text:
Talk:Valencian language

Historical repression against the language
I can't believe that someone thinks that speaking of "a number of political and social factors, including immigration" is unacceptable, while "historical repression against the language" is a balanced and neutral description. Most or all the minority languages of Europe and the world have been historically marginalized by state powers vis-à-vis the main national languages, and that is certainly true for all the languages in Spain save Spanish, but the repression bit seems to imply that Valencian underwent a particularly mean persecution. Is that true? Can that be sourced? Or is the intended meaning something else? --Jotamar (talk) 19:56, 4 August 2023 (UTC)
 * The decrease in the number of speakers is obviously due to a number of political and social factors, but I don't see why immigration, in particular, should be highlighted as the most representative of these. The persecution towards Valencian was indeed mean (see below) and, again, I do not see why the phrasing should imply that it was meaner than the persecution against other languages.
 * I've been checking a few sources, but unfortunately the literature on the particular case of Valencian is scarce in English. The best I could find is this book chapter: Casesnoves, Sankoff & Turell, "Linguistic Shift and Community Language: The Effect of Demographic Factors in the Valencian Region, Balearic Islands and Catalonia", in Molinero and Stewart, Globalization and Language in the Spanish-speaking World. Palgrave McMillan, 2006 (pp. 197-219). The authors compare the three regions and show that, while immigration does have an effect on language loss, this alone is unable to explain why the non-migrant population is losing it at almost the same rate in Baleraric Islands and, very specially, in Valencia. They conclude that the best explanation lies in the different public policies for language preservation implemented by the three regional governments, particularly educational policies. Formal schooling seems indeed to have had an enormous effect on language loss, for the repressive policies did not have a real effect on the proportion of Valencian speakers until the first half of the 20th century (before that, monolingualism was the common rule).
 * A quick search shows that the word repression is quite common when talking about the policies against public use of Catalan: Laska Anderson (2020, ESSAYS ON EARLY MODERN EUROPEAN POPULAR CULTURE AND THE FORMATION OF NATIONALISM): "in times where the political climate favored Spanish centralization and the Castilian monarchy, often the Catalan language endured repression". Webber & Strubell (1991, The Catalan Language: Progress towards Normalization): "The years of the Franco regime (1939-1975) were a period of severe repression—cultural genocide even, in the early stages". Roller (2004, When does language become exclusivist? Linguistic politics in Catalonia): "The roots of the strategy lie in the backlash against the historical, cultural and political repression experienced by Catalan language, culture or national identity under the Franco regime". Strubell (2011, The Catalan Language): "Apart from brief periods, the language that had served the Catalans for over nine centuries became subjected to continuous official repression". Shabad & Gunther (1982, Language, Nationalism, and Political Conflict in Spain): "repression of Basque and Catalan language and culture, in particular". Conversi (1990, Language or Race? The Choice of Core Values in the Development of Catalan and Basque Nationalisms): "the Catalan case, we shall see both that language is a core value in all Catalan public life, and that its political importance has been strengthened as a consequence of repression". Kraus (2015, Language Policy and Catalonia's Independence): "this special attention was, and is, sorely needed to compensate for the effects of the massive repression of the Catalan language". And that is only the two first pages of Google Scholar.
 * Perhaps we could simply rephrase it. How about "due to a number of political and social factors, including repression, immigration and lack of formal instruction in Valencian, the number of speakers has severely decreased"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Agpshi (talk • contribs) 08:29, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
 * I think that marginalization conveys a more neutral and objective picture for readers, compared to repression or suppression, which evoke images of violence, police raids, etc. Anyway, since you have sources for it, ok. --Jotamar (talk) 14:47, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Revise Lead (2023)
The lead was too long (against Wikipedia guidelines), contained material that did not appear in the body, contained material that was not important enough to be in the lead, had a contradiction in the first and second paragraphs, and had duplicated citations.So I have simplified and rearranged the lead, based on editorial consideration (as distinct from subject matter considerations.)

I have tried not to change any wording of phrases, since it is controversial. But I have moved some unnecessary sentences to the body, juggled some sentences or phrases around, and moved some citations to different places. I hope this makes the lead more useful for readers, and fits in with Wikipedia guidelines better, without altering the actual information in the article. Rick Jelliffe (talk) 03:42, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

 * You've done a good job. It seems that an IP is trying to make it again longer. And in fact, the data the IP used is very old and it neither said what he/she claimed on the edit. I'm not an active Wiki user but I have seen you are, I would like to ask you if you can watch this page more regularily. Unfortunately, it often gets biased edits for political reasons. LucenseLugo (talk) 23:34, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

 * I was not trying to make it longer, but merely adding some additional data besides the CIS, whose methodology for carrying out the surveys was heavily criticised by academics. And the references do say exactly what the article says now - just read the paper. If the lead is too long (which probably is), then the whole discussion on the data should not be removed, but rather moved elsewhere (not just the newly added data, but the whole discussion: privileging the CIS studies as if they were the only valid source is quite biased, for this kind of stuff has been studied from long before the CIS started asking about it).
 * The only edits that are biased for political reasons are those that do not follow the references. And you only need to open any handbook on Romance linguistics to see whose edits are biased.--109.205.143.163 (talk) 11:12, 16 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Please, next time you do an edit be sure that what you write is not already mentioned inside the page. Much of your text was already written on this page (or very similar one) yet I have kept your edit and made a better representation based on the source.
 * Your edit belongs to the language controversy section, not on the lead to make it even more immense. I have moved it where it belongs. I didn't delete your edit and like I've said before, I have improved it with more specifical data based on the source. I have only removed the political voting phrase which was clearly irrelevant because politics are already mentioned in the same section and there you can find specifical Wikipedia articles (disambiguations / links) about Valencian politics regarding the society and the language in general. Just go to the controversy section and you will see it by yourself. 47.60.33.74 (talk) 00:02, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

 * Thank you for your edit. I just made a couple of amendments:
 * 1) The logistic regression is employed for determining which variables are actually relevant, not for establishing mere co-relations (that's what polls do). A poll may tell you that a certain behavior is more frequent, say, among younger people and people with higher studies, but, since young people usually have a higher level of studies, it may turn out that the only relevant variable in this case is just level of studies, not age. That's what that paper shows. It is therefore new information, not information already mentioned. I re-wrote that passage in the most concise way I was able to.
 * 2) As I mentioned before, moving just a part of the discussion into the main body while the other part is left in the introduction entails privileging a certain source as the most relevant. CIS is an government institution, but that does not mean that its surveys are trustworthier than those conducted within Sociology departments - in fact, they have received quite a lot of criticism from academics. Besides, the data themselves are quite old (ca. 20 years). I just moved everything into the "controversy" section - any reader willing to check the data may just click the hyperlink in the same line. Thus, on the other hand, the introduction is further shortened.--109.205.143.163 (talk) 15:11, 18 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Please seek consesus before adding that text again. When you cherry pick data from the source that suits your POV and you separate between people can be seen as discriminatory and not fitting WP:NEUTRALITY, like why is it important people from a specific province or with a specific political view sees that? You are escalating the issue of this language page to a political one, and this doesn't belong here.
 * Also, the lead only quickly mentions the majority of Valencians consider Valencian to be a separate language from Catalan (no matter which source you want to use) I'm not sure why did you delete that phrase if it was in the lead from years back? What wasn't is the entire explanation which is properly found on the controversy section.
 * Also don't rely everything over a single source. The source you have put is clearly biased when it refers to the Valencian Community as País Valenciano in the entire textbook, which is an unofficial name for the region (Valencian Country) and it's only used by nationalist parties. Using a biased source is not even acceptable by Wikipedia standards. Still, I won't delete anything as your source uses other better sources but the writer who published it also puts data coming from his own perspective (starting with the first phrase, where he refers to the Valencian Community with an unofficial name) so that's why you should seek consensus to add that edit including the cherry picking and the segregation of people based on their opinion. LucenseLugo (talk) 23:52, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

