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Pygmy peoples

In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a population) for populations in which adult men are on average less than 150 cm tall.

Although the term is considered derogatory, it is primarily associated with the African Pygmies, the hunter-gatherers of the Congo Basin (comprising the Bambenga, Bambuti and Batwa).

The terms "Asiatic Pygmies" and "Oceanic pygmies" have been used to describe the Negrito populations of Southeast Asia and Australo-Melanesian peoples of short stature. The Taron people of Myanmar are an exceptional case of a "pygmy" population of East Asian phenotype.

Etymology
The term pygmy, as used to refer to diminutive people, derives from Greek πυγμαῖος pygmaios via Latin Pygmaei (sing. Pygmaeus), derived from πυγμή – meaning a short forearm cubit, or a measure of length corresponding to the distance from the wrist to the elbow or knuckles. (See also Greek πῆχυς pēkhys.) In Greek mythology, the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, the ancient Greek poet, and reputed to live in India and south of modern-day Ethiopia.

In French-speaking Africa, they are sometimes referred to as autochthon (autochtone), referring to 'native' or 'indigenous'. Many prefer to be identified by their ethnicity, such as the Aka (Mbenga), Baka, Mbuti, and Twa. The term Bayaka, the plural form of the Aka/Yaka, is sometimes used in the Central African Republic to refer to all local pygmies. Likewise, the Kongo word Bambenga is used in Congo. In parts of Africa, they are called Wochua or Achua.

Short stature
Various theories have been proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. Some studies suggest that it could be related to adaptation to low ultraviolet light levels in rainforests. This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size.

Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality. Other evidence points towards unusually low levels of expression of the genes encoding the growth hormone receptor and growth hormone compared to the related tribal groups, associated with low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 and short stature.

Africa
African Pygmies live in several ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo (ROC), Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar, and Zambia. There are at least a dozen pygmy groups, sometimes unrelated to each other. The best known are the Mbenga (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo basin, who speak Bantu and Ubangian languages; the Mbuti (Efe etc.) of the Ituri Rainforest, who speak Bantu and Central Sudanic languages, and the Twa of the African Great Lakes, who speak Bantu Rundi and Kiga. Most pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products. It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest. However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert.

Origins
Expansion to Central Africa by the ancestors of African Pygmies most likely took place before 130,000 years ago, and certainly before 60,000 years ago. A commonly held belief is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest, who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples, and adopted their Central Sudanic, Ubangian, and Bantu languages. This view has no archaeological support and ambiguous support from genetics and linguistics.

Some 30% of Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of pygmy vocabulary is botanical, dealing with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western pygmy groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language. However, this type of vocabulary is subject to widespread borrowing among the Pygmies and neighboring peoples, and the "Baaka" language was only reconstructed to the 15th century.

African Pygmy populations are genetically diverse and extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. Their uniparental markers represent the second-most ancient divergence, after those typically found in Khoisan peoples. Recent advances in genetics shed some light on the origins of the various Pygmy groups. Researchers found "an early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations 60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern pygmy groups 20,000 years ago."

New evidence suggests East and West African Pygmy children have different growth patterns. The difference between the two groups may indicate the Pygmies' short stature did not start with their common ancestor but instead evolved independently in adapting to similar environments, which adds support that some sets of genes related to height were advantageous in Eastern Pygmy populations, but not in Western Pygmy populations.

However, Roger Blench argues that the Pygmies are not descended from residual hunter-gatherer groups but rather are offshoots of larger neighboring ethnolinguistic groups that had adopted forest subsistence strategies. Blench notes the lack of clear linguistic and archaeological evidence for the antiquity of pygmy cultures and peoples and also notes that the genetic evidence can be problematic. Blench also notes that there is no evidence of the Pygmies have hunting technology distinctive from that of their neighbors, and argues that the short stature of pygmy populations can arise relatively quickly (in less than a few millennia) due to strong selection pressures.

Culture
The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal communal improvisation. Simha Arom says that the level of polyphonic complexity of pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient. Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events and activities.

Reported genocides
The pygmy population was a target of the Interahamwe during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Of the 30,000 Pygmies in Rwanda, an estimated 10,000 were killed and another 10,000 were displaced. They have been described as "forgotten victims" of the genocide.

From the end of 2002 through January 2003 around 60,000 Pygmy civilians and 10,000 combatants were killed and often cannibalized in an extermination campaign known as "Effacer le tableau" during the Second Congo War. Human rights activists have made demands for the massacre to be recognized as genocide.

Forced removal
In a strategy referred to as fortress conservation, in national parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, such as Kahuzi-Biéga National Park; Messok Dja protected area in the Republic of the Congo; and Cameroon's Lobéké National Park, heavily armed park rangers come into deadly conflict with the Pygmy inhabitants who often cut the trees down to sell charcoal. The conservation efforts of national parks in the country are often financed by international organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and often involve removing native inhabitants off the land. Some have argued that the most efficient conservation methods involve giving land rights to the land's indigenous inhabitants.

Reported slavery
In the Republic of the Congo, where Pygmies make up 2% of the population, many Pygmies live as slaves to Bantu masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong to their Bantu masters from birth in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. A 2007 news report stated that even though Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labor in jungle villages, "Pygmies and Bantus alike say that Pygmies are often paid at the master's whim: in cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all." As a result of pressure from UNICEF and human-rights activists, in 2009, a law that would grant special protections to the Pygmy people was awaiting a vote by the Congo parliament. According to reports made in 2013, this law was never passed.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the Ituri conflict, Ugandan-backed rebel groups were accused by the UN of enslaving Mbutis to prospect for minerals and forage for forest food, with those returning empty handed being killed and eaten.

Ethnic conflict
In Northern Katanga Province starting in 2013, the Pygmy Batwa people, whom the Luba people often exploit and allegedly enslave, rose up into militias, such as the "Perci" militia, and attacked Luba villages. A Luba militia known as "Elements" counterattacked. More than a thousand people were killed in the first eight months of 2014 alone with the number of displaced people estimated to be 650,000 as of December 2017. The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.

Discrimination
Historically, the pygmy have always been viewed as inferior by both colonial authorities and the village-dwelling Bantu tribes. Pygmy children were sometimes captured during the period of the Congo Free State, which exported Pygmy children to zoos throughout Europe, including the world's fair in the United States in 1907. Pygmies are often evicted from their land and given the lowest paying jobs. At a state level, Pygmies are sometimes not considered citizens and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and proper schooling. The Lancet published a review showing that Pygmy populations often had worse access to health care than neighboring communities.

