in 1983. He guest hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson several times and also served as a color commentator on NFL broadcasts, including the 1985 season of Monday Night Football and several years with NBC Sports. In September 2012, Namath was honored by the Ride of Fame and a double-decker tour bus was dedicated to him in New York City. He appeared as himself in the 2013 sports film Underdogs and the 2015 comedy film The Wedding Ringer.

Personal life
Namath was the only athlete listed on the master list of Richard Nixon's political opponents which was made public in 1973 during the Watergate investigation, erroneously listed as playing for the New York Giants. White House Counsel John Dean claimed not to know why Namath was included on the list and suggested that it might have been a mistake. Namath addressed this on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on July 20, 1973.

Namath dated fashion model Randi Oakes, actress and lawyer Louisa Moritz, singer Janis Joplin, and actresses Jill St. John and Raquel Welch.

While taking a voice class in 1983, Namath met Deborah Mays, who later changed her first name to May and then changed it again to Tatiana, an aspiring actress; he was 39 and she was 22. They married in 1984, with Namath claiming, "She caught my last pass." The longtime bachelor became a dedicated family man when the couple had two children, Jessica (born 1986) and Olivia (born 1991). The couple divorced in 2000, with the children living in Florida with their father. In May 2007, Olivia gave birth to a daughter, Natalia. Olivia lives in California with her three kids. Namath also has three other grandchildren named John, Emerson, and Jemma, who live next to him with their mom, Jessica. Namath practices transcendental meditation and has adopted a collie/shepherd, Zoie, from a local rescue shelter. He co-owns the Lucky Shuck, a waterside restaurant in a picturesque spot overlooking the Jupiter Inlet and lighthouse.

For the early years of his marriage, Namath continued to struggle with his alcoholism until his wife warned him that he could break up his family if he continued. By 1987, Namath was able to stop his drinking, though he would relapse after his divorce in 2000.

On December 20, 2003, Namath garnered unfavorable publicity after he consumed too much alcohol during a day that was dedicated to the Jets' announcement of their All-Time team. During live ESPN coverage of the team's game, Namath was asked about then-Jets quarterback Chad Pennington and his thoughts on the difficulties of that year's team. Namath expressed confidence in Pennington, but then stated to interviewer Suzy Kolber, "I want to kiss you. I couldn't care less about the team struggling." He subsequently apologized, and several weeks later entered into an outpatient alcoholism treatment program. In 2019, Namath said he used the incident as motivation to quit alcohol, explaining "I had embarrassed my friends and family and could not escape that feeling. I haven't had a drink since."

In July 2015, Namath joined the search for two boys who disappeared during a fishing trip off the coast of Florida, and offered a $100,000 reward for the safe return of the boys. The boat was found six days later, and the search was suspended, with the two boys presumed dead.

On June 6, 2018, Namath threw out the first pitch at a Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field. The pitch was caught by then-Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who idolized Namath as a child. This was Namath's first time at Wrigley Field.

Bachelors III
After the Super Bowl victory in 1969, Namath opened a popular Upper East Side nightclub called Bachelors III, which not only drew big names in sports, entertainment, and politics, but also organized crime. To protect the league's reputation, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle ordered Namath to divest himself of his interest in the venture. Namath refused, apparently retiring from football during a teary news conference, but he eventually recanted and agreed to sell the club, and reported to the Jets in time for the 1969–70 season. Namath again threatened to retire before the 1970 and 1971 seasons; New York wrote in 1971 that "his retirement act had become shallow and predictable". The magazine stated that Namath did not want to attend training camp because of the risk of injury, but could not afford to retire permanently because of poor investments.

Media and advertising icon
Namath's prowess on the field, fashion sense, lighthearted personality, and status as a sex symbol made him the first sports figure to appeal equally to men, women, and children—as demonstrated by his various product endorsements over the years. His nickname "Broadway Joe" was given to him by Sherman Plunkett, a Jets teammate. "Joe Willie Namath" was Namath's moniker based on his full given name and was popularized by sportscaster Howard Cosell. On the field, Namath stood out from other AFL and NFL players in low-cut white shoes rather than traditional black high-tops. The white shoes started when Namath was at Alabama, where he kept having his worn-out cleats taped over as a superstition, especially after his first major knee injury was the result of a game in which he had forgotten to have the shoes taped. When he joined the Jets, Namath continued to have his shoes taped until Jets coach Weeb Ewbank noticed that the excess tape usage was costing the team money, so he ordered white cleats for Namath. He originated the fad of wearing a full-length fur coat on the sidelines (since banned by the NFL, which requires all players, coaches, athletic trainers, et al., to wear league-approved team apparel).

Namath also appeared in television advertisements both during and after his playing career, most notably for Ovaltine milk flavoring, Noxzema shaving cream (in which he was shaved by a then-unknown Farrah Fawcett), and Hanes Beautymist pantyhose (which he famously wore in the commercials). All of these commercials contributed to his becoming a pop-culture icon.

Namath continues to serve as an unofficial spokesman and goodwill ambassador of the Jets. In 2011, Namath was representing Topps and promoting a "Super Bowl Legends" contest, appearing on its behalf on the Late Show with David Letterman. For Super Bowl XLVIII which was hosted in the Jets' MetLife Stadium, Namath and his daughter Jessica wore fur coats for the ceremonial coin toss to "bring back a little of that flash from his heyday" as a player.

On June 2, 2013, Namath was the guest speaker at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, unveiling the Canton, Ohio museum's $27 million expansion and renovation plan.

As of 2018, Namath is the spokesperson for the insurance agency Medicare Coverage Helpline.