 * About the "cherry picking": as I already told you, that study is not a poll. It does not show mere co-relations. It checks, among all the variables for predicting a certain behaviour, which of them are actually relevant. It therefore does not belong with the data extracted from the polls: rather, it helps clarify the demographic mess the polls point out to. And it does so by saying that, among all the variables that display a co-relation with a certain linguistic attitude of an inhabitant of the Valencian Community, most of them can be disregarded, and only four of them actually matter: political ideology, level of studies, geographical origin and ethno-territorial identity. You can read it yourself (pages 512-513):
 * De esta manera, quedan fuera del modelo la edad, el sexo, el tamaño delmunicipio y la situación laboral, por no establecer relaciones significativas conla variable de estudio. Las variables significativas del modelo son, de acuerdo conel estadístico de Wald y por orden de importancia, la ideología, el nivel de estu-dios, la provincia y la identidad etnoterritorial. Respecto a la ideología, como el valor de ß es negativo, esto quiere decir que, cuanto más hacia la izquierda seubican las personas, más están a favor de la unidad lingüística del valenciano.Por su parte, el valor de ß de la variable nivel de estudios revela que, amayor nivel, más se está a favor de la unidad lingüística. Respecto a la pro-vincia, podemos decir que el hecho de vivir en Alicante incide significativa-mente en contra de la unidad lingüística del valenciano en comparación conValencia y, especialmente, Castellón. Por último, en relación con la identidadetnoterritorial, cabe señalar que cuanto mayor es el sentimiento de «valencia-nía», más se está a favor de la unidad lingüística, mientras que cuanto más seidentifican los sujetos con España, más se está a favor del secesionismo.
 * So please stop modifying that. You are selecting only two of the four variables, i.e., cherry picking. And, by placing the source among all the data from the polls, you are misrepresenting it.
 * As for your statement to the effect that "The source you have put is clearly biased when it refers to the Valencian Community as País Valenciano in the entire textbook", this is probably the most biased thing you have said. You don't seem to be quite used to reading academic papers (articles published in scientific journals), so perhaps you'd be surprised to find out that "Valencian Country" is the most commonly used name for the Valencian Community in academia - I am talking about sociologists, historians and the like. Are you saying, for example, that this, this or this are biased? Are you saying that Spain’s Socialist Worker’s Party is a Catalan nationalist party? Have you ever attended any courses at the University of Valencia? Please don’t mistake your prejudices for “objective information". Specially when it comes to a name that Valencians have been using since the 18th century.
 * Even if you were right in saying that the paper is biased, that is just an ad hominem fallacy. The point is: is the analysis well done? It clearly is.
 * Now, let me pose this question to you. You are relying on the CIS data as the most trustworthy source. I provided two sources, both of which are academic papers published in scientific journals that have therefore gone through strict peer review. Do you really think that these sources are biased while, at the same time, you take as an authoritative unbiased source a series of polls conducted by a government institution under the Aznar government? I guess its director back then was politically uncompromised, wasn't he?
 * To summarise, let me quote you: 'You are escalating the issue of this language page to a political one'. So, please, enough.--109.205.143.163 (talk) 17:10, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
 * WP:Disruptive, the only thing here is that you try to impose your own POV without asking for any consensus. Again, do you realize you repeat your biased agenda by saying the official Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas was biased because it was "under Aznar government"? Let me remind you the AVL was also created during that era... And the 2014 source uses a Generalitat Valenciana poll, from Argos GVA, so that's your personal political views which should not interfere when editing Wikipedia articles.
 * You use an IP yet you are very used to Wikipedia as it seems. Did you know that activates some alarms right? Leaving that apart, "Valencian Country" isn't even close to be the most used term as you claim, as it's in fact a barely used term, and it's either focused politically or historically as the UV source you have shown (and PSPV-PSOE was created in 1978 in the Spanish transition to democracy, when the Valencian Community was called Valencian Country yet that name only lasted for few years as you know... unsure why you brought that here) basically +95% of modern academics, scholars, universities, official, government and whatsoever works use Valencian Community as you perfectly know, in fact, you had to point 2 specifical pages that use such a term, one of them being from 1982 (made before the official name change of the region) so you try to prove a point with that? And like if that was really relevant. It's not here. I'm just pointing out how the author of your source has a nationalist bias by using a non-official name (which is only used by a very specifical sector of the Valencian and Catalan politics) as well as discriminating between Valencians by their local area or voting preferences, like if there are 1st class and 2nd class Valencians.
 * If I was you, I would wait and act as it should. You said in your last edit "you are putting the previous lead back" but you did that without deleting your biased edits... this page has a long, looooong history of biased edits and vandalizations, it seems you know Wikipedia very well so you know what WP:NPOV and WP:CONSENSUS are, right? Since you're at the edge of an edit war, I recommend you to seek for consensus as I will apply WP:AGF and I won't be filling an ANI report against your edits for now. But just to let you know, at this moment it's clear you are a case of WP:SPA looking at your IP's edits and you're also at the edge of an edit war, I hope you're not also an active user just using an IP without an account (or someone that's evading a block) because that's even worse. Prove your good will by asking for a consensus. LucenseLugo (talk) 23:34, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

 * First things first. If I were you, I would not try to revert the lead for a fourth time, because then it would be you the one who started an edit warring. Now, let me summarise:
 * 1) Read things before making any edits. You have not read the source and, in fact, you have not even read my comments here. So calm down, sit down and calmly go through all the comments.
 * 2) If that source seems biased to you, that's only your personal opinion. It turns out that peer-reviewed scientific articles are the first kind of reliable sources mentioned by Wikipedia. And don't distort what I said: I never doubted the validity of the CIS source. I simply pointed out your contradictions: you take a paper to be biased only because of the name it uses, while you don't take that survey as biased in spite of the fact that its promoter was the brother of a minister. You may think whatever you wish, but both of them are valid sources.
 * 3) Again, don't distort what I say. I said it is the most widely used name in academics. Official institutions, obviously, use the official name. Sociologists, historians, linguists and the like are not obliged to do it. And, as it turns out, the kind of staff the latter publish count as reliable sources.
 * 4) As for your accusations, go ahead. I've been editing Wikipedia for years and I have never registered. For a start, it was you who logged out and made an edit through an IP - "cree el ladrón que todos son de su condición", as you say in Spanish. In fact, you sort of remind me of User:Venezia Friulano, who, like you, had the idea that Wikipedia did not properly portray the greatness of the Spanish Empire and was obsessed with removing the word "Catalan" from every Wikipedia article he could find (he claimed he was half Italian and half Spanish, but it seems he was also somehow half Belgian). Do you happen to be friends with this person?
 * 5) Now let's go for what matters. As I said, you are misinterpreting the source. I already explained it twice, so I am not going to explain it for a third time. Just scroll up and read it, for once. I did not touch anything because this would be my fourth edit, i.e. this would mean edit warring. But, as the text stands now, the source is clearly misrepresented. I added a tag to that effect. We can convene on an alternative wording, if you wish, but the text simply cannot stay as it currently is.--109.205.143.163 (talk) 07:31, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Okay so now you've just admitted that you are a Wikipedia editor with a lot of experience and you even know other users despite your IP having its first edit on 14th October 2023. And all of your IP wikiedits are within the same article. Do you know what this means, right? This is a clear case of WP:SPA based on your edits but also a possible case of WP:Block evasion as you've just admitted that you're an older editor.
 * I have reverted your last edit but I've undone my own edit so the actual version is based on your last edit, because I saw on the history of the page that such text was deleted by another IP few days ago, the one you probably think it's me as you just made that accusation (btw, reverting disruptive edits don't count as edits for breaking edit-war rules) and there is no "stable version" as you claim, as the actual lead was shortened on 6th October 2023 and the purpose is to make the lead shorter so the article can be easier to read about your claims saying I have used an IP to make edits instead of my account, why would I? Go away and open a WP:SPI investigation if you're so sure. But a Wiki article talk page is not the proper place for this.
 * So for this reason, please stick to the topic. As I won't tolerate again if you break WP:NPA doing accusations against me, and there are enough reasons already to fill an ANI against you basically because your IP has a single purpose and you've admitted by yourself you're an older user, as you even know that user that I see it was blocked several months ago despite your first edit with this IP being shorter than a week ago, so you basically admit to use WP:SOC. Nice... are you sure do we wanna go that way? As I have said, check for consensus instead of being WP:Disruptive on a talk page. Here I am, doing a friendly debate with you to prove my Good faith. Do you want to put all of that text? You can request for a consensus. I have already said that for me that sounds discriminatory, like if there are 1st and 2nd class Valencians and ones count more than others just based on petty things mentioned in a publication made by someone with a questionable Point of View. And I'm not talking about you but about the source, such as the used terms as I have said before. I don't like to repeat things twice so for me I have already explained my arguments. LucenseLugo (talk) 08:24, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