Southeast Asia
Negritos in Southeast Asia (including the Batak and Aeta of the Philippines, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula) are sometimes called pygmies (especially in older literature). Negritos share some common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin. The name "Negrito", from the Spanish adjective meaning "small black person", was given by early explorers. The explorers who named the Negritos assumed the Andamanese they encountered were from Africa. This belief was, however, discarded by anthropologists who noted that apart from dark skin, peppercorn hair, and steatopygia, the Andamanese had little in common with any African population, including the African pygmies. Their superficial resemblance to some Africans and Melanesians is thought to be from living in a similar environment, or simply retentions of the initial human form.

Their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is a matter of great speculation. They are genetically distant from Africans and have been shown to have separated early from Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendants of settlers from the early out-of-Africa migration of the Great Coastal Migration of the Proto-Australoids, or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans.

Frank Kingdon-Ward in the early 20th century reported a tribe of pygmy Tibeto-Burman speakers known as the Taron inhabiting the remote region of Mt. Hkakabo Razi in Southeast Asia on the border of China (Yunnan and Tibet), Burma, and India. A Burmese survey done in the 1960s reported a mean height of an adult male Taron at 1.43 m and that of females at 1.40 m. These are the only known "pygmies" of clearly East Asian descent.

The cause of their diminutive size is unknown, but diet and endogamous marriage practices have been cited. The population of Taron pygmies has been steadily shrinking and is now down to only a few individuals.

In 2013, a link between the Taron and the Derung people in Yunnan, China, was uncovered by Richard D. Fisher, which may indicate the presence of pygmy populations among the Derung tribe.

Disputed pygmy presence in Australia
Australian anthropologist Norman Tindale and American anthropologist Joseph Birdsell suggested there were 12 Negrito-like tribes of short-statured Aboriginal peoples living on the coastal and rainforest areas around Cairns on the lands of the Mbabaram people and Djabugay people. Birdsell found that the average adult male height of Aboriginal people in this region was significantly less than that of other Aboriginal Australian groups; however, it was still greater than the maximum height for classification as a pygmy people, so the term pygmy may be considered a misnomer. He called this short-statured group Barrineans, after Lake Barrine.

Birdsell classified Aboriginal Australians into three major groups, mixed together to varying degrees: the Carpentarians, best represented in Arnhem Land; the Murrayans, centred in southeastern Australia; and the Barrineans. He argued that people related to Oceanic Negritos were the first arrivals, and had been absorbed or replaced over time by later incoming peoples; the present-day Barrineans retained the greatest proportion of ancestry from this original Negrito group, "[b]ut this is not to say that the Barrineans are Negritos ... the Negritic component is clearly subordinate, and ... the preponderant element is Murrayian." This trihybrid model is generally considered defunct today; craniometric, genetic, and linguistic evidence does not support a separate origin of Barrinean or other Aboriginal groups, and physical differences between Aboriginal groups can be explained by adaptation to differing environments.

In 2002, the purported existence of short-statured people in Queensland was brought into the public eye by Keith Windschuttle and Tim Gillin in an article published by the right-wing Quadrant magazine (edited by Windschuttle himself). The authors argued that these people were evidence for a distinct Negrito population in support of Birdsell's theory, and claimed that "the fact that the Australian pygmies have been so thoroughly expunged from public memory suggests an indecent concurrence between scholarly and political interests", because evidence of descent from earlier or later waves of origin could lead to conflicting claims of priority by Aboriginal people and hence pose a threat to political co-operation among them. This and other publications promoting the trihybrid model drew several responses, which went over the current scientific evidence against the theory, and suggested that attempts to revive the theory were motivated by an agenda of undermining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander claims to native title.

Some Aboriginal oral histories and oral traditions from Queensland tell of "little red men". In 1957 a member of the Jinibara (the Dalla people) tribe of SE Queensland, Gaiarbau, who was born in 1873 and had lived for many years traditionally with his tribe, said that he knew of the "existence of these "little people – the Dinderi", also known as "Dimbilum", "Danagalalangur" and "Kandju". Gaiarbau claims he saw members of a "tribe of small people ... and said they were like dwarfs ... and ... not ... any of them stood five feet [1.5m]." The Dinderi are also recorded in other stories, such as one concerning a platypus myth and another, The Dinderi and Gujum - The Legend of the Stones of the Mary River.

Susan McIntyre-Tamwoy, archaeologist and Adjunct Professor at James Cook University, has written of the northern Cape York Aboriginal people's belief of the bipotaim, which is when "the landscape as we know it today was created". Bipotaim was formed "before people, although not perhaps before the short people or the red devils as these were also here before people". She writes, "many ethnographers recorded stories of 'short people' or what they referred to as 'pygmy tribes, such as Lindsey Page Winterbotham. She used information collected both through oral accounts (including those of Injinoo people), observation and archival research. McIntyre-Tamwoy recounts a bipotaim story: "We are the short people [pygmies?]. Red devils occupy parts of the adjacent stony coast but our home is here in the sand dunes and forest. Before the Marakai ['white people'] came to our land the people were plentiful and they roamed the land. They understood the land and called out in the language of the country to seek permission, as they should ...".

According to Nathan Sentance, a librarian from the indigenous Wiradjuri nation employed by the Australian National Museum, there is no known archaeological or biological evidence such a people existed. Sentance claims it is a myth used to justify the colonisation of Australia as well as other countries by Europeans.

Micronesia and Melanesia
Norman Gabel mentions that rumours exist of pygmy people in the interior mountains of Viti Levu in Fiji, but explains he had no evidence of their existence as of 2012. E. W. Gifford reiterated Gabel's statement in 2014 and claims that tribes of pygmies in the closest proximity to Fiji would most likely be found in Vanuatu.

In 2008, the remains of at least 25 miniature humans, who lived between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, were found on the islands of Palau in Micronesia.

During the 1900s, when Vanuatu was known as New Hebrides, sizable pygmy tribes were first reported throughout northeastern Santo. It is likely that they are not limited to this region of New Hebrides. Nonetheless, there is no anthropological evidence linking pygmies to other islands of Vanuatu.

Archaic humans
The extinct archaic human species Homo luzonensis has been classified as a pygmy group. The remains used to identify Homo luzonensis were discovered in Luzon, the Philippines, in 2007, and were designated as a species in 2019. Homo floresiensis, another archaic human from the island of Flores in Indonesia, stood around 1.1 m tall. The pygmy phenotype evolved as a result of island syndrome which, amongst other things, results in reduced body size in insular humans.

title: Pygmy peoples


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Seveso disaster

The Seveso disaster was an industrial accident that occurred around 12:37 pm on 10 July 1976, in a small chemical manufacturing plant approximately 20 km north of Milan in the Lombardy region of Italy. It resulted in the highest known exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in residential populations, which gave rise to numerous scientific studies and standardized industrial safety regulations, including the European Union's Seveso III Directive. This accident was ranked eighth in a list of the worst man-made environmental disasters by Time magazine in 2010.