Biographies
In November 2006, the biography Namath: A Biography by Mark Kriegel was published, reaching the New York Times extended bestseller list (number 23). In conjunction with its release, Namath was interviewed for the November 19, 2006, edition of CBS' 60 Minutes. A recent documentary about Namath's hometown of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, includes a segment on Namath and why the city has celebrated its ties to him. In 2009, 40 years after winning Super Bowl III, he presented the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who won Super Bowl XLIII. NFL Productions also produced a two-hour long television biography in its A Football Life series.

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

title: Joe Namath


text:
Talk:Accounting methods

This page still needs a once-over by someone with more knowledge of accounting than I have. ô ¿ ô
 * The author has the right concept, but writing style leaves a lot to be desired. ☮ Eclecticology 17:20, 2003 Oct 20 (UTC)

 * Yo mama!
 * "It's a genius!" she exclaimed as its slobber ran down her blouse.
 * To all who have contributed: This article is really shapping up. Way to go Wickipedians! ô ¿ ô  Mar. 08, 09:00 (UTC)

Took a shot at clean up
It may still need more, but give me some feedback.--Pmeisel 22:07, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * Technically speaking, I imagine that this, from the previous revision...:

 * Cash-basis accounting does not record credit transactions, thus its Balance Sheet does not contain payable, receivable, and prepaid expenses [sic] accounts. Because its lack of credit based transactions, it is easy to manage. Additionally, cash-basis accounting is not viable for cost accounting in manufacturing operations because expense is not associated with product cost.

 * ...is less accurate, not to mention less smooth, than this, from your revision:

 * Cash-basis accounting does not record payables, receivables, and prepaid expenses [sic] accounts. This is simpler for individuals and organizations that do not have significant amounts of these transactions.

 * My only observation would be: We've got to remember that we're writing for a general audience. I believe that 8th Grade level (or at least what was 8th-Grade level circa 1900) is the audience we should aim at.

 * Perhaps accounts payable, accounts receivable, and prepaid expense accounts cannot accurately be called "credit transactions." But I believe that the general reader, some way or another, needs to be informed that under accrual-basis accounting, these kind of transactions are counted either as assets or as debits BEFORE any actual cash has changed hands. Otherwise, I fear, the contrast between these two forms of accounting will remain obscure to most. - ô ¿ ô  23:48, Mar 13, 2005 (UTC)

 * Thanks. I'll try again tonight or tomorrow....  the original author was not so much inaccurate as hard to understand, and I only improved a little.  I'll do better next time.  I taught my little sister accounting and calculus, and I assure you she is still no brighter than an 8th grader!

Scope
This page could do with either making less American and more international, or, alternatively, its US-centric terminology, GAAP, and so on being flagged VERY early on. Matthew 20:16, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

I've had a go at this, but the article is still heavily biased towards the US, to the point that it is not that useful to people in other jurisdictions. I may attack it again when I get a bit more time. Comments are welcome. AnthonyUK 18:47, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Accounting methods


text:
Green Grow the Rushes

Green Grow the Rushes may refer to:

 * "Green Grow the Rushes, O", a folksong
 * Green Grow the Rushes (novel), a 1949 novel by Howard Clewes
 * Green Grow the Rushes (film), a 1951 film based on the novel
 * "Green Grow the Rushes", a song by R.E.M. from the 1985 album Fables of the Reconstruction

title: Green Grow the Rushes


text:
Last mile (telecommunications)

The last mile, or last kilometer, in the telecommunications, cable television and internet industries refers to the final leg of a telecommunications network that delivers telecommunication services to retail end-users (customers). More specifically, last mile describes the portion of the telecommunications network chain that physically reaches the end-user's premises. Examples are the copper wire subscriber lines connecting landline telephones to the local telephone exchange; coaxial cable service drops carrying cable television signals from utility poles to subscribers' homes, and cell towers linking local cell phones to the cellular network. The word "mile" is used metaphorically; the length of the last mile link may be more or less than a mile. Because the last mile of a network to the user is conversely the first mile from the user's premises to the outside world when the user is sending data, the term first mile is also alternatively used.

The last mile is typically the speed bottleneck in communication networks; its bandwidth effectively limits the amount of data that can be delivered to the customer. This is because retail telecommunication networks have the topology of "trees", with relatively few high capacity "trunk" communication channels branching out to feed many final mile "twigs". The final mile links, being the most numerous and thus the most expensive part of the system, as well as having to interface with a wide variety of user equipment, are the most difficult to upgrade to new technology. For example, telephone trunklines that carry phone calls between switching centers are made of modern optical fiber, but the last mile is typically twisted pair wires, a technology which has essentially remained unchanged for over a century since the original laying of copper phone cables.

In recent years, usage of the term "last mile" has expanded outside the communications industries, to include other distribution networks that deliver goods to customers, such as the pipes that deliver water and natural gas to customer premises, and the final legs of mail and package delivery services. The term has also been used to describe education and training providers that more tightly link individuals with job opportunities.

Existing delivery system problems

The increasing worldwide demand for rapid, low-latency and high-volume communication of information to homes and businesses has made economical information distribution and delivery increasingly important. As demand has escalated, particularly fueled by the widespread adoption of the Internet, the need for economical high-speed access by end-users located at millions of locations has ballooned as well.

As requirements have changed, the existing systems and networks that were initially pressed into service for this purpose have proven to be inadequate. To date, although a number of approaches have been tried, no single clear solution to the 'last mile problem' has emerged.