 * OMG, you know that a single device can get assigned different IPs, right? Please read this. My internet provider changes my IP about every month. Others change it almost every day. Sockpuppeting occurs when you pretend to be two different people, not when your internet provider changes your IP and you happen not to be registered (have you hear of 'the free encyclopaedia'?). I'm not hiding. I can let you know, for example, that my first interaction with the aforementioned User:Venezia Friulano is this one in which, incidentally, I tried to made him understand that he had misunderstood the source he was employing (he apparently never understood it, but other users did and reverted the edit).
 * In the second place, you should know that the three-reverts rule applies. Period. Your edits clearly do not fit any of the exemptions. So technically you have already violated the rule – since you self-reverted, I’ll just assume good faith.
 * If the data that the article gathers sounds to you discriminatory, that's just your own subjective appreciation. Those are demographic data. Stating that the opinion that they are two different languages is more widely held among right-wing partisans is like saying, for example, that the percentage of voters of Vox is much higher among younger people - I personally don't like it, but it is a true fact, and I won't revert your edit if you add that information to Wikipedia and support it by a valid source.
 * The controversy section already contains a lot of assertions to the effect that opinions vary significantly depending of age, gender, etc. Do they also sound discriminatory to you? What this study does is to help clarify, among all those variables, which ones actually matter (in fact, this kind of studies are normally employed for fighting against hate speeches that try to link migrants or racial minorities with higher rates of criminality: they have been very helpful in the past for clarifying that the relevant variable was not ethnicity, but rather income, employment rate and the like). And you cannot take the four variables selected and reduce them to just two. That’s a misrepresentation of the source.
 * If the wording I first employed sounds to you too harsh (and here you may have a point), we can simply rephrase it. We can take your own wording as a basis, indeed. You rephrased it thus:
 * By applying a binary logistic regression to the same data, it was also found that different opinions about the unity of the language are different between people with certain levels of studies and the opinion also differs between each of the Valencian provinces.
 * This misrepresents the source. The idea that different opinions regarding the unity of the language vary across provinces and levels of studies was not found by the regression, but by the CIS studies themselves. What the regression helped clarify is that these two are relevant variables, as opposed to age or gender. Besides, the regression points at two more relevant variables, which you have arbitrarily decided to leave out: political ideology and ethno-territorial identification.
 * Here is the wording I suggest: By applying a binary logistic regression to the same data, it was also found that the differences in opinion about the unity of the language can be attributed to geographical origin (people from the Alicante province are far less likely to acknowledge the unity of Catalan/Valencian than those from Valencia and, specially, Castellón), level of studies (the higher the level of studies, the more in favour of linguistic unity), political ideology (left-wing partisans are more prone to acknowledge the unity of the language) and ethno-territorial self-identification (the greater the self-identification with Valencian identity, the likelier to acknowledge linguistic unity).--109.205.143.163 (talk) 10:27, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

 * Same IP, now registered in order to have access to additional functionalities. Now that you are active again, are you going to answer?
 * --Fromcs (talk) 14:18, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, I will answer that I'm not the only editor in this page and your edits need a WP:CONSENSUS which no one engaged in, so you have to wait or do a WP:RFC that's why I have reverted your changes again since you didn't do any consensus.
 * Also please stop doing WP:BIASED edits using nationalistic names such as "Valencian Country" because your account is a WP:SPA account with a good traceability of IPs you have been using so if you made an account why are you not doing things as they should be done? Like asking for other comments and applying for a consensus? LucenseLugo (talk) 14:05, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
 * That was not the same change. Read it again. What I added is a literal quotation from the source. That is something quite common in order to make it clear that the references say what editors claim they say. I even added the pages from which it was extracted. You should refrain yourself from re-interpreting what the sources say without even reading them.
 * You are not the only editor here, but you are the only one trying to make a reference say what it does not say. You should read it before reverting. All the other editors said nothing.
 * PD: since that was a literal quotation, that name is the one that the source employs. As I told you (and I don't like repeating myself), that is an extremely common name in academic sources, which, incidentally, happen to be the kind of sources Wikipedia prefers.--Fromcs (talk) 18:45, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
 * By repeating something that's not true 1000 times won't make it true either. That name is, by very far, not the most used one in academic sources as you claim, as I have proven it to you last month. As you literally had to cherrypick 2 specifical sources to be somehow able to back up your claims.
 * Exactly where did you show such thing?
 * And as I have said, why aren't you waiting for the opinion of other users? And if you do certain edits, why don't you use only real and neutral names instead of using nationalistic ones? You perfectly know Valencian Community is the only accepted (and official) name in Wikipedia. LucenseLugo (talk) 20:27, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Do you know what a literal quotation is?--Fromcs (talk) 21:00, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Map on the southern frontier of Valencian
LucenseLugo has tried to remove a map containing a visual explanation of the evolution of the southern frontier of Valencian. The map was in need of references (with a tag added nearly three years ago), but I recently added them. Then LucenseLugo tried to remove the map arguing that the names it uses "are not official".

The map was originally created in Valencian and, of course, it uses non-official names insofar as they are names in a language that is no longer official in many of those towns (they belong to the Region of Murcia). But that does not mean it is no longer a useful map. It simply means it is a map in Valencian, which is quite natural in an article about Valencian. Notice, in fact, that many of these names reflect the original name of the place (Favanilla, for instance).

If someone wishes to create a translated version of the map using the names usually employed in English, be bold. But, until then, the map stays, for it is both useful and referenced. Agpshi (talk) 14:52, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Valencian language


text:
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About is a novel by English writer Mil Millington. The work began as a website that Millington made about his arguments with his German girlfriend, Margret. Millington also adapted this theme to a column in The Guardian.

Plot
Pel lives with his German girlfriend Ursula and their two children, and works in the IT department of a university library (or "Learning Centre"). The story begins with Pel receiving an odd call from his boss, TSR, who quizzes him about extradition treaties; within a week he has vanished without a trace, and Pel is promoted to TSR's former position, "Computer Team Administration, Software Acquisition and Training Manager" (though, in addition to his own job).

The story follows both Pel's home and work lives; at home, there are the arguments with Ursula over the search for a new home, after the latest burglary of their current home; defrosting the fridge during the moving preparations; Ursula terrifying the builders working on the repairs of the new house; a skiing accident, leaving Ursula with a torn ligament in her shoulder.

At work, Pel finds that taking on TSR's job involves more than it seemed at first; he has to pay off student recruiters from the Pacific Ring, who happen to be members of The Triads; he has to take care of the details of the building of a new Learning Centre building, which involves hiding the fact that skeletons from an ancient burial ground have been illegally dumped from the site, and a dangerous neurotoxin to be buried under it.

These details lead him to become closely involved with the permanently hungover Vice Chancellor of the university, which leads to his receiving another promotion, to Learning Centre Manager; the previous holder of that position having left to pursue his fetish website.

The website
The website began in 2001 as a section of the author's home page, and quickly attracted a cult following for its humorous anecdotes, based on real arguments, chronicling arguments over such things as remote controls, the correct way to cut a kiwifruit, and even arguments over arguments.

Within two weeks the author had received offers from two publishers, and set about writing the book; in the meantime, however, he became embroiled in a legal argument when The Mail on Sunday printed, without permission, segments from the website.

Plagiarism
Millington received a call from an editor at the Mail on Sunday, who offered him £800 for permission to run excerpts from the website as an article. Because he had recently accepted a book-publishing deal, he declined the offer. However, the article ran in the February 11, 2001 edition of the newspaper. Millington and Margret's names were changed and Millington's site was not mentioned.

Millington wrote about the incident on his website and was shocked by the amount of support he received from his readers. Several websites picked up the story, most notably The Register, who had themselves been plagiarised by The Daily Mail, a sister newspaper of the Mail on Sunday.

The Mail on Sunday wrote Millington a letter of apology and paid him £1600.

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


text:
Jane Krakowski

Jane Krakowski (Krajkowski; born October 11, 1968) is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Jenna Maroney in the NBC satirical comedy series 30 Rock (2006–2013, 2020), for which she received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Krakowski's other notable television roles have included Elaine Vassal in the Fox legal comedy-drama series Ally McBeal (1997–2002) and Jacqueline White in the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020). For the latter, she received another Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series nomination.

A trained singer, Krakowski has made numerous appearances on stage. At age 18, she originated the role of Dinah the Dining Car in the Broadway production of Starlight Express (1987). She has since won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the revival of Nine (2003). Other Tony-nominated roles include in Grand Hotel (1989) and She Loves Me (2016). She received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in the West End revival of Guys and Dolls (2005). In film she has appeared in National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000).

Early life
Krakowski was born and raised in Parsippany, New Jersey, the daughter of Ed Krajkowski, a chemical engineer, and Barbara (Benoit), a college theater instructor and producing artistic director for the Women's Theater Company. She has an older brother. Krakowski's father's family is Polish, and while she speaks very little Polish, her father and paternal grandparents are fluent.

Krakowski grew up immersed in the local theater scene as a result of her parents' involvement, saying in one interview: "Instead of hiring baby sitters, they brought me along with them." She took ballet lessons at age four, but later stopped because she had the wrong body shape, instead moving more towards Broadway dancing. She attended Parsippany High School and then the Professional Children's School in New York City and Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Career
Following a 1981 television commercial for the video game Solar Fox, Krakowski's first major role and feature film debut came at the age of 14, when she played Cousin Vicki Johnson in the 1983 road comedy National Lampoon's Vacation. Krakowski was originally cast in the 1983 horror film Sleepaway Camp, but dropped out just before filming began because she felt her character's death scene with a curling iron was too violent. In 1984, she began appearing as Theresa Rebecca "T.R." Kendall in the NBC soap opera Search for Tomorrow, part of the NBC Daytime programming block; she continued the role until the show ended in 1986 and was nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards in 1986 and 1987. She also appeared in several episodes of the soap opera Another World in 1989.