Location of disaster
The Seveso disaster was named after Seveso, the community most affected, which had a population of 17,000 in 1976. Other affected neighbouring communities were Meda (19,000), Desio (33,000), Cesano Maderno (34,000) and to a lesser extent Barlassina (6,000) and Bovisio-Masciago (11,000). The industrial plant, located in Meda, was owned by the company Industrie Chimiche Meda Società Azionaria (Meda Chemical Industries S.A., or ICMESA), a subsidiary of Givaudan, which in turn was a subsidiary of Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche Group). The factory building had been built many years earlier and the local population did not perceive it as a potential source of danger. Moreover, although several exposures of populations to dioxins had occurred before, mostly in industrial accidents, they were of a more limited scale.

Chemical events

 * Seveso reaction.PNG

The accident occurred in the chemical plant's Building B. The chemical 2,4,5-trichlorophenol (2) was being produced there from 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene (1) by the nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction with sodium hydroxide. The 2,4,5-trichlorophenol was intended as an intermediate for hexachlorophene.

Reaction temperature was achieved by passing the steam exhaust from the onsite electricity generation turbine through an external heating coil installed on the chemical reactor vessel. The exhaust steam pressure was normally 12 bar and temperature 190 °C, which resulted in a reaction mixture temperature of 158 °C, very close to its boiling point of 160 °C. Safety testing showed the onset of an exothermic (heat-releasing) side reaction if the reaction mixture temperature reached 230 °C. Crucially, no steam temperature reading was made available to plant operators responsible for the reactor.

The chemical-release accident occurred when a batch process was stopped prior to the completion of the final step of removal of ethylene glycol from the reaction mixture by distillation. The process was stopped due to conformance with an Italian law requiring shutdown of plant operations over the weekend. Other parts of the site had already started to close down as the processing of other batches finished, which reduced power consumption across the plant, causing a dramatic drop in the load on the turbine and a consequent increase in the temperature of the exhaust steam to around 300 °C. This hotter than normal steam then heated the portion of the metal wall of the accident reactor above the level of the liquid within it to the same temperature. Not having a steam temperature reading among their instruments, operators of the reactor were unaware of the presence of this additional heating, and they stopped the batch as they normally would by isolating the steam and turning off the stirrer in the reactor vessel. The abnormally hot upper region of the reactor jacket then heated the adjacent reaction mixture. With the stirrer not running, the heating was highly localised to just the portion of the upper layers of reaction mixture adjacent to the reactor wall. The local temperature increased to above the critical temperature for the exothermic side reaction seen in testing. Additionally, the critical temperature proved to be only 180 °C, 50 °C lower than believed. At that lower critical temperature, an exothermic decomposition began, releasing more heat and leading to the onset of a rapid runaway reaction when the temperature reached 230 °C seven hours later.

The reactor relief valve eventually opened, causing the aerial release of 6 tonnes of chemicals, which settled over 18 km2 of the surrounding area. The cloud of substances released contained sodium hydroxide, ethylene glycol, sodium trichlorophenate, and approximately 15 to 30 kg of TCDD (3). At the nominal reaction temperature, TCDD is normally seen only in trace amounts of less than 1 ppm (parts per million). However, in the higher-temperature conditions associated with the runaway reaction, TCDD production apparently reached 166 ppm or more.

Immediate effects
The affected area was split into zones A, B, and R in decreasing order of surface soil concentrations of TCDD. Zone A was further split into 7 sub-zones. The local population was advised not to touch or eat locally grown fruits or vegetables.
 * Zone A had a TCDD soil concentration of > 50 micrograms per square metre (μg/m2); it had between 736 – 753 residents.
 * Zone B had a TCDD soil concentration of between 5 and 50 μg/m2; it had 4737 residents.
 * Zone R had a negligible concentration of TCDD or up to < 5 μg/m2; it had 31,800 residents.

The population who lived in the path of the aerosol cloud reportedly developed acute symptoms such as headaches, nausea, eye irritation. 19 children in the area were hospitalized with skin lesions. 500 residents in the area were treated for acute skin irritation. The accident also immediately caused 193 individuals to develop chloracne, none of whom were employed at the ICMESA plant. By the 2nd of August, all residents in Zone A were evacuated and the area was fenced off, however evacuation only began 15 days after the accident took place. After evacuation, all residents of Zone A were medically examined and laboratory tests were performed, Ultimately, 640 individuals living in the region were affected with chloracne.

An estimated 25% of all animals in Zone A died immediately after exposure to the aerosol cloud, and by the end July, 3,300 animals, mostly poultry and rabbits, were found dead. Emergency slaughtering commenced to prevent TCDD from entering the food chain, and by 1978 over 80,000 animals had been culled.

The residents of Zone B were not evacuated but were given warnings to refrain from eating locally-grown produce and poultry. The residents of Zone B were given medical examinations and clinical laboratory tests. Pregnant women and children under 12 years old were relocated on a daily basis.

Residents of Zone R were only warned to not eat locally grown foods.

An advice center was set up for pregnant women, of whom 26 opted for an abortion (which was legal in special cases) after consultation. Another 460 women continued their pregnancies without problems, their children not showing any sign of malformation. Herwig von Zwehl (Technical Director of ICMESA) and Paolo Paoletti (director of production at ICMESA) were arrested. Two government commissions were established to develop a plan for quarantining and decontaminating the area, for which the Italian government allotted 40 billion lire (US$47.8 million). This amount was tripled two years later.

Studies on immediate and long-term health effects
A 1991 study, fourteen years after the accident, sought to assess the effects to the thousands of persons that had been exposed to dioxin. The most evident adverse health effect ascertained was chloracne (193 cases). Other early effects noted were peripheral neuropathy and liver enzyme induction. The ascertainment of other, possibly severe sequelae of dioxin exposure (e.g., birth defects) was hampered by inadequate information; however, generally, no increased risks were evident.

A study published in 1998 concluded that chloracne (nearly 200 cases with a definite exposure dependence) was the only effect established with certainty. Early health investigations including liver function, immune function, neurologic impairment, and reproductive effects yielded inconclusive results.