As expressed by Shannon's equation for channel information capacity, the omnipresence of noise in information systems sets a minimum signal-to-noise ratio (shortened as S/N) requirement in a channel, even when adequate spectral bandwidth is available. Since the integral of the rate of information transfer with respect to time is information quantity, this requirement leads to a corresponding minimum energy per bit. The problem of sending any given amount of information across a channel can therefore be viewed in terms of sending sufficient Information-Carrying Energy (ICE). For this reason the concept of an ICE 'pipe' or 'conduit' is relevant and useful for examining existing systems.

The distribution of information to a great number of widely separated end-users can be compared to the distribution of many other resources. Some familiar analogies are:
 * Blood distribution to a large number of cells over a system of veins, arteries and capillaries
 * Water distribution by a drip irrigation system to individual plants, including rivers, aqueducts, water mains, etc.
 * Nourishment to a plant's leaves through roots, trunk and branches.

All of these have in common conduits that carry a relatively small amount of a resource a short distance to a very large number of physically separated endpoints. Also common are conduits supporting more voluminous flow, which combine and carry many individual portions over much greater distances. The shorter, lower-volume conduits, which individually serve only one or a small fraction of the endpoints, may have far greater combined length than the larger capacity ones. These common attributes are shown to the right.

Costs and efficiency
The high-capacity conduits in these systems tend to also have in common the ability to efficiently transfer the resource over a long distance. Only a small fraction of the resource being transferred is wasted, lost, or misdirected. The same cannot necessarily be said of lower-capacity conduits.

One reason has to do with the efficiency of scale. Conduits that are located closer to the endpoint, or end-user, do not individually have as many users supporting them. Even though they are smaller, each has the overhead of an "installation" obtaining and maintaining a suitable path over which the resource can flow. The funding and resources supporting these smaller conduits tend to come from the immediate locale.

This can have the advantage of a "small-government model". That is, the management and resources for these conduits is provided by local entities and therefore can be optimized to achieve the best solutions in the immediate environment and also to make best use of local resources. However, the lower operating efficiencies and relatively greater installation expenses, compared with the transfer capacities, can cause these smaller conduits, as a whole, to be the most expensive and difficult part of the complete distribution system.

These characteristics have been displayed in the birth, growth, and funding of the Internet. The earliest inter-computer communication tended to be accomplished with direct wireline connections between individual computers. These grew into clusters of small local area networks (LAN). The TCP/IP suite of protocols was born out of the need to connect several of these LANs together, particularly as related to common projects among the United States Department of Defense, industry and some academic institutions.

ARPANET came into being to further these interests. In addition to providing a way for multiple computers and users to share a common inter-LAN connection, the TCP/IP protocols provided a standardized way for dissimilar computers and operating systems to exchange information over this inter-network. The funding and support for the connections among LANs could be spread over one or even several LANs.

As each new LAN, or subnet, was added, the new subnet's constituents enjoyed access to the greater network. At the same time the new subnet enabled access to any network or networks with which it was already networked. Thus the growth became a mutually inclusive or "win-win" event.

Economies of scale
In general, economy of scale makes an increase in capacity of a conduit less expensive as the capacity is increased. There is an overhead associated with the creation of any conduit. This overhead is not repeated as capacity is increased within the potential of the technology being utilized.

As the Internet has grown in size, by some estimates doubling in the number of users every eighteen months, economy of scale has resulted in increasingly large information conduits providing the longest distance and highest capacity backbone connections. In recent years, the capacity of fiber-optic communication, aided by a supporting industry, has resulted in an expansion of raw capacity, so much so that in the United States a large amount of installed fiber infrastructure is not being used because it is currently excess capacity "dark fiber".

This excess backbone capacity exists in spite of the trend of increasing per-user data rates and overall quantity of data. Initially, only the inter-LAN connections were high speed. End-users used existing telephone lines and modems, which were capable of data rates of only a few hundred bit/s. Now almost all end users enjoy access at 100 or more times those early rates.

Economical information transfer
Before considering the characteristics of existing last-mile information delivery mechanisms, it is important to further examine what makes information conduits effective. As the Shannon–Hartley theorem shows, it is the combination of bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio which determines the maximum information rate of a channel. The product of the average information rate and time yields total information transfer. In the presence of noise, this corresponds to some amount of transferred information-carrying energy (ICE). Therefore, the economics of information transfer may be viewed in terms of the economics of the transfer of ICE.

Effective last-mile conduits must:
 * 1) Deliver signal power, S — (must have adequate signal power capacity).
 * 2) Experience low loss (low occurrence of conversion to unusable energy forms).
 * 3) Support wide transmission bandwidth.
 * 4) Deliver high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) — low unwanted-signal (Noise) power, N.
 * 5) Provide nomadic connectivity.

In addition to these factors, a good solution to the last-mile problem must provide each user:
 * 1) High availability and reliability.
 * 2) Low latency; latency must be small compared with required interaction times.
 * 3) High per-user capacity.
 * 4) A conduit which is shared among multiple end-users must provide a correspondingly higher capacity in order to properly support each individual user. This must be true for information transfer in each direction.
 * 5) Affordability; suitable capacity must be financially viable.

Wired systems (including optical fiber)
Wired systems provide guided conduits for Information-Carrying Energy (ICE). They all have some degree of shielding, which limits their susceptibility to external noise sources. These transmission lines have losses which are proportional to length. Without the addition of periodic amplification, there is some maximum length beyond which all of these systems fail to deliver an adequate S/N ratio to support information flow. Dielectric optical fiber systems support heavier flow at higher cost.

Local area networks (LAN)
Traditional wired local area networking systems require copper coaxial cable or a twisted pair to be run between or among two or more of the nodes in the network. Common systems operate at 100 Mbit/s, and newer ones also support 1000 Mbit/s or more. While length may be limited by collision detection and avoidance requirements, signal loss and reflections over these lines also define a maximum distance. The decrease in information capacity made available to an individual user is roughly proportional to the number of users sharing a LAN.