At age 18, Krakowski originated the role of Dinah the Dining Car in the 1987 Broadway production of Starlight Express. She appeared in the 1989 Broadway musical Grand Hotel as the typist and would-be film star Flaemmchen, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Her solo number, "I Want to Go to Hollywood," is included on the original cast recording. In 1995, she played the ditzy flight attendant April in the Roundabout Theater Company's revival of Company, followed by a starring role alongside Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1996 Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress.

From 1997 to 2002, Krakowski played office assistant Elaine Vassal in the Fox comedy-drama series Ally McBeal; she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1999. She also appeared in the music video for The Chicks's song "Goodbye Earl" in 2000, and a recurring role on the drama series Everwood in 2003.

At the 2000 American Comedy Awards, Krakowski won rave reviews when she performed a sexually charged musical tribute and love letter to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. The following year, Krakowski appeared on the album Broadway Cares: Home for the Holidays, singing the song "Santa Baby". She also collaborated with Jim Brickman on the song "You" for Brickman's 2002 album Love Songs & Lullabies; the song became a hit on adult contemporary radio stations. Brickman and Krakowski later recorded a Christmas-themed alternate version of the song.

In 2003, she starred as Carla in the Broadway revival of Nine, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Krakowski's performance was noted for a "breathtaking" aerial stunt she performed during the number "A Call from the Vatican". In 2005, Krakowski performed her own cabaret show, Better When It's Banned, at Lincoln Center, and starred as Miss Adelaide in Michael Grandage's West End revival of Guys and Dolls at London's Piccadilly Theatre, for which she received the 2006 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Between 2007 and 2009, Krakowski performed in a workshop production of the musical Xanadu; a New York City Center production of Damn Yankees alongside Sean Hayes and Cheyenne Jackson; and a staged reading at Playwrights Horizons of the musical Mrs. Sharp.

From 2006 to 2013, Krakowski played the role of Jenna Maroney, a clueless and narcissistic actress, on the Tina Fey-created NBC comedy series 30 Rock. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013. Following 30 Rock's conclusion, Krakowski joined the cast of Fey's follow-up series, the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, in the role of the condescending socialite Jacqueline White. Schmidt ran from 2015-2019 and gave Krakowski her fifth Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Krakowski starred as Ilona Ritter in the Roundabout Theatre Company's 2016 Broadway revival of Jerry Bock's and Sheldon Harnick's She Loves Me. For her performance, Krakowski won the 2016 Fred and Adele Astaire Award as Outstanding Female Dancer in a Broadway Show; the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical; and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. She was also nominated for the Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Musical.

Since 2021, Krakowski has hosted a Fox reboot of the 1950s gameshow Name That Tune, with former American Idol judge Randy Jackson as bandleader. Krakowski has said, "One of the reasons I wanted to do Name That Tune was to perform again in front of a live audience."

Personal life
Krakowski became engaged to Robert Godley in 2009. They have a son, born in April 2011. The couple separated in 2013.

In January 2021, the Daily Mail alleged that Krakowski had a nine-month relationship with Mike Lindell, the inventor of My Pillow, between late 2019 and the summer of 2020. Both Krakowski and Lindell denied the allegation, and Lindell sued the Daily Mail for libel. The case was dismissed on the grounds that a "reasonable person" would not view anything in the Daily Mail article as defamatory.

In November 2021, Krakowski contracted a breakthrough case of COVID-19 and was forced to withdraw from NBC's Annie Live! where she was to play Lily St. Regis.

Discography
Krakowski released her debut solo album on July 15, 2010. It is an album of cover versions called Laziest Gal in Town. It released on DRG Records.

Selected recordings include:
 * 1992: Grand Hotel, Studio Cast Recording (mostly original Broadway cast)
 * 1995: Company, Broadway revival cast recording
 * 1997: Once Upon a Mattress, Broadway revival cast recording
 * 1997: Sondheim at the Movies (singing the Academy Award-winning song "Sooner or Later" from Dick Tracy)
 * 1998: The Burt Bacharach Album
 * 2002: A Broadway Valentine
 * 2003: Nine, Broadway revival cast recording
 * 2004: A Christmas Carol, television cast recording
 * 2010: The Laziest Gal in Town, solo album
 * 2016: She Loves Me, Broadway revival cast recording

title: Jane Krakowski


text:
Inharmonicity

In music, inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (also known as partials or partial tones) depart from whole multiples of the fundamental frequency (harmonic series).

Acoustically, a note perceived to have a single distinct pitch in fact contains a variety of additional overtones. Many percussion instruments, such as cymbals, tam-tams, and chimes, create complex and inharmonic sounds.

Music harmony and intonation depends strongly on the harmonicity of tones. An ideal, homogeneous, infinitesimally thin or infinitely flexible string or column of air has exact harmonic modes of vibration. In any real musical instrument, the resonant body that produces the music tone—typically a string, wire, or column of air—deviates from this ideal and has some small or large amount of inharmonicity. For instance, a very thick string behaves less as an ideal string and more like a cylinder (a tube of mass), which has natural resonances that are not whole number multiples of the fundamental frequency.

However, in stringed instruments such as the violin, and guitar, or in some Indian drums such as tabla, the overtones are close to—or in some cases, quite exactly—whole number multiples of the fundamental frequency. Any departure from this ideal harmonic series is known as inharmonicity. The less elastic the strings are (that is, the shorter, thicker, smaller tension or stiffer they are), the more inharmonicity they exhibit.

When a string is bowed or tone in a wind instrument initiated by vibrating reed or lips, a phenomenon called mode-locking counteracts the natural inharmonicity of the string or air column and causes the overtones to lock precisely onto integer multiples of the fundamental pitch, even though these are slightly different from the natural resonance points of the instrument. For this reason, a single tone played by a bowed string instrument, brass instrument, or reed instrument does not necessarily exhibit inharmonicity.

However, when a string is struck or plucked, as with a piano string that is struck by its hammer, a violin string played pizzicato, or a guitar string that is plucked by a finger or plectrum, the string will exhibit inharmonicity. The inharmonicity of a string depends on its physical characteristics, such as tension, stiffness, and length. For instance, a stiff string under low tension (such as those found in the bass notes of small upright pianos) exhibits a high degree of inharmonicity, while a thinner string under higher tension (such as a treble string in a piano) or a more flexible string (such as a gut or nylon string used on a guitar or harp) will exhibit less inharmonicity. A wound string generally exhibits less inharmonicity than the equivalent solid string, and for that reason wound strings are often preferred.

The physical origin of this inharmonicity is the dispersion of waves in a stiff string. In an ideal flexible string, the wave speed is constant as a function of frequency. Looking at the resonant frequency of a string with two fixed ends, this means that the frequency of the harmonics increases linearly with the mode number. The added dispersion due to the stiffness, which is most prevalent in the thick bass strings, means that as the frequency increases, so too does the wave speed in the string. The result is that modes of the stiff string are no longer perfectly harmonic.

Sound quality of inharmonicity
In 1943, Schuck and Young were the first scientists to measure the spectral inharmonicity in piano tones. They found that the spectral partials in piano tones run progressively sharp—that is to say, the lowest partials are sharpened the least and higher partials are progressively sharpened further.

Inharmonicity is not necessarily unpleasant. In 1962, research by Harvey Fletcher and his collaborators indicated that the spectral inharmonicity is important for tones to sound piano-like. They proposed that inharmonicity is responsible for the "warmth" property common to real piano tones. According to their research synthesized piano tones sounded more natural when some inharmonicity was introduced. In general, electronic instruments that duplicate acoustic instruments must duplicate both the inharmonicity and the resulting stretched tuning of the original instruments.

Inharmonicity leads to stretched tuning
When pianos are tuned by piano tuners, the technician sometimes listens for the sound of "beating" when two notes are played together, and tunes to the point that minimizes roughness between tones. Piano tuners must deal with the inharmonicity of piano strings, which is present in different amounts in all of the ranges of the instrument, but especially in the bass and high treble registers. The result is that octaves are tuned slightly wider than the harmonic 2:1 ratio. The exact amount octaves are stretched in a piano tuning varies from piano to piano and even from register to register within a single piano—depending on the exact inharmonicity of the strings involved.

