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William Tolbert

William Richard Tolbert Jr. (13 May 1913 – 12 April 1980) was a Liberian politician who served as the 20th president of Liberia from 1971 until his assassination in 1980.

Tolbert was an Americo-Liberian and trained as a civil servant before entering the House of Representatives in 1943 for the True Whig Party, then the only established party in Liberia. Tolbert was elected the 23rd vice president of Liberia to William Tubman in 1952 and served in that position until he became President following Tubman's death in 1971. Tolbert's early presidency saw liberal reforms and the adoption of a Non-Alignment stance, but growing economic troubles and tensions between Americo-Liberians and indigenous Liberians led to instability.

Tolbert was assassinated in the 1980 coup d'état by the People's Redemption Council led by Samuel Doe, marking the end of 133 years of Americo-Liberian rule in Liberia.

Background
William Richard Tolbert Jr. was born in Bensonville, Liberia, to William Richard Tolbert Sr. (1869-1948) and Charlotte Augusta Tolbert, née Hoff of Cape Mount, Liberia. The Tolbert and Hoff families were Americo-Liberian families of African American descent and the Hoff family originated from Virginia. William Tolbert Sr. was the son of Daniel Frank Tolbert, a former American slave from South Carolina who emigrated to Liberia in the Liberian exodus of 1878.

Daniel Frank Tolbert, the South Carolinian grandfather of William Tolbert, emigrated to Liberia aboard the barque Azor, alongside several other black South Carolinians who sought to settle in Liberia. The Tolbert clan was one of the largest Americo-Liberian families in Liberia.

He attended Bensonville Elementary School, Crummell Hall Episcopalian High School. He studied at the University of Liberia and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1934. He married Victoria A. David, of Americo-Liberian and Vai descent, with whom he had eight children.

Tolbert was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1943, and served until being elected Vice President in 1951. A Baptist minister, in 1965 he became the first African to serve as President of the Baptist World Alliance, and was also a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. He became Grand Master of the Masonic Order of Liberia.

Vice Presidency (1952-1971)
In 1951 Liberia held elections to decide president and vice president. William Tubman who was president in 1951 chose Tolbert as his vice president. They would go on to win and serve 6 terms until Tubman died in 1971.

On February 1968 William R. Tolbert arrived in Jamaica as a part of his Caribbean tour to meet as many Baptists as possible. He met with the prime minister to address a service at the East Queen Street Baptist Church, and other official functions.

On 23 July, 1971 President William Tubman died in London during a visit which led Tolbert to become president.

Presidency
Tolbert succeeded to the presidency upon the death of incumbent William Tubman in 1971. To the outside world, the peaceful transfer of power was seen as a sign of continuing political stability in Liberia, a stark contrast with the political turmoil gripping much of the rest of Africa at the time. However, Liberia was effectively a one-party state, with the national legislature and judiciary subservient to the executive branch and only limited observation of civil liberties.

Attitude towards opposition and indigenous ethnic groups
Upon becoming president, Tolbert initiated some liberal reforms. Though he was re-elected in 1975, his government was criticized sharply for failing to address the deep economic disparities between different sectors of the population, notably the Americo-Liberians, who had dominated the country since independence, and the various indigenous ethnic groups which constituted the majority of the population.

Because Tolbert was a member of one of the most influential and affluent Americo-Liberian families, everything from cabinet appointments to economic policy was tainted with allegations of nepotism. Thanks to his father who spoke Kpelle, Tolbert was the second Liberian president, after President Stephen Allen Benson, to speak an indigenous language, and he promoted a program to bring more indigenous people into the government.

This initiative caused a good deal of chagrin among Americo-Liberians who accused Tolbert of "letting the peasants into the kitchen." Indeed, it lacked support within Tolbert's own administration. While the indigenous majority felt the change was occurring too slowly, many Americo-Liberians felt it was too rapid.

Despite following Tubman's 27-year presidency, Tolbert refused to follow his predecessor's hold on office until death. He successfully worked for a constitutional amendment to bar the president from serving more than eight years in office, and in 1976 he vowed fierce opposition to members of the Legislature who sought to repeal the amendment and again permit what Tolbert called an "evil tradition". Three years later, when True Whig partisans petitioned him to seek the amendment's repeal, he replied that their statement would only encourage him in his previous position: "I will serve my country as long as I have life. I do not have to [be?] President to do so."