Telephone
In the late 20th century, improvements in the use of existing copper telephone lines increased their capabilities if maximum line length is controlled. With support for higher transmission bandwidth and improved modulation, these digital subscriber line schemes have increased capability 20-50 times as compared to the previous voiceband systems. These methods are not based on altering the fundamental physical properties and limitations of the medium, which, apart from the introduction of twisted pairs, are no different today than when the first telephone exchange was opened in 1877 by the Bell Telephone Company.

The history and long life of copper-based communications infrastructure is both a testament to the ability to derive new value from simple concepts through technological innovation – and a warning that copper communications infrastructure is beginning to offer diminishing returns for continued investment. However one of the largest costs associated with maintaining an ageing copper infrastructure is that of truck roll - sending engineers to physically test, repair, replace and provide new copper connections, and this cost is particularly prevalent in providing rural broadband service over copper. New technologies such as G.Fast and VDSL2 offer viable high speed solutions to rural broadband provision over existing copper. In light of this many companies have developed automated cross connects (cabinet based automated distribution frames) to eliminate the uncertainty and cost associated with maintaining broadband services over existing copper, these systems usually incorporate some form of automated switching and some include test functionality allowing an ISP representative to complete operations previously requiring a site visit (truck roll) from the central office via a web interface. In many countries the last mile link which connects landline business telephone customers to the local telephone exchange is often an ISDN30 which can carry 30 simultaneous telephone calls.

CATV
Community antenna television systems, also known as cable television, have been expanded to provide bidirectional communication over existing physical cables. However, they are by nature shared systems and the spectrum available for reverse information flow and achievable S/N are limited. As was done for initial unidirectional TV communication, cable loss is mitigated through the use of periodic amplifiers within the system. These factors set an upper limit on per-user information capacity, particularly when many users share a common section of cable or access network.

Optical fiber
Fiber offers high information capacity and after the turn of the 21st century became the deployed medium of choice ("Fiber to the x") given its scalability in the face of the increasing bandwidth requirements of modern applications.

In 2004, according to Richard Lynch, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the telecom giant Verizon, the company saw the world moving toward vastly higher bandwidth applications as consumers loved everything broadband had to offer and eagerly devoured as much as they could get, including two-way, user-generated content. Copper and coaxial networks would not – in fact, could not – satisfy these demands, which precipitated Verizon's aggressive move into fiber-to-the-home via FiOS.

Fiber is a future-proof technology that meets the needs of today's users, but unlike other copper-based and wireless last-mile mediums, also has the capacity for years to come, by upgrading the end-point optics and electronics without changing the fiber infrastructure. The fiber itself is installed on existing pole or conduit infrastructure and most of the cost is in labor, providing good regional economic stimulus in the deployment phase and providing a critical foundation for future regional commerce.

Fixed copper lines have been subject to theft due to the value of copper, but optical fibers make unattractive targets. Optical fibers cannot be converted into anything else, whereas copper can be recycled without loss.

Wireless delivery systems
Mobile CDN coined the term the 'mobile mile' to categorize the last mile connection when a wireless system is used to reach the customer. In contrast to wired delivery systems, wireless systems use unguided waves to transmit ICE. They all tend to be unshielded and have a greater degree of susceptibility to unwanted signal and noise sources.

Because these waves are not guided but diverge, in free space these systems are attenuated following an inverse-square law, inversely proportional to distance squared. Losses thus increase more slowly with increasing length than for wired systems, whose loss increases exponentially. In a free space environment, beyond a given length, the losses in a wireless system are lower than those in a wired system.

In practice, the presence of atmosphere, and especially obstructions caused by terrain, buildings and foliage can greatly increase the loss above the free space value. Reflection, refraction and diffraction of waves can also alter their transmission characteristics and require specialized systems to accommodate the accompanying distortions.

Wireless systems have an advantage over wired systems in last mile applications in not requiring lines to be installed. However, they also have a disadvantage in that their unguided nature makes them more susceptible to unwanted noise and signals. Spectral reuse can therefore be limited.

Lightwaves and free-space optics
Visible and infrared light waves are much shorter than radio frequency waves. Their use to transmit data is referred to as free-space optical communication. Being short, light waves can be focused or collimated with a small lens/antenna, and to a much higher degree than radio waves. Thus, a receiving device can recover a greater portion of the transmitted signal.

Also, because of the high frequency, a high data transfer rate may be available. However, in practical last mile environments, obstructions and de-steering of these beams, and absorption by elements of the atmosphere including fog and rain, particularly over longer paths, can greatly restrict their use for last-mile wireless communications.

Radio waves
Radio frequencies (RF), from low frequencies through the microwave region, have wavelengths much longer than visible light. Although this means that it is not possible to focus the beams nearly as tightly as for light, it also means that the aperture or "capture area" of even the simplest, omnidirectional antenna is significantly larger than that of a lens in any feasible optical system. This characteristic results in greatly increased attenuation or "path loss" for systems that are not highly directional.

Actually, the term path loss is something of a misnomer because no energy is lost on a free-space path. Rather, it is merely not received by the receiving antenna. The apparent reduction in transmission, as frequency is increased, is an artifact of the change in the aperture of a given type of antenna.

Relative to the last-mile problem, these longer wavelengths have an advantage over light waves when omnidirectional or sectored transmissions are considered. The larger aperture of radio antennas results in much greater signal levels for a given path length and therefore higher information capacity. On the other hand, the lower carrier frequencies are not able to support the high information bandwidths, which are required by Shannon's equation when the practical limits of S/N have been reached.