Because of the problem of inharmonicity, electronic piano tuning devices used by piano technicians are not designed to tune according to a simple harmonic series. Rather, the devices use various means to duplicate the stretched octaves and other adjustments a technician makes by ear. The most sophisticated devices allow a technician to make custom inharmonicity measurements—simultaneously considering all partials for pitch and volume to determine the most appropriate stretch to employ for a given instrument. Some include an option to simply record a tuning that a technician has completed by ear; the technician can then duplicate that tuning on the same piano (or others of similar make and model) more easily and quickly.

The issues surrounding setting the stretch by ear vs machine have not been settled; machines are better at deriving the absolute placement of semitones within a given chromatic scale, whereas non-machine tuners prefer to adjust these locations preferentially due to their temptation to make intervals more sonorous. The result is that pianos tuned by ear and immediately checked with a machine tend to vary from one degree to another from the purely theoretical semitone (mathematically the 12th root of two) due to human error and perception. (If pleasing the ear is the goal of an aural tuning, then pleasing the math is the goal of a machine tuning.) This is thought to be because strings can vary somewhat from note to note and even from neighbors within a unison. This non-linearity is different from true falseness where a string creates false harmonics and is more akin to minor variations in string thickness, string sounding length or minor bridge inconsistencies.

Piano tuning is a compromise—both in terms of choosing a temperament to minimize out-of-tuneness in the intervals and chords that will be played, and in terms of dealing with inharmonicity. For more information, see Piano acoustics and Piano tuning.

Another factor that can cause problems is the presence of rust on the strings or dirt in the windings. These factors can slightly raise the frequency of the higher modes, resulting in more inharmonicity.

Guitar
While piano tuning is normally done by trained technicians, guitars such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and electric bass guitars are usually tuned by the guitarist themselves. When a guitarist tunes a guitar by ear, they have to take both temperament and string inharmonicity into account. The inharmonicity in guitar strings can "cause stopped notes to stop sharp, meaning they will sound sharper both in terms of pitch and beating, than they "should". This is distinct from any temperament issue." Even if a guitar is built so that there are no "fret or neck angle errors, inharmonicity can make the simple approach of tuning open strings to notes stopped on the fifth or fourth frets" unreliable. Inharmonicity also demands that some of the "octaves may need to be compromised minutely."

When strobe tuners became available in the 1970s, and then inexpensive electronic tuners in the 1980s reached the mass market, it did not spell the end of tuning problems for guitarists. Even if an electronic tuner indicates that the guitar is "perfectly" in tune, some chords may not sound in tune when they are strummed, either due to string inharmonicity from worn or dirty strings, a misplaced fret, a mis-adjusted bridge, or other problems. Due to the range of factors in play, getting a guitar to sound in tune is an exercise in compromise. "Worn or dirty strings are also inharmonic and harder to tune", a problem that can be partially resolved by cleaning strings.

Some performers choose to focus the tuning towards the key of the piece, so that the tonic and dominant chords will have a clear, resonant sound. However, since this compromise may lead to muddy-sounding chords in sections of a piece that stray from the main key (e.g., a bridge section that modulates a semitone down), some performers choose to make a broader compromise, and "split the difference" so that all chords will sound acceptable.

Mode-locking
Other stringed instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, and double bass also exhibit inharmonicity when notes are plucked using the pizzicato technique. However, this inharmonicity disappears when the strings are bowed, because the bow's stick-slip action is periodic, driving all of the resonances of the string at exactly harmonic ratios even if it has to drive them slightly off their natural frequency. As a result, the operating mode of a bowed string playing a steady note is a compromise among the tunings of all of the (slightly inharmonic) string resonances, which is due to the strong non-linearity of the stick-slip action. Mode locking also occurs in the human voice and in reed instruments such as the clarinet.

List of instruments

 * Perfectly harmonic
 * Bowed string instruments (violin, cello, erhu, ...)
 * Brass instruments (trumpet, horn, trombone, ...)
 * Reed aerophones (oboe, clarinet, ...)

 * Nearly harmonic
 * Plucked string instruments (guitar, harpsichord, harp...)

 * Approximately harmonic
 * Tuned percussion

 * Not harmonic
 * Untuned percussion

title: Inharmonicity


text:
Missing fundamental

The pitch being perceived with the first harmonic being absent in the waveform is called the missing fundamental phenomenon.

It is established in psychoacoustics that the auditory system, with its natural tendency to distinguish a tone from another, will persistently assign a pitch to a complex tone given that a sufficient set of harmonics are present in the spectrum.

For example, when a note (that is not a pure tone) has a pitch of 100 Hz, it will consist of frequency components that are integer multiples of that value (e.g. 100, 200, 300, 400, 500.... Hz). However, smaller loudspeakers may not produce low frequencies, so in our example, the 100 Hz component may be missing. Nevertheless, a pitch corresponding to the fundamental may still be heard.

Explanation

A low pitch (also known as the pitch of the missing fundamental or virtual pitch ) can sometimes be heard when there is no apparent source or component of that frequency. This perception is due to the brain interpreting repetition patterns that are present.

It was once thought that this effect was because the missing fundamental was replaced by distortions introduced by the physics of the ear. However, experiments subsequently showed that when a noise was added that would have masked these distortions had they been present, listeners still heard a pitch corresponding to the missing fundamental, as reported by J. C. R. Licklider in 1954. It is now widely accepted that the brain processes the information present in the overtones to calculate the fundamental frequency. The precise way in which it does so is still a matter of debate, but the processing seems to be based on an autocorrelation involving the timing of neural impulses in the auditory nerve. However, it has long been noted that any neural mechanisms which may accomplish a delay (a necessary operation of a true autocorrelation) have not been found. At least one model shows a temporal delay to be unnecessary to produce an autocorrelation model of pitch perception, appealing to phase shifts between cochlear filters; however, earlier work has shown that certain sounds with a prominent peak in their autocorrelation function do not elicit a corresponding pitch percept, and that certain sounds without a peak in their autocorrelation function nevertheless elicit a pitch. Autocorrelation can thus be considered, at best, an incomplete model.

The pitch of the missing fundamental, usually at the greatest common divisor of the frequencies present, is not, however, always perceived. Research conducted at Heidelberg University shows that, under narrow stimulus conditions with a small number of harmonics, the general population can be divided into those who perceive missing fundamentals, and those who primarily hear the overtones instead. This was done by asking subjects to judge the direction of motion (up or down) of two complexes in succession. The authors used structural MRI and MEG to show that the preference for missing fundamental hearing correlated with left-hemisphere lateralization of pitch perception, where the preference for spectral hearing correlated with right-hemisphere lateralization, and those who exhibited the latter preference tended to be musicians.

In Parsing the Spectral Envelope: Toward a General Theory of Vocal Tone Color (2016) by Ian Howell, He wrote that although not everyone can hear the missing fundamentals, noticing them can be taught and learned. D. Robert Ladd et al. have a related study that claims that most people can switch from listening for the pitch from the harmonics that are evident to finding these pitches spectrally.

Examples

Timpani produce inharmonic overtones, but are constructed and tuned to produce near-harmonic overtones to an implied missing fundamental. Hit in the usual way (half to three-quarters the distance from the center to the rim), the fundamental note of a timpani is very weak in relation to its second through fifth "harmonic" overtones. A timpani might be tuned to produce sound most strongly at 200, 302, 398, and 488 Hz, for instance, implying a missing fundamental at 100 Hz (though the actual dampened fundamental is 170 Hz).

A violin's lowest air and body resonances generally fall between 250 Hz and 300 Hz. The fundamental frequency of the open G3 string is below 200 Hz in modern tunings as well as most historical tunings, so the lowest notes of a violin have an attenuated fundamental, although listeners seldom notice this.

Most common telephones cannot reproduce sounds lower than 300 Hz, but a male voice has a fundamental frequency of approximately 150 Hz. Because of the missing fundamental effect, the fundamental frequencies of male voices are still perceived as their pitches over the telephone.

The missing fundamental phenomenon is used electronically by some pro audio manufacturers to allow sound systems to seem to produce notes that are lower in pitch than they are capable of reproducing. In a hardware effects unit or a software plugin, a crossover filter is set at a low frequency above which the sound system is capable of safely reproducing tones. Musical signal content above the high-pass part of the crossover filter is sent to the main output which is amplified by the sound system. Low frequency content below the low-pass part of the crossover filter is sent to a circuit where harmonics are synthesized above the low notes. The newly created harmonics are mixed back into the main output to create a perception of the filtered-out low notes. Using a device with this synthetic process can reduce complaints from low frequency noise carrying through walls and it can be employed to reduce low frequency content in loud music that might otherwise vibrate and damage breakable valuables.

Some pipe organs make use of this phenomenon as a resultant tone, which allows relatively smaller bass pipes to produce very low-pitched sounds.