Foreign policy

Abandoning Tubman's strong pro-West foreign policy, Tolbert adopted one which focused on promoting Liberia's political independence. To this end, he established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and several other Eastern Bloc countries, thus adopting a more nonaligned posture.

Sometime in 1974, Tolbert accepted aid from the Soviet Union for the first time. While he was president (1971-1980) Liberia’s relations with the United States strained because of the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviets and Eastern Bloc.

Tolbert severed Liberia's ties with Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 and spoke in favor of recognizing national rights of the Palestinian people. However, Tolbert supported the United States on the Vietnam War, as had his predecessor, William Tubman. Tolbert was chairman of the Organisation of African Unity from July 1979 until he was killed in April 1980.

Economy

Throughout the 1970s, the world price of rubber was depressed, putting pressure on the Liberian economy. Tolbert brought a new approach to the Liberian government's relations with foreign companies. Companies such as Firestone, which had operated for years without being audited by the government, were audited, and forced to pay millions of dollars in back taxes. Old concession agreements were renegotiated, and new concession agreements were negotiated with an emphasis on accountability of the private sector to the Liberian government.

In May 1975, Liberia became a signatory to the treaty that established the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in order to create a common market in West Africa and promote regional economic integration and stability in 15 West African countries, with the intention that it would mirror the success of the European Common Market.

By the late 1970s, Tolbert became increasingly open to overtures of economic assistance from Libya and Cuba. The Libyans were on the verge of starting work on a low-cost housing project in Monrovia when the project was halted by the 1980 coup d'état.

Return of a two-party system
Liberia had been a one-party state since 1877. However, in 1973, the country returned to a two-party system when the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, headed by Gabriel Baccus Matthews, became recognized as a legitimate opposition party.

Maryland County ritual killings
Between 1965 and 1977 over 100 murders occurred around Harper in Maryland County, many of which involved mutilation and the removal of body parts. During the 1970s Liberians in Maryland County were constantly under the threat of ritual murders. Between November 1976 and July 1977, 14 people had disappeared in the county prompting Tolbert to fire the Superintendent of Maryland County, James Daniel Anderson, for failure to report the missing people and publicly declare "Anyone who kills deliberately: The law will kill that person". Twelve suspects were eventually arrested; seven, including four government officials, were convicted and executed.

Rice riots
In early April 1979, Tolbert's minister of agriculture, Florence Chenoweth, proposed an increase in the subsidized price of rice from $22 per 100-pound bag to $26. Chenoweth asserted that the increase would serve as an added inducement for rice farmers to continue farming instead of abandoning their farms for jobs in the cities or on the rubber plantations. Political opponents criticized the proposal as self-serving, pointing out that Chenoweth and the Tolbert family operated large rice farms and would therefore realize a tidy profit from the proposed price increase.

The Progressive Alliance of Liberia called for a peaceful demonstration in Monrovia to protest the proposed price increase. On 14 April about 2,000 activists began what was planned as a peaceful march on the Executive Mansion. The protest march swelled dramatically when the protesters were joined en route by more than 10,000 "back street boys" causing the march to quickly degenerate into a disorderly mob of riot and destruction. Widespread looting ensued with damage to private property estimated at over $40 million. At least 41 demonstrators were killed by shooting. This incident set fire to the powder. During the following year, riots and demonstrations shook the country. Tolbert tried in vain to restore order by arresting the opposition leaders, but his attempts were unsuccessful and the disorder increased. Tolbert's credibility was severely damaged by the Rice Riots.

Coup d'état and death
In March 1980 Tolbert ordered the banning of the PAL, and had Gabriel Bacchus Matthews and the rest of the organization's leadership arrested on charges of treason.