For the above reasons, wireless radio systems are optimal for lower-information-capacity broadcast communications delivered over longer paths. For high-information capacity, highly-directive point-to-point over short ranges, wireless light-wave systems are the most useful.

One-way (broadcast) radio and television communications
Historically, most high-information-capacity broadcast has used lower frequencies, generally no higher than the UHF television region, with television itself being a prime example. Terrestrial television has generally been limited to the region above 50 MHz where sufficient information bandwidth is available, and below 1,000 MHz, due to problems associated with increased path loss, as mentioned above.

Two-way wireless communications
Two-way communication systems have primarily been limited to lower-information-capacity applications, such as audio, facsimile, or radioteletype. For the most part, higher-capacity systems, such as two-way video communications or terrestrial microwave telephone and data trunks, have been limited and confined to UHF or microwave and to point-point paths.

Higher capacity systems such as third-generation cellular telephone systems require a large infrastructure of more closely spaced cell sites in order to maintain communications within typical environments, where path losses are much greater than in free space and which also require omnidirectional access by the users.

Satellite communications
For information delivery to end users, satellite systems, by nature, have relatively long path lengths, even for low earth-orbiting satellites. They are also very expensive to deploy and therefore each satellite must serve many users. Additionally, the very long paths of geostationary satellites cause information latency that makes many real-time applications unfeasible.

As a solution to the last-mile problem, satellite systems have application and sharing limitations. The ICE which they transmit must be spread over a relatively large geographical area. This causes the received signal to be relatively small, unless very large or directional terrestrial antennas are used. A parallel problem exists when a satellite is receiving.

In that case, the satellite system must have a very great information capacity in order to accommodate a multitude of sharing users and each user must have large antenna, with attendant directivity and pointing requirements, in order to obtain even modest information-rate transfer. These requirements render high-information-capacity, bi-directional information systems uneconomical. This is one reason why the Iridium satellite system was not more successful.

Broadcast versus point-to-point
For terrestrial and satellite systems, economical, high-capacity, last-mile communications requires point-to-point transmission systems. Except for extremely small geographic areas, broadcast systems are only able to deliver high S/N ratios at low frequencies where there is not sufficient spectrum to support the large information capacity needed by a large number of users. Although complete "flooding" of a region can be accomplished, such systems have the fundamental characteristic that most of the radiated ICE never reaches a user and is wasted.

As information requirements increase, broadcast wireless mesh systems (also sometimes referred to as microcells or nano-cells) which are small enough to provide adequate information distribution to and from a relatively small number of local users require a prohibitively large number of broadcast locations or points of presence along with a large amount of excess capacity to make up for the wasted energy.

Intermediate system
Recently a new type of information transport midway between wired and wireless systems has been discovered. Called E-Line, it uses a single central conductor but no outer conductor or shield. The energy is transported in a plane wave which, unlike radio does not diverge, whereas like radio it has no outer guiding structure.

This system exhibits a combination of the attributes of wired and wireless systems and can support high information capacity utilizing existing power lines over a broad range of frequencies from RF through microwave.

Line aggregation
Aggregation is a method of bonding multiple lines to achieve a faster, more reliable connection. Some companies believe that ADSL aggregation (or "bonding") is the solution to the UK's last mile problem.

title: Last mile (telecommunications)


text:
Boite mac Cináeda

Boite mac Cináeda ("Boite son of Kenneth"; also, Bodhe, Boedhe, etc.; d. 1058) was a Scottish prince, son of either King Kenneth II of Scotland (Cináed mac Maíl Coluim) or King Kenneth III of Scotland (Cináed mac Duib).

He was the father of Gruoch of Scotland and friend to Findláech of Moray, Macbeth of Scotland's father. He arranged the marriage of Macbeth and Gruoch in 1032, which permitted Macbeth to assume the throne of Scotland in 1040. Later, he was behind the short-lived ascension of his grandson, Lulach, to the throne in 1057.

A fictional version of this character appeared in the animated television series Gargoyles.

title: Boite mac Cináeda


text:
Wenceslaus III of Bohemia

Wenceslaus III (, Vencel, Wacław, Vjenceslav, Václav; 6 October 1289 – 4 August 1306) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1301 and 1305, and King of Bohemia and Poland from 1305. He was the son of Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia, who was later also crowned king of Poland, and Judith of Habsburg. Still a child, Wenceslaus was betrothed to Elizabeth, the sole daughter of Andrew III of Hungary. After Andrew III's death in early 1301, the majority of the Hungarian lords and prelates elected Wenceslaus king, although Pope Boniface VIII supported another claimant, Charles Robert, a member of the royal house of the Kingdom of Naples.

Wenceslaus was crowned king of Hungary on 27 August 1301. He signed his charters under the name Ladislaus in Hungary. His rule was only nominal because a dozen powerful lords held sway over large territories in the kingdom. His father realized that Wenceslaus's position could not be strengthened and took him back from Hungary to Bohemia in August 1304. Wenceslaus succeeded his father in Bohemia and Poland on 21 June 1305. He abandoned his claim to Hungary in favour of Otto III of Bavaria on 9 October.

Wenceslaus granted large parcels of the royal domains to his young friends in Bohemia. A local claimant to the Polish throne, Władysław the Elbow-high, who had started conquering Polish territories during the rule of Wenceslaus's father, captured Kraków in early 1306. Wenceslaus decided to invade his rival's territories in Poland, but he was murdered before starting his campaign. He was the last of the male Přemyslid rulers of Bohemia.

Childhood (1289–1301)
He was the second son of Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia and Wenceslaus II's wife, Judith of Habsburg. He was born in Prague on 6 October 1289. His elder brother died before his birth and he was the only son of his parents to survive infancy.