Audio processing applications
This very concept of "missing fundamental" being reproduced based on the overtones in the tone has been used to create the illusion of bass in sound systems that are not capable of such bass. In mid-1999, Meir Shashoua of Tel Aviv, co-founder of Waves Audio, patented an algorithm to create the sense of the missing fundamental by synthesizing higher harmonics. Waves Audio released the MaxxBass plug-in to allow computer users to apply the synthesized harmonics to their audio files. Later, Waves Audio produced small subwoofers that relied on the missing fundamental concept to give the illusion of low bass. Both products processed certain overtones selectively to help small loudspeakers, ones which could not reproduce low-frequency components, to sound as if they were capable of low bass. Both products included a high-pass filter which greatly attenuated all the low frequency tones that were expected to be beyond the capabilities of the target sound system. One example of a popular song that was recorded with MaxxBass processing is "Lady Marmalade", the 2001 Grammy award-winning version sung by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa, and Pink, produced by Missy Elliott.

Other software and hardware companies have developed their own versions of missing fundamental-based bass augmentation products. The poor bass reproduction of earbuds has been identified as a possible target for such processing. Many computer sound systems are not capable of low bass, and songs offered to consumers via computer have been identified as ones that may benefit from augmented bass harmonics processing.

title: Missing fundamental


text:
Linwood, Renfrewshire

Linwood (Linwuid) is an area that is part of Paisley in Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland, 14 mi west of Glasgow. It is about 1+1/2 mi northeast of Johnstone and west of Paisley close to the Black Cart Water and the A737 road.

History
Linwood owes its existence to the building of cotton and flax mills there at the end of the 18th century. In the following century there were shale coal oil works, ironstone and cotton production businesses in the village. There was a bleachfield at Linwood connected to the spinning mill there. A paper mill was also established as can be seen on older maps. The expansion and economy of Linwood from 1961 onwards relied heavily on the Rootes, later Chrysler then Peugeot Talbot car plant, and the associated Pressed Steel Company body parts pressing facility. Construction at the car factory began in 1961 to produce the Hillman Imp, a revolutionary small car which went into production when the factory was opened on 2 May 1963, and was not discontinued until 1976. The factory, opened by the Duke of Edinburgh, had the advantage of a direct rail link, which allowed cars to be transported by rail to places all over Britain. The opening and production can be seen in the Rootes Group's 20-minute film. It later produced the Hillman Avenger (later badged as a Chrysler and finally a Talbot) from 1970 and the Imp's successor, the Sunbeam.

After Chrysler UK was bought by Peugeot Talbot, a review of the plant and associated models decided to close the Linwood plant in favour of retaining the Ryton plant near Coventry. Linwood was closed in 1981 with most of the factory demolished soon afterwards. The final remaining part was demolished in 1996.

The closure left mass unemployment. The state of the town was immortalised in the song "Letter from America" by The Proclaimers; the lyrics "Linwood no more" referred to the closure of the car factory.

On 10 August 2006, a local community action group, Linwood Sucks, initiated what became a six-year campaign to expose various problems with contaminated land in the area and to highlight the decline of the original town centre. Despite the negative overtones of their name, the group along with qualified collaborators and community support, conducted a great deal of technical research which contributed to a variety of positive changes in the town. One of the initial objectives included research into the lack of playground facilities for the local children. This objective was carried on successfully by Linwood Active, another group, who would later attain charitable status and redevelop the playground facility at Kintyre Park.

In December 2011, Linwood received the annual "Plook on the Plinth" award for "Scotland's most dismal town", part of the Urban Realm magazine's 'Carbuncle Awards'. The magazine suggests that the award is intended to cause debate and inspire redevelopment.

The Linwood Community Development Trust was formed on 7 December 2011.

In 2014, Paul Coulter's play Linwood No More was performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. Linwood, and the closure of the car factory, were also the inspiration for the title track of the 2015 Simon Kempston album, The Last Car.

A book was published in late 2023 entitled Linwood Througth The Ages by Dougie Ross, which extensively covers the whole history of Linwood and is available via Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CNTYFPVM

UEFA Champions League winner Paul Lambert, grew up in Linwood. Former Dundee United F.C. captain, Paul Paton, is also from Linwood. Ex goalkeeper Billy Thomson grew up in Linwood.

Present
Linwood has undergone a major redevelopment which began in 2008:
 * Four schools have been rebuilt or refurbished
 * New housing stock - private and social -
 * £24 million sports centre - home to several sports clubs
 * Tesco town centre regeneration
 * Community care home
 * Kintyre Park playground facilities

Economy
Linwood is the HQ of the transport and construction company W H Malcolm and was the HQ of Beeks Financial Cloud Group Plc a low latency service provider for institutional capital markets, listed on the AIM market.

Education
The town has the following educational establishments:

Nursery
 * East Fulton
 * Our Lady of Peace
 * Linwood community childcare

Primary Schools
 * East Fulton
 * Our Lady of Peace
 * Woodlands

Secondary Schools
 * Linwood High
 * St Benedict's RC High

Special Education
 * Linwood's Riverbrae School (a special education school) opened in August 2017, it replaced Clippens (formerly Mossedge Primary), the Hollybush Pre-5 Centre and Kersland Schools.

Sport
In the 1880s, a football club from the town, Clippens F.C., played in the Scottish Cup.

Transport
Linwood is on the A761 close to its junction with the A737 which links the town to Glasgow Airport and the motorway network to the east, and Garnock Valley and the North Ayrshire coast to the south-west.

Local transport is served by McGill's Bus Services who have several services that link the town to the nearby towns of Johnstone, Bridge of Weir, Houston and Paisley, and it also has services which connect the town to Braehead and Glasgow.

Rail transport can be accessed from the nearby Johnstone railway station, which includes a two level park and ride car park. This route provides services westwards to Ayr, Troon, Stranraer, Irvine, Kilwinning, Largs, Ardrossan and Lochwinnoch and eastwards to Paisley, Hillington, Cardonald and Glasgow Central.

title: Linwood, Renfrewshire


text:
Briana Banks

Briana Banks (born 21 May 1978) is a German pornographic actress and model. She was the Penthouse Pet of the Month for June 2001. She is a member of the AVN Hall of Fame and XRCO Hall of Fame.

Early life
Banks was born in Munich, Germany to a German father and an American mother. They moved to Britain when she was four, then to the Los Angeles suburb of Simi Valley when she was seven.

Career
Banks modeled as a teenager, appearing on a cover of Teen magazine. She entered the industry under the name "Mirage", but began calling herself "Briana Banks" in 1999, after having the first of two breast enlargement operations. Having had aspirations of being a supermodel, she chose the professional surname "Banks" after model Tyra Banks. Her first appearance using the new name was in the film Decadent Whores 9.

In June 2001, Banks was Penthouse magazine's Pet of the Month.

On October 13, 2006, Banks reportedly filed a federal lawsuit seeking more than US$75,000 in damages against Doc Johnson Enterprises, charging that they had created unauthorized products from molds of her genitals.

Starting in 2006, Banks went on hiatus from performing in videos and returned in 2008. That same year she was also nominated for five AVN Awards at the 25th annual Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

In 2009, she was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.

In 2011, Banks starred in the porn parody version of the Fox animated series American Dad!, American Dad XXX: An Exquisite Films Parody. Banks portrayed the character of Francine Smith and was featured on the video's box cover. The video was released in September 2011.

On December 28, 2015 Briana Banks announced that she was making a comeback in 2016 after a 5-year hiatus. The same year she was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame.

Appearances
Banks was featured in the thirteen episode cable television series Vivid Valley produced by World of Wonder that was broadcast in Europe in 2005 and later had a successful run on Playboy TV. The series featured stories about the real lives of then Vivid Girls Jenna Jameson, Savanna Samson, Mercedez, Tawny Roberts, Banks, and others.

Other ventures
In 2002 Banks was one of the first porn actresses to have an action figure made in her likeness, by Los Angeles-based Cyber F/X and Sota Toys.

Now is one of the principal sponsors of OG Jack Jameson.

title: Briana Banks


text:
Atomic Kitten

Atomic Kitten are an English girl group formed in Liverpool in 1998, whose current members are Liz McClarnon and Natasha Hamilton. The group was founded by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) members Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw, who served as principal songwriters during Atomic Kitten's early years. The group's debut album Right Now was released in October 2000 and charted at number 39 in the United Kingdom. After five top ten singles, original member Kerry Katona quit – four weeks before "Whole Again" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart – and was replaced by former Precious singer Jenny Frost. "Whole Again" became the group's most successful single, staying at number one for four weeks in the UK and six weeks in Germany, and reaching number one in many other territories; in Britain, it was the 13th-best-selling single of the 2000s. The group re-released their debut album, with some tracks re-recorded with Frost's vocals: it peaked at number one in the UK and was certified double platinum after selling over 600,000 copies.