In the early hours of 12 April 1980, 17 non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe launched a violent coup d'état; all of them were "indigenous" Liberians who later became the founding members of the People's Redemption Council, the governing body of the new regime. The group entered the Presidential palace and killed Tolbert, whose body was dumped into a mass grave together with 27 other victims of the coup. A crowd of angry Liberians gathered to shout insults and throw rocks at the bodies. Tolbert's body was later moved to a spot in Monrovia's Palm Grove Cemetery, not far from the bodies of those killed in the Rice Riots.

By the end of the month, most of the cabinet members of the Tolbert administration had been put on trial in a kangaroo court and sentenced to death. Many of them were publicly executed on 22 April at a beach near the Barclay Training Center in Monrovia. Only four of Tolbert's cabinet heads survived the coup and its aftermath; among them was the Minister of Finance, future President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Accounts of Tolbert’s death
Undisputedly, Tolbert was dead by the end of 12 April 1980, the day of the coup d’état. There are competing stories as to the time and manner of his death.

Steven Ellis, in his book Mask of Anarchy, says the president was found sleeping in his office, where the soldiers killed him, while Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's biography, This Child Will Be Great, says Tolbert was seized and killed in his bed.

Family
Some of Tolbert's children live in the US. His brother Stephen A. Tolbert served as his finance minister in the government until his death on 29 April 1975, in a plane crash. One of his sons, A. Benedict Tolbert, was killed in the aftermath of the coup: he had taken refuge in the French Embassy but was arrested by members of Doe's security force who violated diplomatic immunity, and he was reportedly thrown out of a military aircraft while being transported to a prison in Lofa County.

Three of his daughters are no longer alive. Victoria Tolbert Yancy died in 1971, Evelyn Tolbert Richardson (the wife of a government aviator) died in Westchester County, New York, United States, in 1993. and Christine Augusta Tolbert-Norman died from cancer in Cary, North Carolina in 2021. His widow, former First Lady Victoria Tolbert, died in Minnesota on 8 November 1997 at the age of 81. She had moved to the United States after being released from house arrest in the aftermath of the coup. His grandson Tolbert Williams currently lives and works in the UK.

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Tarantism

Tarantism is a form of hysteric behaviour originating in Southern Italy, popularly believed to result from the bite of the wolf spider Lycosa tarantula (distinct from the broad class of spiders also called tarantulas). A better candidate cause is Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, commonly known as the Mediterranean black widow or steppe spider, although no link between such bites and the behaviour of tarantism has ever been demonstrated. However, the term historically is used to refer to a dancing mania – characteristic of Southern Italy – which likely had little to do with spider bites. The tarantella dance supposedly evolved from a therapy for tarantism.

History
It was originally described in the 11th century. The condition was common in Southern Italy, especially in the province of Taranto, during the 16th and 17th centuries. There were strong suggestions that there is no organic cause for the heightened excitability and restlessness that gripped the victims. The stated belief of the time was that victims needed to engage in frenzied dancing to prevent death from tarantism. Supposedly a particular kind of dance, called the tarantella, evolved from this therapy. A prime location for such outbursts was the church at Galatina, particularly at the time of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June. "The dancing is placed under the sign of Saint Paul, whose chapel serves as a "theatre" for the tarantulees' public meetings. The spider seems constantly interchangeable with Saint Paul; the female tarantulees dress as "brides of Saint Paul". As a climax, "the tarantulees, after having danced for a long time, meet together in the chapel of Saint Paul and communally attain the paroxysm of their trance, ... the general and desperate agitation was dominated by the stylised cry of the tarantulees, the 'crisis cry', an ahiii uttered with various modulations". Francesco Cancellieri, in his exhaustive treatise on Tarantism, takes note of semi-scientific, literary, and popular observations, both recent and ancient, giving each similar weight. He notes a report that in August 1693, a doctor in Naples had himself been bitten by two tarantulas, with six witnesses and a notary, but did not suffer the dancing illness. Cancellieri in part attributes this illness not only to the spiders but to the locale, since Tarantism was mainly seen in Basilicata, Apulia, Sicily, and Calabria. He states:

"Quando uno è punto da questa mal augurata bestia, si fanno cento diverse mosse in un momento. Si piange, si balla, si vomita, si trema, si ride, s'impallidisce, si grida, si sviene, si soffre gran dolore, e finalmente dopo qualche giorno si muore, se uno non è soccorso. Il sudore, e gli antidoti sollevano l'ammalato; ma il sovrano, ed unico rimedio è la Musica. "

"When one is in the hold of this ill-wished beast, one has a hundred different feelings at a time. One cries, dances, vomits, trembles, laughs, pales, cries, faints, and one will suffer great pain, and finally after a few days, if unaided, you die. Sweat and antidotes relieve the sick, but the sovereign and the only remedy is Music."