An excess mortality rate from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases was uncovered, and excess of diabetes cases was also found. Results of cancer incidence and mortality follow-up showed an increased occurrence of cancer of the gastrointestinal sites and of the lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue. Results cannot be viewed as final or comprehensive, however, because of various limitations: the lack of individual exposure data, short latency period, and small population size for certain cancer types.

A 2001 study confirmed in victims of the disaster, that dioxin is carcinogenic to humans and corroborate its association with cardiovascular- and endocrine-related effects. In 2009, an update including 5 more years (up to 1996) found an increase in "lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue neoplasms" and increased breast cancer.

A 2008 study evaluated whether maternal exposure is associated with modified neonatal thyroid function in the highly exposed population in Seveso and concluded that environmental contaminants such as dioxins have a long-lasting capability to modify neonatal thyroid function after the initial exposure.

The male children of mothers who were, during pregnancy of those children, exposed to high levels of toxic dioxins due to the Seveso disaster, have been found to have lower-than-average sperm counts. This result of the underlying Seveso study has been noted to provide the most pronounced evidence for prenatal exposure to an environmental chemical causing low sperm counts.

Cleanup operations
In January 1977, an action plan consisting of scientific analysis, economic aid, medical monitoring and restoration/decontamination was completed. Shortly after ICMESA began to pay the first compensations to those affected. Later that spring decontamination operations were initiated and in June a system epidemiological health monitoring for 220,000 people was launched. They then used trichlorophenol to make a drug to fight the skin infections, which they tested in dogs.

In June 1978, the Italian government raised its special loan from 40 to 115 billion lire. By the end of the year, most individual compensation claims had been settled out of court. On 5 February 1980, Paolo Paoletti (the Director of Production at ICMESA) was shot and killed in Monza by a member of the Italian radical left-wing terrorist organization Prima Linea. On 19 December 1980, representatives of the Region of Lombardy/Italian Republic and Givaudan/ICMESA signed a compensation agreement in the presence of the prime minister of Italy, Arnaldo Forlani. The total amount would reach 20 billion lire.

Waste from the cleanup
The waste from the clean up of the plant was a mixture of protective clothing and chemical residues from the plant. This waste was packed into waste drums which had been designed for the storage of nuclear waste. It was agreed that the waste would be disposed of in a legal manner.

To this end, in spring 1982, the firm Mannesmann Italiana was contracted to dispose of the contaminated chemicals from Zone A. Mannesmann Italiana made it a condition that Givaudan would not be notified of the disposal site which prompted Givaudan to insist that a notary public certify the disposal. On 9 September, 41 barrels of toxic waste left the ICMESA premises. On 13 December, the notary gave a sworn statement that the barrels had been disposed of in an approved way.

However, in February 1983, the programme A bon entendeur on Télévision Suisse Romande, a French language Swiss television channel, followed the route of the barrels to Saint-Quentin in northern France where they disappeared. A public debate ensued in which numerous theories were put forward when it was found that Mannesmann Italiana had hired two subcontractors to dispose of the toxic waste. On 19 May, the 41 barrels were found in an unused abattoir in Anguilcourt-le-Sart, a village in northern France. From there they were transferred to a French military base near Sissonne. The Roche Group (parent firm of Givaudan) took it upon itself to properly dispose of the waste. On 25 November, over nine years after the disaster, the Roche Group issued a public statement that the toxic waste consisting of 42 barrels (one was added earlier that year) had all been incinerated in Switzerland. According to New Scientist, it was thought that the high chlorine content of the waste might cause damage to the high temperature incinerator used by Roche, but Roche stated that they would burn the waste in the incinerator and repair it afterward if it were damaged. They stated that they wanted to take responsibility for the safe destruction of the waste.

Criminal court case
In September 1983, the Criminal Court of Monza sentenced five former employees of ICMESA or its parent company, Givaudan, to prison sentences ranging from 2.5 years to 5 years. They all appealed.

In May 1985, the Court of Appeal in Milan found three of the five accused not guilty; the two still facing prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court in Rome.

On 23 May 1986, the Supreme Court in Rome confirmed the judgment against the two remaining defendants, even though the prosecuting attorney had called for their acquittal.

Aftermath
After the incident, ICMESA initially refused to admit that the dioxin release had occurred. At least a week passed before a public statement was issued that dioxin had been emitted, and another week passed before an evacuation began. Even then, the government was saddled with the responsibility of determining the boundaries of the evacuation area, and thereafter to organise the evacuation. This constituted a major imposition on the community as well as on government resources. It was soon recognized that the factory's very rudimentary safety systems had been designed with little more than simple explosion prevention in mind. Environmental protection had not been considered. Nor had any consideration been given as to setting up any type of warning system or health-protection protocols for the local community. As a result, the local population was caught unaware when the accident happened, and thus was unprepared to cope with the danger of an invisible poison. "In the context of such heightened tensions, Seveso became a microcosm where all the existing conflicts within society (political, institutional, religious, industrial) were reflected. However, within a relatively short time, such conflicts abated and the recovery of the community proceeded. For, in Seveso, the responsible party was known from the outset and soon offered reparation. Moreover, the eventual disappearance of the offending factory itself and the physical exportation of the toxic substances and polluted soil enabled the community to feel cleansed. The resolution of the emotional after-effects of the trauma, so necessary for the recovery of a community, was facilitated by these favourable circumstances.'" Industrial safety regulations were passed in the European Community in 1982 called the Seveso Directive, which imposed much stronger industrial regulations. The Seveso Directive was updated in 1996, 2008 and 2012 and is currently referred to as the Seveso III Directive (or COMAH Regulations in the United Kingdom). Treatment of the soil in the affected areas is now considered complete, since the dioxin levels are now below background. The entire site has been turned into a public park known as Seveso Oak Forest Park. This area is permanently off-limits to development. There are two artificial hills in the park; today, underneath these hills are the toxic remnants (including destroyed houses, tons of contaminated soil, and animal remains), all protected in a concrete sarcophagus. Investigations into site conditions have confirmed that the sarcophagus life expectancy of 300 years is expected, appropriate, and required. Several studies have been completed on the health of the population of surrounding communities. While it has been established that people from Seveso exposed to TCDD are more susceptible to certain rare cancers, when all types of cancers are grouped into one category, no statistically significant increase has yet been reported in any specific cancer category. This indicates that more research is needed to determine the true long-term health effects on the affected population. Epidemiological monitoring programmes were established as follows (with termination dates): abortions (1982); malformations (1982); tumours (1997); deaths (1997). Health monitoring of workers at ICMESA and on decontamination projects, and chloracne sufferers (1985)

The documentary Gambit is about Jörg Sambeth, the technical director of ICMESA, who was sentenced to five years in the first trial, and had his sentence reduced to two years and was paroled on appeal.