Between 2002 and 2004, the group released a further two studio albums, Feels So Good (which also went double platinum in the UK) and Ladies Night, along with a greatest hits album, before announcing a break following their 2004 tour. To date the group have had three UK number-one singles: "Whole Again", the fourth-best-selling song of all time by a girl group in the UK; "Eternal Flame", a song originally recorded by the Bangles; and "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)", a song originally recorded by the Paragons. They have sold over 10 million records worldwide.

After making sporadic appearances from 2005 to 2008, it was announced that McClarnon, Hamilton, and Katona would reunite for the ITV2 series The Big Reunion, alongside five other pop groups of their time: B*Witched, Five, Liberty X, Honeyz and 911. Frost was unable to take part in the comeback because of her pregnancy. Katona left the group for a second time in December 2017. Frost returned in 2021 for a brief stint before leaving again a few months later.

1998–2001: Formation, Right Now and Katona's first departure
The idea of Atomic Kitten was first conceived in 1998 by English musician Andy McCluskey, best known as the frontman of new wave group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk suggested he create a new band as a vehicle for his songs following the 1996 dissolution of OMD, who had been rendered unfashionable by the prevalence of grunge and indie rock. McCluskey founded Atomic Kitten alongside fellow OMD member Stuart Kershaw, and the pair would serve as principal songwriters on the group's studio recordings in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The lineup initially featured Liz McClarnon, Kerry Katona, and Heidi Range, but did not have a name. In her autobiography Too Much, Too Young: My Story of Love, Survival and Celebrity, Katona mentions that they pondered names such as Exit and Honeyheads, before settling on Automatic Kitten, the name of a fashion label owned by designer Mary Lamb. When Katona went home to tell her mother about the band, her mother's friend was unable to pronounce "Automatic Kitten" and kept saying "Atomic Kitten". Katona liked the name and told her bandmates about it; they all felt the same way and the name stuck. Range later quit after being offered a different record deal, and was replaced by Natasha Hamilton. Range went on to have success with another girl group, the Sugababes.

The group's debut single, "Right Now", was released in late November 1999 and reached number ten on the UK Singles Chart. "See Ya" followed in March 2000 and reached number six. Following this initial success, Atomic Kitten performed an Asian tour and achieved their first number-one hit in Asia with "Cradle". In 2000 they recorded a cover of "The Loco-Motion" for the movie Thomas and the Magic Railroad. The album, also titled Right Now, was first released in Japan on 16 March 2000 and released in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2000 following the release of two further singles, "I Want Your Love" and "Follow Me", with a slightly modified tracklist. The album's Japanese edition included demo versions of "Cradle", "I Want Your Love" (titled "All the Right Things"), "Whole Again" (which has only Kerry Katona speaking all the verses in the song, while Natasha Hamilton and Liz McClarnon sing the chorus), and a rare remix of "Right Now".

In Europe, the album was unsuccessful upon its first release, peaking at number 39 on the UK Albums Chart. There were no initial plans to focus on the global market and Atomic Kitten's label, Innocent Records, was even considering dropping them because of their limited success. However, the record company was persuaded to let the group release one more single from the album. That single, "Whole Again", became their first number-one hit in the United Kingdom and stayed at the top for four consecutive weeks. Due to this success, "Whole Again" was released globally, and reached number one in 18 other countries, including 6 weeks in Germany and New Zealand. The song and video for "Whole Again" originally featured Katona (her vocals were also in "Hippy" and "Get Real"), but several days before the single's release, she left because of her pregnancy. Former Precious singer Jenny Frost replaced her in the line-up and the single's music video was re-shot; a US video for "Whole Again" was also released. The Katona–Frost switch led to the decision to partially re-record and re-release the Right Now album which then went to number one in the UK in August 2001, and was certified double Platinum. The album also reached the Top 10 in several European countries, including Germany and Denmark. Atomic Kitten's first album was repackaged with 3 brand-new tracks: "Eternal Flame", "Tomorrow & Tonight", and "You Are", and includes vocals from Frost in "Right Now", "Whole Again", "Hippy", and a re-recorded version of "Bye Now".

Their next single, "Eternal Flame", a cover of the Bangles' 1989 hit, became their second number-one single in the UK and New Zealand and is featured in the film The Parole Officer and the So Far So Good DVD. It became their biggest single in France—peaking at number two—and eventually went Gold. In late 2001, the band announced they would be releasing a final single from the repackaged album, "You Are". A video was recorded and promo singles were sent out to radio, but the single was ultimately shelved, never getting a full commercial release. That same year, "Right Now" was featured in Konami's hit arcade videogame, Dance Dance Revolution 5th MIX.

2002–2003: New lineup, Feels So Good and international breakthrough
Following the success of Right Now, a new album, Feels So Good, was recorded. The songwriting and production agreement with Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw was an increasing source of tension within the group, and the pair departed during the recording of the album. McCluskey spoke of dissension between himself and the record company, whose "formula" demanded Whole Again', 'Whole Again' and more fucking 'Whole Again; he was essentially dismissed and legally prohibited from contacting the band, before exiting the "very dirty" business of "manufactured pop". Released tracks from Feels So Good were "It's OK", "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)", "The Last Goodbye", "Love Doesn't Have to Hurt", and "Be With You". The title track was written by Kylie Minogue. "The Last Goodbye" was the third single from their second studio album, Feels So Good and "Be With You" was from their third album, Ladies Night.

The first single, "It's OK", peaked at number three in the United Kingdom. The next single was "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)", a remake of the 1967 song by the Paragons that Blondie covered in 1980, which gave the group their third number-one single in the UK and New Zealand. In April 2002 Hamilton announced that she was pregnant but opted to continue with the promotion before going on maternity leave, which included the scheduled 2002 tour, the "Tide is High (Get the Feeling)" video, and a "Feels So Good" medley at Party in the Park. The band sponsored a team in the British Touring Car Championship.

During January and February 2003, Atomic Kitten toured Southeast Asia, visiting Singapore, Thailand, and Korea. Hamilton, who had given birth to her son Josh on 24 August 2002, brought him on the tour.

2003–2008: Ladies Night, Greatest Hits and hiatus
In April 2003, the album Atomic Kitten was released in the United States, which consisted of tracks from their first two albums. The album was unsuccessful, although "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)" appeared on the soundtrack for the feature film, The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Following this, the group opted to focus solely on the European, Oceanian, South African and Asian markets.

Before recording their third album, Kool & the Gang approached the group about a collaboration for their album of duets, The Hits: Reloaded. Kool & the Gang wanted to record an updated version of their hit "Ladies Night" and were looking for a girl group to sing the lyrics. Atomic Kitten liked the idea and inquired whether they could use it for their next album which was subsequently named Ladies Night in honour of this collaboration. After mainly relying on songwriters for their previous two albums, the group took significant creative control, co-writing eight of the fifteen songs. Ladies Night was released on 10 November 2003 and peaked at number five in the UK album chart. It was certified Platinum for sales in excess of 300,000 copies. The album included four UK top 10 singles; "Be With You", "Ladies Night", "If You Come To Me" and "Someone like Me".

In March 2004, the group released the double A-side single "Someone like Me"/"Right Now 2004", and embarked on their Greatest Hits Tour to support the Ladies Night album and the upcoming release of their Greatest Hits album. Shortly before the tour began, the group announced they would be taking an extended break after the completion of the tour, which would serve as a "goodbye" to their fans. The tour's final concert was released on DVD under the title The Greatest Hits Live at Wembley Arena on 19 April 2004. During the group's 2012 reunion in The Big Reunion, Hamilton revealed that she had decided to quit the group under the pressure of being a new mum and touring, having only been diagnosed with postnatal depression only nine months after she gave birth. This later led to the group's hiatus because they did not want to replace Hamilton.

On Valentine's Day 2005, a partially re-recorded version of "Cradle" from their debut album Right Now with new vocals from McClarnon and Frost, titled "Cradle 2005", was released as a charity single, with proceeds going to World Vision. It was later included on a remix compilation titled Access All Areas: Remixed & B-Sides, which was released in Asia in July that year packaged with the Greatest Hits Live DVD. In 2005, the group were featured on the soundtrack of Disney's Mulan II with the song "(I Wanna Be) Like Other Girls". They also performed together in Kraków on 28 August at the Coca-Cola SoundWave Festival. In 2006, they released a cover version of the Farm song "All Together Now". It became a charity single for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and was released only in German-speaking countries. It peaked inside the German Top 20. The group performed at the Nokia New Year's Eve Music Festival in Hong Kong on 31 December 2006.