Wenceslaus was still a child when his mother, Judith, died on 18 June 1297. He was betrothed to Elizabeth of Hungary on 12 February 1298. She was the only child of Andrew III of Hungary. Andrew III was the last male member of the House of Árpád, the native royal dynasty of Hungary, but the legitimacy of his rule had not been unanimously acknowledged.

Wenceslaus's father occupied Greater Poland, Kujavia and other regions of Poland in early 1300. After his main opponent, Władysław the Elbow-high, was forced to leave the kingdom, Wenceslaus II was crowned king of Poland in Gniezno in late September 1300. However, Pope Boniface VIII refused to confirm Wenceslaus II's position in Poland.

King of Hungary and Croatia (1301–1305)

Andrew III of Hungary died on 14 January 1301, leaving no male heirs. The late king's rival, Charles of Anjou, who was Béla IV of Hungary's great-great-grandson, had regarded himself as the lawful king of Hungary for years. On hearing Andrew III's death, Charles of Anjou hurried to Esztergom where Gregory Bicskei, Archbishop-elect of Esztergom, crowned him king. Being Pope Boniface VIII's candidate for the Hungarian throne, Charles had always been unpopular, because the Hungarian lords feared that they would "lose their freedom by accepting a king appointed by the Church", according to the Illuminated Chronicle. Charles's coronation was not performed with the Holy Crown of Hungary in Székesfehérvár, as it was required by customary law, but with a provisional crown in Esztergom. Accordingly, the Diet of Hungary declared Charles's coronation invalid on 13 May 1301.

Jan Muskata, Bishop of Kraków, who was Wenceslaus II of Bohemia's advisor, was the first to propose that Wenceslaus II's son and namesake should be elected king of Hungary. The younger Wenceslaus was not only Béla IV of Hungary's great-great-grandson, but also the fiancé of the late Andrew III of Hungary's daughter. Bribed by Wenceslaus II's agents, the majority of the Hungarian lords and prelates decided to offer the crown to the young Wenceslaus and sent a delegation to his father to Bohemia. Wenceslaus II met the Hungarian envoys in Hodonín in August and accepted their offer in his eleven-year-old son's name. Wenceslaus II accompanied his son to Székesfehérvár where John Hont-Pázmány, Archbishop of Kalocsa, crowned the young Wenceslaus king with the Holy Crown on 27 August. Wenceslaus who assumed the name Ladislaus signed all his charters under that name in Hungary.

After Wenceslaus II returned to Bohemia, Jan Muskata became the young king's principal advisor in Hungary. Most lords and prelates accepted the rule of Wenceslaus-Ladislaus. In contrast with their Hungarian peers, the Croatian lords did not acknowledge Wenceslaus-Ladislaus as a lawful king and remained faithful to Charles of Anjou. The latter withdrew to the southern territories of Hungary after Ivan Kőszegi, who was a partisan of Wenceslaus-Ladislaus, captured Esztergom in late August 1301. However, both kings' authority remained nominal because Hungary had meanwhile disintegrated into a dozen provinces, each headed by a powerful lord, or "oligarch". The Illuminated Chronicle writes that the Hungarian lords did not "grant a castle, or might and power, or royal authority" either to Wenceslaus-Ladislaus or to Charles of Anjou.

In his letters to Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Archbishop John of Kalocsa, Pope Boniface VIII emphasized that Wenceslaus-Ladislaus had been crowned without the authorization of the Holy See. The papal legate, Niccolo Boccasini, who came to Hungary in September, started negotiations with the Hungarian prelates to convince them to abandon Wenceslaus-Ladislaus and support Charles of Anjou's case. In an attempt to buy the most powerful lords off, Wenceslaus-Ladislaus granted large estates and high offices to them. Matthew Csák received Nyitra and Trencsén Counties, along with the royal castles and the estates attached to them, in February 1302. Ivan Kőszegi was made Palatine of Hungary before 25 April 1302. In the first half of that year, many prelates (including Stephen, the new Archbishop of Kalocsa) abandoned Wenceslaus-Ladislaus; even Jan Muskata left Hungary.

Taking advantage of the weakened position of his rival, Charles of Anjou attempted to capture Buda, the capital of Wenceslaus-Ladislaus, in September 1302. After laying siege to Buda, Charles of Anjou called upon the burghers to extradite Wenceslaus-Ladislaus. The mainly German citizenry and their major, Werner, remained faithful to the young king and Ivan Kőszegi relieved the city in the same month. After Charles of Anjou withdrew from Buda, the papal legate placed the town under interdict. In response, a local priest excommunicated the pope and all Hungarian prelates. On 31 May 1303, Pope Boniface VIII declared Charles of Anjou the lawful king of Hungary, stating that Wenceslaus-Ladislaus's election had been invalid. Thereafter Albert I of Germany, who was the maternal uncle of both Wenceslaus-Ladislaus and Charles of Anjou, called on Wenceslaus-Ladislaus to withdraw from Hungary.

To strengthen his son's position, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia came to Hungary at the head of a large army in May 1304. He captured Esztergom, but his negotiations with the local lords convinced him that his son's position in Hungary had dramatically weakened. Accordingly, he decided to take Wenceslaus-Ladislaus back to Bohemia. Wenceslaus-Ladislaus did not renounce Hungary and made Ivan Kőszegi governor before leaving for Bohemia in August. He even took the Holy Crown of Hungary with himself to Prague. Charles of Anjou and Rudolf III of Austria invaded Moravia in September, but did not defeat Wenceslaus II's army. In the same months, a member of the Piast dynasty, Władysław the Elbow-high, who had claimed Poland against Wenceslaus II, returned to Poland at the head of Hungarian troops. Before long, he captured many important forts and towns, including Pełczyska, Wiślica, Sandomierz, and Sieradz.