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

title: Seveso disaster


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User:Justin Bacon

Some Stuff I've Done

 * Carthage, first major expansion of the article
 * Added dynasty templates to the rulers of Persia
 * Dungeons & Dragons, helped clean-up and maintain this article, hoping to eventually get it to featured article quality
 * Persia disambiguation repair.
 * Expanded Universe (Star Wars), did a major expansion and clean-up on the article.

You can also visit me at The Alexandrian.

title: User:Justin Bacon


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User talk:Rronline

Hello Rronline, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian.

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Angela 01:55, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Hello. In regard to Crisana: You cannot assume that the way a reader of a disambiguation page reached that page was by looking for it. For example, the reader may have read this: "John Smith visited a remarkable place in Romania." If you click on "remarkable place", you reach the Crisana disambiguation page. 67.4.150.5 14:40, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Image in signature
Hi. I want to ask you to remove the image from your signature. It detracts from the content of the messages you write (although just a bit), and wastes valuable server and network resources. I don't object to people adding some character to their signature, but feel that using inline images is too heavy. — David Remahl 19:28, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * OK, I understand what you mean. I have removed the image - I really do hope there wasn't any political reason though because other people have images in their signatures too. Rronline 08:53, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Thanks! There was absolutely no political motive behind my request. I sent the same request to another user with a picture in the signature (not a flag). Though I don't believe Wikipedia benefits from nationalism in any way shape or form (as I said, not related to my request. I also understand that the EU flag can be interpreted as an expression of internationalism.) — David Remahl 09:18, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Your image of Oradea
Thanks for uploading Image:Oradea.jpg. I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? (You can use if you release it under the GFDL, or  if you claim fair use, etc.) Thanks so much,    – Quadell (talk) (help)   01:59, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)

 * Thanks for letting me know where it came from. I marked it as GFDL. Any user who uploads a picture to Wikipedia agrees to license it under the GFDL. (Of course, if the uploader doesn't own the copyright, he can't license the image at all.) In this case, the uploader owned the copyright, uploaded it, and didn't specify an alternate license, so GFDL is the default. Thanks again!   – Quadell (talk) (help)   12:37, Oct 12, 2004 (UTC)

I made the picture! And I uploaded it to the Dutch Wikipedia in Nov 02 already. But GFDL, of course. Fransvannes 13:46, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Palatul Cinevalui
It looks to me like when you moved Palace of the People (Romania) to Palace of the Parliament (Romania) the history of the article was entirely lost. Perhaps I am doing something wrong, so do have a look for yourself, but assuming that this is the case, do you have any idea what happened and whether it is remediable? If not by one of us, maybe by someone with a higher level of privilege? -- Jmabel 05:03, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)

 * (copied from talk page of Jmabel|Talk) The reason why history was lost on the page Palace of the Parliament was because it was a new page, in fact a redirect, therefore it had no history, and it was moved manually. The original history of the article can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Palace_of_the_Parliament_%28Romania%29&action=history, which is on the page for Palace of the Parliament (Romania), now a redirect. Finally, thanks again for all your contributions on Romanian subjects at Wikipedia and Wikitravel... it's great to see someone from another country interested in Romania and its culture. Rronline 11:48, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Do I understand this to mean you did a cut-and-paste move? That's kind of a no-no. See How to fix cut and paste moves. (şi mulţumesc pentru sentimentul...). If I understand correctly, do you want to try to fix it, or should I? -- Jmabel|Talk 20:45, Oct 12, 2004 (UTC)

The page history is important for intellectual property reasons. When you (or I or anyone else) writes material in the Wikipedia, we individually retain copyright on what we write; we are donating rights to Wikipedia under GFDL. The editing history is the record of who actually owns intellectual property rights beyond use under GFDL. -- Jmabel|Talk 18:17, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)

I've fixed it. Thanks for your help in sorting this out. -- Jmabel|Talk 18:43, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)

Articles for deletion/European Union member states at the 2004 Summer Olympics
You might be interested to have a look. Regards --Pgreenfinch 12:47, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Cut-and-paste moves
Hi, you used a cut-and-paste move to move Kharkiv and Kharkov around. Please don't do cut-and-paste moves, as it separates the article from its history, which we need to keep for Copyright reasons. Please use WP:RM for help with moves if the "Move this page" link/tab doesn't work. I will fix this one - have you done any others? Thanks! Noel (talk) 00:32, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Disputed fair use rationale for Image:Zapp logo.gif
Thanks for uploading Image:Zapp logo.gif. However, there is a concern that the rationale you have provided for using this image under "fair use" may be invalid. Please read the instructions at Non-free content carefully, then go to the image description page and clarify why you think the image qualifies for fair use. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If it is determined that the image does not qualify under fair use, it will be deleted within a couple of days according to our criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot (talk) 05:59, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

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title: User talk:Rronline


text:
Talk:Monster Zero

Fmt in a table extremely hard to read (as a browser). --Menchi 01:59, Aug 2, 2003 (UTC)

 * Indeed - I've got rid of it. --Camembert

title: Talk:Monster Zero


text:
User talk:PakAtheist

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and style guide pages are also useful. There is a sandbox which you can use to experiment in. If you have any questions, see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. Angela 02:06, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:PakAtheist


text:
User talk:Javawolf

Hello Javawolf, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and style guide pages are also useful. There is a sandbox which you can use to experiment in. If you have any questions, see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. Angela 02:07, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Trust in Luton

A tag has been placed on Trust in Luton requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about an organization or company, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such articles may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable.

If you think that the page was nominated in error, contest the nomination by clicking on the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion" in the speedy deletion tag. Doing so will take you to the talk page where you can explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. You can also visit the page's talk page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but do not hesitate to add information that is consistent with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. John of Reading (talk) 15:40, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

title: User talk:Javawolf


text:
User talk:Tapaculo

Hello Tapaculo, welcome to Wikipedia. That was an interesting edit you made at Turaco. I hope you continue to edit here and become a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and style guide pages are also useful. There is a sandbox which you can use to experiment in. If you have any questions, see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. Angela 02:09, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:Tapaculo


text:
User talk:Yudel

Hello Yudel, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and style guide pages are also useful. There is a sandbox which you can use to experiment in. If you have any questions, see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. Angela 02:10, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

On notable rabbis
Hi. Thanks for your note. I've replied on my Talk. Kol tuv, HG | Talk 23:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Rav Hershel Schachter
I want to give you mad props for your last edit summary (teaching torah means sounding like an idiot). That was clever. --Chakira (talk) 03:14, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Philip Paretzky
A proposed deletion template has been added to the article Philip Paretzky, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice should explain why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised because even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. Do you want to opt out of receiving this notice? Richhoncho (talk) 20:48, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

This
"keep" doesn't do anything. It's not an afd. If you disagree with the deletion proposal then just go to the article and removed the Prod tag. Best, -- brew crewer  (yada, yada) 02:12, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Judaism Newsletter
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Rabbi Aharon Roth
I see that I added the image to the page, but if I recall correctly, I did not upload it originally. See Hebrew wiki for another image. Good luck! Chesdovi (talk) 22:01, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

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Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was an American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed. Hale is considered an American hero and in 1985 was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut.