They once again reunited to perform at the Number One Project at the Liverpool Echo Arena on 19 January 2008, which celebrated Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture and the fact that Liverpudlian artists have had a collective 56 UK number-one singles. Also to mark the event, in the same month the group released a cover of "Anyone Who Had a Heart", which peaked at number 78 on the UK Singles Chart. The group also performed at the Kings Lynn Festival on 12 July 2008 and at Haydock Park in Liverpool on 19 July 2008.

2012–2013: Return and The Big Reunion
In March 2012, Hamilton confirmed that the group were reuniting for a summer tour and were in talks to star in their own reality television show regarding the comeback, following on the success of the 2011 Steps reunion and reality show. She also said that she hoped Katona would join her, McClarnon and Frost on stage for a performance, having quit the group 11 years earlier. The reunion was later dismissed by all members due to the tension between Katona and Frost. However, on 18 October 2012, it was announced that the 1999 line-up of Atomic Kitten (McClarnon, Katona, and Hamilton) would reunite for an ITV2 series, The Big Reunion, along with five other pop groups of their time: 911, Honeyz, B*Witched, Five and Liberty X. Frost had been involved in the early meetings to reform the group, but declined to rejoin due to her pregnancy. In 2015, she expressed dissatisfaction with how the reunion was handled, which left her estranged from both Hamilton and McClarnon.

The groups in The Big Reunion, including Atomic Kitten, were originally supposed to perform a one-off comeback concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. Atomic Kitten's setlist for the Hammersmith Apollo concert consisted of "Right Now", "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)", and "Whole Again". It was confirmed on 11 February that due to high ticket demands and the popularity of the series, a UK arena tour would take place from 3 to 14 May 2013. Two more dates were later added for 16 and 17 May, taking the tour total to 14 shows.

Due to the massive success of The Big Reunion, it was announced that the reunited groups would also be going on a "Christmas party tour" in December 2013. In December 2013, Atomic Kitten recorded their first new material in ten years when, along with the other groups from the show, they recorded a Christmas charity single for Text Santa, a cover of Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday". The song peaked at number 13 in the UK.

2013–2019: Touring and Katona's second departure
On 17 February 2013, Atomic Kitten made an appearance on The Alan Titchmarsh Show in which Katona announced that the group had signed a deal to release their own perfume fragrance. Hamilton later added that they would be releasing new material, saying: "We've already been in the studio, we want to write some more music, so it's all very exciting." On 14 March, Hamilton confirmed yet again that the group would release new material, saying "There is definitely going to be a single and there will be an album, hopefully". Also speaking about their fragrance deal, she added: 'We have got a perfume deal – we are going to be releasing our own Atomic Kitten fragrance. "Right Now", "The Tide Is High" and "Whole Again" are taken from The Big Reunion Album. It's going to be three different smells to represent the three of us. Fans will get the three in one packet. We went to the company's offices and created our fragrances.' At the Health Lottery champagne tea at Claridge's in London, Hamilton spoke of a potential comeback single: "We actually recorded our new single last night. We've literally just done it. I got out of the studio at 11 pm and I couldn't stop singing the song. I couldn't get to sleep - I was in bed, singing! It's modern so we've progressed. That's all I can say right now. If there's a single, there's definitely going to be an album."

Following the announcement of Katona's pregnancy, the group confirmed that they were unsure of the group's future, or if any new material would be released. McClarnon announced on 6 April that Atomic Kitten would be touring with East 17 and All Saints and others in November 2014. The next week it was announced that unforeseen circumstances had cancelled the tour.

In November 2014, Katona said the group would release a new album in 2015, which would go back to their original "cheesy pop sound" and tour it "around the world". The group's planned '15: The Greatest Hits' tour was canceled in mid-May 2015 with no announcement as to why. In November 2015, the group released a compilation album entitled Whole Again – The Best of Atomic Kitten.

In late 2016, Liberty X's Michelle Heaton filled in for McClarnon during the group's international gigs as McClarnon has a debilitating fear of flying.

On 12 November 2016, Katona, Hamilton, and McClarnon performed at the Pigs Nose Inn, a small live music venue in South Devon known for attracting high-profile acts. Atomic Kitten chose to perform a prelude to their tour in 2017. Atomic Kitten toured Australia and New Zealand alongside B*Witched, S Club 3, East 17 and Liberty X in February 2017 with Heaton once again filling in for McClarnon.

In November 2017, Katona stated on her social media accounts that she was no longer a part of the group. Hamilton and McClarnon continued to perform as a duo.

2020–present: Current projects
In June 2020, Frost joined Hamilton and McClarnon for an online interview as part of "Life Stories – The Interview Series" hosted by therapist Lisa Johnson and Hamilton herself. The band discussed their time together and the impact being in a girl band had on their individual mental health.

On 6 July 2021, the group released a remake of "Whole Again" in support of England at UEFA Euro 2020, entitled "Southgate You're the One (Football's Coming Home Again)". Frost returned to the band for the first time since 2008 for the single release. They said: "It's been a whirlwind couple of days, but we are super excited and grateful to be able to contribute to the awesome energy and patriotism that is filling the England streets with this version of Whole Again. Totally inspired by the England football fans in support of Gareth Southgate and the super talented England football team, we will be singing loud and proud 'Football's coming home'."

On 29 November 2021, the group confirmed that Frost was returning to the group full-time, adding that they would be supporting boy band Blue on their arena tour in September 2022. For unknown reasons, however, they did not feature on the tour and McClarnon and Hamilton have continued performing as a duo.

On 7 May 2023, McClarnon and Hamilton performed at a concert celebrating Liverpool music for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Current members

 * Liz McClarnon (1998–2006, 2008, 2012–present)
 * Natasha Hamilton (1999–2006, 2008, 2012–present)

Former members

 * Heidi Range (1998–1999)
 * Kerry Katona (1998–2001, 2013–2017)
 * Jenny Frost (2001–2006, 2008, 2021)

Discography

 * Right Now (2000)
 * Feels So Good (2002)
 * Ladies Night (2003)

Awards and nominations
{| class=wikitable ! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
 * rowspan=2|2000
 * rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
 * rowspan=2|Themselves
 * Best British Band
 * Nominated
 * Best New Band
 * Won
 * rowspan="7"|2001
 * The Record of the Year
 * rowspan=3|"Whole Again"
 * Record of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
 * Best Single
 * Won
 * rowspan=2|Top of the Pops Awards
 * Best Single
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="11" | Themselves
 * Best Pop Act
 * Nominated
 * TMF Awards
 * Best Pop International
 * Won
 * VIVA Comet Awards
 * Best International Newcomer
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="2" | MTV EMA
 * Best Pop
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="13" | 2002
 * Best UK & Ireland Act
 * Nominated
 * TMF Awards
 * Best Pop International
 * Won
 * Top of the Pops Awards
 * Best Pop Act
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
 * Best Band on Planet Pop
 * Nominated
 * Best UK Band
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|Pop Factory Awards
 * Best Pop Factory Performance
 * Nominated
 * Best Pop Act
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="2" | Ivor Novello Awards
 * rowspan="5" | "Whole Again"
 * Most Performed Work
 * Nominated
 * International Hit of the Year
 * Nominated
 * ECHO Awards
 * Best International Song
 * Nominated
 * APRA Music Awards
 * Most Performed Foreign Work
 * Nominated
 * Brit Awards
 * Best British Single
 * Nominated
 * The Record of the Year
 * rowspan="4" | "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)"
 * Record of the Year
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="7" | 2003
 * Brit Awards
 * Best British Single
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="3" | Radio Disney Music Awards
 * Best Song
 * Nominated
 * Best Song to Watch Your Dad Sing
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="4"| Themselves
 * Best Group
 * Nominated
 * NME Awards
 * Worst Band
 * Nominated
 * Silver Clef Award
 * Artist of the Year
 * Won
 * NRJ Music Awards
 * International Duo/Group of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="7" | 2003
 * Brit Awards
 * Best British Single
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="3" | Radio Disney Music Awards
 * Best Song
 * Nominated
 * Best Song to Watch Your Dad Sing
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="4"| Themselves
 * Best Group
 * Nominated
 * NME Awards
 * Worst Band
 * Nominated
 * Silver Clef Award
 * Artist of the Year
 * Won
 * NRJ Music Awards
 * International Duo/Group of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Silver Clef Award
 * Artist of the Year
 * Won
 * NRJ Music Awards
 * International Duo/Group of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Nominated

Tours

 * Headlining
 * Right Here, Right Now Tour (2001–2002)
 * Be with Us Tour (2003)
 * Greatest Hits Tour (2004)
 * Co-headlining
 * Smash Hits Tour (with various artists) (2000–2001)
 * The Big Reunion (with various artists) (2013)
 * The Hits Tour (2014–2016)
 * The Pop Tour (with various artists) (2017–2019)
 * 90s Baby Pop Tour (with various artists) (2022–2023)

title: Atomic Kitten