King of Bohemia and Poland (1305–1306) and death
Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Poland died on 21 June 1305. Wenceslaus III succeeded his father in both kingdoms, but his position in Poland was precarious because Władysław the Elbow-high continued his fight for the Polish throne. Wenceslaus realized that he could not preserve his three kingdoms and decided to renounce Hungary. However, instead of acknowledging Charles of Anjou as the lawful king of Hungary, Wenceslaus abandoned his claim to the Hungarian throne in favour of Otto III of Bavaria, who was Béla IV of Hungary's grandson. Wenceslaus handed the Holy Crown of Hungary over to Otto in Brno on 9 October 1305. In the same months, Wenceslaus, who had meanwhile broken his engagement to Elizabeth of Hungary, married Viola of Teschen upon the Bohemian lords' advice.

The sixteen-year-old Wenceslaus led a dissolute life. He was surrounded by a group of young Czech noblemen, to whom he made large land grants. His position in Poland further weakened after Władysław the Elbow-high captured Kraków in early 1306. To forge an alliance against his rival, Wenceslaus granted Gdańsk and Pomorze to Waldemar, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal and Herman, Margrave of Brandenburg-Salzwedel as fiefs in July 1306. After deciding to invade Poland, Wenceslaus dismissed his young favourites and made his brother-in-law, Henry of Carinthia, governor. However, before Wenceslaus could invade, he was stabbed in Olomouc on 4 August 1306. His assassin was never identified. Wenceslaus was the last king of Bohemia from the native Přemyslid dynasty.

title: Wenceslaus III of Bohemia


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Milestone

A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like mileage signs; or they can give their position on the route relative to some datum location. On roads they are typically located at the side or in a median or central reservation. They are alternatively known as mile markers (sometimes abbreviated MMs), mileposts or mile posts (sometimes abbreviated MPs). A "kilometric point" is a term used in metricated areas, where distances are commonly measured in kilometres instead of miles. "Distance marker" is a generic unit-agnostic term.

Milestones are installed to provide linear referencing points along the road. This can be used to reassure travellers that the proper path is being followed, and to indicate either distance travelled or the remaining distance to a destination. Such references are also used by maintenance engineers and emergency services to direct them to specific points where their presence is required. This term is sometimes used to denote a location on a road even if no physical sign is present. This is useful for accident reporting and other record keeping (e.g., "an accident occurred at the 13-mile mark" even if the road is only marked with a stone once every 10 miles).

Roman Empire
Miliarium were originally stone obelisks – made from granite, marble, or whatever local stone was available – and later concrete posts. They were widely used by Roman Empire road builders and were an important part of any Roman road network: the distance travelled per day was only a few miles in some cases. Many Roman milestones only record the name of the reigning emperor without giving any placenames or distances. The first Roman milestones appeared on the Appian Way. At the centre of Rome, the "Golden Milestone" was erected to mark the presumed centre of the empire: this milestone has since been lost. The Golden Milestone inspired the Zero Milestone in Washington, D.C., intended as the point from which all road distances in the United States should be reckoned. Odometers were used to measure the Roman milestone spacing, most likely based on Ancient Greek technology.

Byzantine Empire
A mile-marker monument, the Milion, was erected in the early 4th century AD in Constantinople. It served as the starting point for measurement of distances for all the roads leading to the cities of the Byzantine Empire, and had the same function as the Milliarium Aureum of Ancient Rome. The Milion survived intact until at least the late 15th century. Its fragments were discovered again in the late 1960s. A fragment is re-erected as a pillar.

Islamic civilization
In Islamic civilisation, use of milestone began in the first Islamic century. The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan laid the milestones along the paths that travelers used, and some were found in the city of Faiq in the Syrian Golan, which is, Faiq, one of the main road stations throughout the Islamic ages. The function of these stones was to guide travelers and introduce them to long distances, as the separation between one and the other was one mile. Many of these stones were found in more than one location, one in the Islamic Archeology Museum in Istanbul and another in the Jerusalem Museum. A translation of the text written on the stone currently found in the Kasserine Museum in the Golan reads as follows:

"In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. There is no god but God alone, and there is no partner for it. Muhammad is the Messenger of God. He ordered the making of these miles, Abdul Malik bin Marwan, Commander of the Faithful. At the hands of a consultant, the Lord of the Faithful. In Sha'ban from the year eighty-five, from Damascus to this stone fifty-three miles."

Post-Medieval Europe
In Europe, the distance measured typically starts at specified point within a city or town, as many roads were named for the towns at either end. For example, in London, United Kingdom, a plaque near the Eleanor cross at Charing Cross is the reference point from which distances from London to other towns and cities are measured. In the UK, milestones are especially associated with former turnpike roads.

The British built many milestones on the island of Malta. They consisted of large slabs of local hard rock and they were engraved with the distance to or from a particular location. Many of these were defaced in World War II to disorientate forces in a potential invasion. Despite this, a very small number of milestones still exist undefaced, and one of these is now in the Malta at War Museum.

India
The Kos Minars or Mile Pillars are medieval milestones that were made by the 16th-century Afghan Ruler Sher Shah Suri and later on by Mughal emperors. These Minars were erected by the Mughal Emperors on the main highways across the empire to mark the distance. The Kos Minar is a solid round pillar, around 30 ft in height that stands on a masonry platform built with bricks and plastered over with lime. Though not architecturally very impressive, being milestones, they were an important part of communication and travel in a large empire.