Early life and family
Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1755, to Deacon Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong, a descendant of Elder John Strong. He was a great-grandson of Reverend John Hale, an important figure in the Salem witch trials of 1692. He was also the grand-uncle of Edward Everett Hale, a Unitarian minister, writer, and activist noted for social causes including abolitionism. He was the uncle of journalist Nathan Hale, who founded the Boston Daily Advertiser and helped establish the North American Review.

In 1769, when Nathan Hale was fourteen years old, he was sent with his brother Enoch, who was sixteen, to Yale College. He was a classmate of fellow Patriot spy Benjamin Tallmadge. The Hale brothers belonged to the Linonian Society of Yale, which debated topics in astronomy, mathematics, literature, and the ethics of slavery. Nathan graduated with first-class honors in 1773 at age 18 and became a teacher, first in East Haddam and later in New London.

American Revolutionary War
After the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Hale joined a Connecticut militia unit and was elected first lieutenant within five months. His company participated in the Siege of Boston, but Hale remained behind. It has been suggested that he was unsure as to whether he wanted to fight, or possibly that he was hindered because his teaching contract in New London did not expire until several months later, in July 1775. On July 4, 1775, Hale received a letter from his classmate and friend Benjamin Tallmadge, who had gone to Boston to see the siege for himself. He wrote to Hale, "Was I in your condition, I think the more extensive service would be my choice. Our holy Religion, the honor of our God, a glorious country, & a happy constitution is what we have to defend." Tallmadge's letter was so inspiring that, several days later, Hale accepted a commission as first lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Charles Webb of Stamford.

Hale was also a part of Knowlton's Rangers, the first organized intelligence service organization of the United States of America, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton. In the spring of 1776, the Continental Army moved to Manhattan to defend New York City against the anticipated British attack. In August, the British soundly defeated the Continentals in the Battle of Long Island via a flanking move from Staten Island across Brooklyn. General George Washington was desperate to determine the location of the imminent British invasion of Manhattan; to that end, Washington called for a spy behind enemy lines, and Hale was the only volunteer.

Intelligence-gathering mission
Hale volunteered on September 8, 1776, to go behind enemy lines and report on British troop movements, which he knew was an act of spying, punishable by death. He was ferried across the Long Island Sound to Huntington, New York, on British-controlled Long Island, on September 12. Hale planned to disguise himself as a Dutch schoolteacher looking for work, though he did not travel under an assumed name and reportedly carried with him his Yale diploma bearing his real name.

While Hale was undercover, New York City (then the area at the southern tip of Manhattan, mostly south of what is now Chambers Street) fell to British forces on September 15, and Washington was forced to retreat to the island's north in Harlem Heights (what is now Morningside Heights). Shortly after, on September 21, a quarter of the lower portion of Manhattan burned in the Great New York Fire of 1776. The fire was later widely thought to have been started by American saboteurs in order to keep the city from falling into British hands, and though setting fire to New York during Washington's retreat had indeed been proposed, Washington and the Congress had rejected the idea and denied responsibility. The Americans accused British soldiers of starting the fires without orders from their superiors so they could sack the city. In the fire's aftermath, more than 200 American Patriots were detained by the British for questioning.

An account of Hale's capture, later obtained by the Library of Congress, was written by Consider Tiffany, a Connecticut shopkeeper and Loyalist. In Tiffany's account, Major Robert Rogers of the Queen's Rangers saw Hale in a tavern and recognized him. After luring Hale into betraying his allegiance by pretending to be a Patriot himself, Rogers and his Rangers apprehended Hale near Flushing Bay in Queens, New York. Another story is that Hale's cousin, a Loyalist named Samuel Hale, was the one who revealed his true identity.

British General William Howe had established his headquarters in the Beekman House in a then-rural part of Manhattan, on a rise between what are now 50th and 51st Streets between First and Second Avenues, near where Beekman Place commemorates the connection. Hale reportedly was questioned by Howe, and physical evidence was found on him. Rogers provided information about the case. According to some accounts, Hale spent the night in a greenhouse at the mansion, while others say he spent it in a bedroom there. He requested a Bible; his request was denied. Sometime later, he requested a clergyman. Again, the request was denied. General Howe did permit him to write letters: one to his brother Enoch and other to his commanding officer, but the next day, they were torn up in front of him by the provost marshal, Captain Cunningham.

Death and purported last words
According to the standards of the time, spies were hanged as illegal combatants. By all accounts, Hale comported himself well before the hanging. Frederick MacKensie, a British officer, wrote this diary entry for the day:

"He behaved with great composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer, to obey any orders given him by his Commander-in-Chief; and desired the Spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear."

On the morning of September 22, 1776, Hale was marched along Post Road to the Park of Artillery, which was next to a public house called the Dove Tavern (at modern-day 66th Street and Third Avenue), and hanged. He was 21 years old.

No official records were kept of Hale's final speech. It has traditionally been reported that his last words, either entirely or in part, were: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." The account of the quote originated with British Captain John Montresor, who was present at the hanging. The next day, he spoke with American Captain William Hull under a flag of truce. Hull recorded in his memoirs the following quote by Montresor:

"'On the morning of his execution,' continued the officer, 'my station was near the fatal spot, and I requested the Provost Marshal [William Cunningham] to permit the prisoner to sit in my marquee, while he was making the necessary preparations. Captain Hale entered: he was calm, and bore himself with gentle dignity, in the consciousness of rectitude and high intentions. He asked for writing materials, which I furnished him: he wrote two letters, one to his mother and one to a brother officer. He was shortly after summoned to the gallows. But a few persons were around him, yet his characteristic dying words were remembered. He said, 'I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Because Hull was not an eyewitness to Hale's speech, some historians have questioned the reliability of this account.