Kos is an ancient Indian unit of distance. It can represent either a distance of approximately 1.8 km or 3.2 km. Minar is a Persian word for tower. Abul Fazl recorded in Akbar Nama that in the year 1575 AD, Akbar issued an order that at every Kos on the way from Agra to Ajmer, a pillar or a minar should be erected for the comfort of the travelers.

Modern highways
The historical term milestone is still used today, even though the "stones" are typically metal highway location markers and in most countries use kilometres and metres rather than miles and yards. Also found today are more closely spaced signs containing fractional numbers, and signs along railways, beaches and canals.

Australia
Metrication in Australia caused the former mile markers to be gradually replaced with 10 km markers on highways and country roads, which are referred to as "kilometre plates".

Kilometre plates have white text on a trapezoidal green background, and are generally located about a metre above the ground. They have a letter which indicates the town or city they are referring to, and a number, which is the distance in kilometres to that town or city.

Kilometre plates are now generally 5 km apart on major highways and 10 or 20 km apart on less popular or rural highways, though there are many exceptions. Kilometre plates are supplemented by signboards, which display distances to several towns ahead.

Some mile markers are retained as curiosities (see gallery). These include stone markers on Victoria's Glenelg Highway at Delacombe,

Canada
Usage varies by province, as highways are under provincial jurisdiction. In Alberta, for example, kilometre markers are green metal signs with white lettering, and are generally placed every 4 km starting at the last major intersection to the south or west, depending on whether the route runs north–south or east–west.

India
Milestones on National highways of India typically have white backgrounds with yellow tops (on national highways) or green tops (on state highways). The names of cities and distances are painted in black. The names of the nearest towns and cities are written along with distance in kilometres. On undivided highways, both sides of the milestones are used, telling the distance to the nearest cities in each direction. The highway number is written on the head of the milestone. The sum of the distances of two nearest cities in each direction from the milestone is listed on the side.

Philippines
Milestones in the Philippines are found in highways, one kilometer apart, and are found in pairs, one on each side of the road. These are short yellow concrete posts, with two labels on a white background, written in black. On top is a large "K" (or "KM"), and a number, referencing the distance from the kilometre zero. While the national kilometre zero is in Rizal Park, each major island has its own kilometre zero. The milestones on the Luzon mainland reference Rizal Park's kilometre zero.

The second label is a letter, standing for the first letter of the next town if one is traveling on that direction, then the distance in kilometers, from the town. In the example to the right, a milestone in Ortigas Avenue in Pasig says it is 14 km from Rizal Park, and 3 km from Cainta. On the other side, the milestone there says it is 2 km from San Juan.

Most milestones only have labels on one side, facing the driver. Others have labels on all four sides.

United Kingdom
In the UK, driver location signs are placed every 500 m along each side of motorways, and along some other major roads. They were first introduced in 2003, and they complement distance marker posts, small roadside posts at 100 m intervals, used for road maintenance and administrative purposes. Both types of sign display a unique location number. The number is given without units but is the distance in kilometres from a designated datum location for the road.

United States
In the U.S. Interstate Highway System, the numbers usually measure the distance to the southern or western state line, or the route's terminus, if the national southern or western terminus lies in that state. The numbering system for other highways varies by state; most use a system mirroring that of the Interstate System, other states, such as Illinois, California, and Kentucky, use the county line as the zero mile marker, while others, including Missouri, do not sign mile-markers at all (except on Interstates). Arizona has a rather unusual system, where a route's mileposts continue those from its original host. Often, the exits are numbered according to the nearest milepost, known as the mile-log system. From the beginning of the Interstate system until the mid-2000s, most Interstate highways had markers every mile. Since that time, many states have installed more markers every 0.25 mile, every 0.2 mile, or in some metro areas, every 0.1 mile. Some historic and scenic routes – such as along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia and the Overseas Highway of the Florida Keys – use mileposts to mark points of interest or (in the cases of many businesses along the Overseas Highway) as a portion of their address.

Myanmar
In Myanmar, furlongs have been used at least until 2010 in conjunction with miles to indicate distances on highway signs, for example on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway.

Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean milestones are constructed of cast concrete painted white with the kilometre distance indented and painted black. There is no distinction between state and national road-sign markings. They were originally sited every 500 metres by the Rhodesian Ministry of Roads and Road Traffic, starting at zero from the largest town or city. In 1980, the Zimbabwean government began placing new markers 1 km apart and damaged or missing half kilometre markers were no longer replaced.

Railway mileposts
The Railways Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 compels UK railway companies to provide their passengers with a means of determining the distance travelled (fares were set by distance at this time). Section 94 states:

""The company shall cause the length of the railway to be measured, and milestones, posts, or other conspicuous objects to be set up and maintained along the whole line thereof, at the distance of one quarter of a mile from each other, with numbers or marks inscribed thereon denoting such distances.""

Similar laws were passed in other countries. On the modern railway, these historical markers are still used as infrastructure reference points. At many points, the distances shown on the markers are based upon points no longer on the network – for example, distances measured via a closed line or from a junction which has subsequently been moved. Whole mileposts are usually supplemented by half and quarter posts. Structure signs often include the mileage to a fair degree of precision; in the UK, the chain (equal to 1/80 mi) is the usual accuracy. In the U.S. and Canada, miles are "decimalized", so that, for example, there may be a "milepost 4.83" to mark a junction, crossing, bridge or tunnel.

In metricated areas, the equivalent is the kilometric point.

Boundaries
Surveyors place milestones to mark the boundaries between the jurisdictions separated by borders. A series of such boundary markers exists at one mile (1.6 km) intervals along the borders of the District of Columbia in the United States.

title: Milestone