Over the years, there has been a great deal of speculation as to whether or not Hale specifically uttered this line, or some variant of it. If Hale did not originate the statement, it is possible he instead repeated a passage from Joseph Addison's play Cato, which was widely popular at the time and an ideological inspiration to many Whigs:

"How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue! Who would not be that youth? What pity is it That we can die but once to serve our country."

It is almost certain that Hale's last speech was longer than one sentence. Several early accounts mention different things he said. These are not necessarily contradictory, but rather, together they give an idea of what the speech might have been like. The following quotes are all taken from George Dudley Seymour's book, Documentary Life of Nathan Hale, published in 1941 by the author. Enoch Hale, Nathan's brother, wrote in his diary after he questioned people who had been present, October 26, 1776, "When at the Gallows he spoke & told them that he was a Capt in the Cont Army by name Nathan Hale." The February 13, 1777, issue of the Essex Journal stated, "However, at the gallows, he made a sensible and spirited speech; among other things, told them they were shedding the blood of the innocent, and that if he had ten thousand lives, he would lay them all down, if called to it, in defence of his injured, bleeding Country." The May 17, 1781, issue of the Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser gave the following version: "I am so satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged, that my only regret is, that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service."

Aside from the site at 66th Street and Third Avenue, two other sites in Manhattan claim to be the hanging site:
 * City Hall Park, where a statue of Hale designed by Frederick William MacMonnies was erected in 1890
 * Inside Grand Central Terminal

The Yale Club bears a plaque hung by the Daughters of the American Revolution which states the event occurred "near" the Club. Yale is Hale's alma mater and the Club is at 44th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, mere feet from Grand Central Terminal. Another account places Hale's execution at Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, but there is no evidence to support this claim.

Hale's body was never found. His family erected an empty grave cenotaph in Nathan Hale Cemetery in South Coventry Historic District, Connecticut.

Statues and appearance
Statues of Hale are based on idealized archetypes; no contemporaneous portraits of him have been found. Documents and letters reveal Hale was an informed, practical, detail-oriented man who planned ahead. Of his appearance and demeanor, fellow soldier Lieutenant Elisha Bostwick wrote that Hale had blue eyes, flaxen blond hair, darker eyebrows, and stood slightly taller than the average height of the time, with mental powers of a sedate mind and piousness. Bostwick wrote: "I can now in imagination see his person & hear his voice—his person I should say was a little above the common stature in height, his shoulders of a moderate breadth, his limbs strait & very plump: regular features—very fair skin—blue eyes—flaxen or very light hair which was always kept short—his eyebrows a shade darker than his hair & his voice rather sharp or piercing—his bodily agility was remarkable. I have seen him follow a football and kick it over the tops of the trees in the Bowery at New York, (an exercise which he was fond of)—his mental powers seemed to be above the common sort—his mind of a sedate and sober cast, & he was undoubtedly Pious; for it was remark'd that when any of the soldiers of his company were sick he always visited them & usually Prayed for & with them in their sickness."

Hale has been honored with two standing images:
 * A statue designed by Frederick William MacMonnies was dedicated on the anniversary of Evacuation Day, November 25, 1893, at City Hall Park, New York. The statue established Hale's modern idealized square-jawed image. A copy of MacMonnies's statue stands in Williams Park in New London, Connecticut.
 * A statue of Hale, sculpted 1908–1912 by Bela Pratt, was cast in 1912 and stands in front of Connecticut Hall, where Hale resided while at Yale. Copies of this sculpture stand at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry; the Connecticut Governor's Residence in Hartford, Connecticut; Fort Nathan Hale in New Haven, Connecticut; Mitchell College in New London, Connecticut; the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.; Tribune Tower in Chicago; and at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia.

Other statues/markers include: In January 1899 a play based on Hale's life, Nathan Hale by Clyde Fitch, opened at New York's Knickerbocker Theatre, where it played successfully for eight weeks. It then toured for more than a year, with 41-year-old Nat Goodwin playing Hale and Goodwin's wife Maxine Elliott playing Alice Adams.
 * A statue of Hale with an inscription of his reported last words on the first floor of the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford. Statues of Hale are also located in the Tulane University Law School reading room, and at the corner of Summit and Portland Avenues in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
 * A memorial for him located in Huntington, New York, where he landed for his fatal spying mission.
 * A historical marker in Freese Park, Norwalk, Connecticut, that is denoted as the embarkation point.
 * A 45 ft obelisk known as the Captain Nathan Hale Monument was erected in his honor in 1846 in his birthplace of Coventry, Connecticut.

Namesake items

 * The hamlet of Halesite, New York (formerly Huntington Harbor) on Long Island is named after Hale. There is a memorial plaque set into a large boulder, which was removed from the beach nearby where Hale is thought to have landed on his fateful mission.
 * Nathan Hale Army Depot, a U.S. Army installation, is located in Darmstadt, Germany.
 * Fort Nathan Hale, a Revolutionary War-era fort and historic site in New Haven, Connecticut, is named after him.
 * The Nathan Hale dormitory on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Connecticut, is named after Hale.
 * The Nathan Hale dormitory, traditionally a freshman girls' dorm, at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, is named after Hale.
 * The Nathan Hale Center at Robert Morris University, dedicated in 1971, is a classroom building located on campus.
 * Nathan Hale Hall is a building at Farmingdale State College in Farmingdale, New York, which is home to Biology and Art Centers.
 * Nathan Hale Hall is a barracks building at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.
 * Nathan Hale Hall is the main academic building at Mitchell College in New London, Connecticut.
 * The Nathan Hale Memorial Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was organized June 6, 1900, in East Haddam, Connecticut. The ceremony took place at the one-room schoolhouse where he once taught.
 * High schools named after Hale include Nathan Hale-Ray High School in East Haddam, Connecticut (where he was schoolmaster), Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, Washington, and high schools in West Allis, Wisconsin, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
 * Middle schools named after Hale include Nathan Hale-Ray Middle School in East Haddam, Connecticut; Nathan Hale Middle School in Norwalk, Connecticut (the departure point for his final mission); and Captain Nathan Hale Middle School in Coventry, Connecticut (his birthplace); as well as middle schools in Northvale, New Jersey; Omaha, Nebraska; Cleveland, Ohio; and Crestwood, Illinois.
 * There are elementary schools named after Hale in Roxbury, Boston; New London, Connecticut; Enfield, Connecticut; Manchester, Connecticut; Meriden, Connecticut; New Haven, Connecticut; Whiting, Indiana; Schaumburg, Illinois; Lansing, Illinois; Crestwood, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; Carteret, New Jersey; Northvale, New Jersey; Mesa, Arizona; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
 * The United States Navy submarine USS Nathan Hale (SSBN-623) was named in his honor.
 * The Nathan Hale Ancient Fife and Drum Corps from Coventry, Connecticut, is named after him and includes a division called Knowlton's Connecticut Rangers.
 * "Nathaniel Hale" Battalion is the name of the Battalion for Army ROTC based at the University of Connecticut, with Knowlton Company (Company A) at the University of Connecticut and Sillman Company (Company B) at Sacred Heart University.
 * Campsite Nathan Hale at Baiting Hollow Scout Camp, Baiting Hollow, New York.

Ballads
Two early ballads attempt to recreate Hale's last speech. Songs and Ballads of the Revolution (1855), collected by F. Moore, contained the "Ballad of Nathan Hale" (anonymous), dated 1776: "Thou pale king of terrors, thou life's gloomy foe, Go frighten the slave; go frighten the slave; Tell tyrants, to you their allegiance they owe. No fears for the brave; no fears for the brave."; and "To the Memory of Capt. Nathan Hale", by Eneas Munson Sr., was written soon after Hale's death:

Munson had tutored Hale before college, and knew him and his family well, so even though the particulars of this speech may be unlikely, Munson knew first-hand what Hale's opinions were.

title: Nathan Hale


text:
User talk:Cavemanf16

Hello Caveman, welcome to Wikipedia.

Good work on Rocky Mountain National Park. The reason I removed the prices was that because these change over time, and the article needs to reflect something long term.

Here are some useful links in case you haven't found them yet;
 * 1) How to edit a page
 * 2) Naming conventions
 * 3) Style guide

There is a sandbox which you can use to experiment in. If you have any questions, see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. Angela 02:15, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Scientology
Hi Caveman. I happen to agree with all those many people about Scientology being an extremely dangerous cult, but having it in the introductory paragraph seems a little too inflammatory (and will only serve to enforce the clamheads' persecution complex anyway.) The words "dangerous cult" are already in the article, but even so it's best to let the facts speak for themselves. I'll take your edit out again but not again after that. Cheers. Robin Johnson 20:31, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cavemanf16


text:
Vanity press

A vanity press or vanity publisher, sometimes also subsidy publisher, is a publishing house where the author pays to have the book published. It is not to be confused with hybrid publishing, where the publisher and author collaborate and share costs and risks, or with assisted self-publishing, where the author pays publishing services to assist with self-publishing their own book, and retains all rights.

Vanity publishing vs mainstream publishing
Mainstream publishers never charge authors to publish their books; the publisher bears all the risks of publication and pays all the costs. Because of that financial risk, mainstream publishers are extremely selective in what they will publish, and reject most manuscripts submitted to them. The high level of rejection is why some authors publish with vanity presses. James D. Macdonald says, "Money should always flow towards the author", a concept sometimes called Yog's Law.

Vanity publishing vs hybrid publishing
Hybrid publishing is the source of debate in the publishing industry, with some viewing hybrid publishers as vanity presses in disguise. However, a true hybrid publisher is selective in what they publish and will share the costs (and therefore the risks) with the author, whereas with a vanity press, the author pays the full cost of production and therefore carries all the risk. The vanity press has absolutely no interest in whether the book is saleable or suitable for publication.

Given the bad reputation of vanity publishing, many vanity presses brand themselves as hybrids, leading to exploitation of writers. The Society of Authors (SoA) and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) have called for reform of the hybrid/paid-for publishing sector. Trade unions representing 14,800 authors jointly published a report to expose widespread bad practices among companies that charge writers to publish their work while taking away their rights.

Vanity publishing vs assisted self-publishing
It is often stated that many famous authors, such as Mark Twain and Jane Austen, have used vanity publishers. This is incorrect and confuses self-publishing with vanity publishing.

In a variant of Yog's law for self-publishing, author John Scalzi has proposed an alternate definition to distinguish self-publishing from vanity publishing: "While in the process of self-publishing, money and rights are controlled by the writer."

Self-publishing is distinguished from vanity publishing by the writer maintaining control of copyright as well as the editorial and publishing process, including marketing and distribution.

Vanity publishing scams
Vanity presses often engage in deceptive practices or offer costly, poor-quality services with limited recourse available to the writer. In the US, these practices have been cited by the Better Business Bureau as unfavorable reports by consumers.

One common scam is when a vanity press pretends to operate a traditional publishing arm, where the publishing house bears the full cost. However, when an author submits his work, he is told it does not quite meet the standards required for traditional publishing, but that the company will still publish it if the author pays for something—engaging their professional editor, committing to buying a large number of copies of the book, or another similar excuse. In reality, the exorbitant fee charged for these services will fully cover the vanity publisher's costs for producing the book. Such a scam is a plot point in Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum.

Vanity publishing in other media
The vanity press model exists for other media such as videos, music and photography. A notable example is ARK Music Factory, which, for a fee, produced and released Rebecca Black's 2011 viral video "Friday".

Vanity academic journals also exist, often called predatory journals, which publish with little or no editorial oversight, although they may claim to be peer reviewed. One such predatory journal, the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology, accepted for publication a paper called Get me off Your Fucking Mailing List consisting of the sentence "Get me off your fucking mailing list." repeated many times.

Vanity photography magazines often have little or no physical circulation, relying instead on the submitting photographers buying the magazine after publication. Some also charge a submission fee. Magazines such as Lucy's, Jute, and Pump – all managed by parent publisher Kavyar – often accept photograph submissions for free, or for a minimal fee to be featured on a magazine cover.

History
The term vanity press appeared in mainstream U.S. publications as early as 1941. In that year, C. M. Flumiani was sentenced to 18 months in a US prison for mail fraud, arising from his scheme that promised book promotion (a line in a catalog), expert editing (they accepted all books), and acting as agent bringing books to his own publishing houses.

By 1956, the three leading American vanity presses (Vantage Press, Exposition Press, and Pageant Press) were each publishing more than 100 titles per year.

Ernest Vincent Wright, author of the 1939 novel Gadsby, written entirely in lipogram, was unable to find a publisher for his work and ultimately chose to publish it through a vanity press.

Examples

 * American Biographical Institute
 * Austin Macauley Publishers (previously Austin & Macauley)
 * Dorrance Publishing
 * Famous Poets Society
 * Poetry.com, The International Library of Poetry
 * Tate Publishing & Enterprises (there are at least three companies called Tate Publishing; the others include a reputable art publisher and a defunct software book publisher)
 * Tellwell Talent, a Canadian-based vanity press best-known for releasing the book Newbia by Chelee Cromwell.
 * Vantage Press

title: Vanity press