He goes on to describe some specific observations of the malady, typically afflicting peasants, alone or in groups. The malady typically affected peasants on hot summer days, causing indolence. Then he describes how only treatment through dancing music could restore them to vitality; for example:

"[...] e trovammo il misero contadino oppresso da difficile respirazione, ed osservammo inoltre, che la faccia, e le mani erano incominciate a divenir nere. E perchè il suo male era a tutti noto, si portò la Chitarra, la cui armonìa subito, che da lui fu intesa, cominciò a mover prima li piedi, poco dipoi le gambe. Si reggeva appresso sulle ginocchia. Indi a poco intervallo s'alzò passenggiando. Finalmente fra lo spazio di un quarto d'ora saltava si, che si sollevava ben tre palmi da terra. Sospirava, ma con empito sì grande, che portava terrore a' circostanti; e prima d'un'ora se gli tolse il nero dalle mani, e dal viso, riacquistando il suo natio colore."

"[...] and we found the poor peasant oppressed with difficult breathing, and we observed also that the face and hands had started to become black. And 'cause his illness was known to all, a guitar was brought, whose harmony immediately that he was understood, began first moving the feet, legs shortly afterwards. He stood on his knees. Soon after an interval he arose swaying. Finally, in the space of a quarter of an hour he was leaping, nearly three palms from the ground. Sighed, but with such great impetus, that it terrorised bystanders, and before an hour, the black was gone from his hands and face, and he regained his native colour."

Interpretation and controversy
John Crompton proposed that ancient Bacchanalian rites that had been suppressed by the Roman Senate in 186 BC went underground, reappearing under the guise of emergency therapy for bite victims. Although the popular belief persists that tarantism results from a spider bite, it remains scientifically unsubstantiated. Donaldson, Cavanagh, and Rankin (1997) conclude that the actual cause or causes of tarantism remain unknown.

Modern times
In recent years, tarantism has been defined by its connection to dance and music. In the 1990s and 2000s, people began rediscovering the genre of Tarantella, and in particular, the pizzica. In 1998, Salento began hosting an annual music festival, Notte della Taranta. Musicians tour throughout the region, and the festival culminates with a large late-night concert held in Melpignano. Composer and musician, Ludovico Einaudi directed the festival in 2010 and 2011, and released his album Taranta Project in 2015.

Cultural references
Many historical and cultural references are associated with this disease and the ensuing "cure" – the tarantella. It is, for example, a key image in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and the spell "Tarantallegra" from the Harry Potter series. It was also mentioned in the novel 39 Clues: Superspecial Outbreak. The mention of the spider "tarantula" and description of its venom and the associated addiction has been depicted in the Indian television show "Byomkesh Bakshi" in episode 4 titled "Makdi ka Ras/makorshar rawsh".

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

title: Tarantism


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Talk:July 14

July 13th Edit-protected, needs to have Grant Imahara's death added for 2020
Grant Imahara was an electrical engineer, roboticist, and television host, best known for his work on the television series MythBusters, in which he designed and built numerous robots that were needed for the show, and specialized in operating the various computers and electronics that were utilized to test myths.

He died on July 13th, 2020 of a brain aneurysm suddenly rupturing.

I'd add this myself, but it seems July 13th is edit-protected (including the talk page), despite the fact that other calendar days are not. Thanks, 104.220.64.80 (talk) 04:56, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * The reason it's protected is that anon contributors are constantly adding nonentities or unreferenced entries to the list. Nothing can be added without a citation to back up the date. Deb (talk) 08:12, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

Where are all the recent births?
This article only lists four births on this date from after 1950, which is really strange--the day before, for example, has 77. There are certainly prominent current people with their own Wikipedia articles born on this date but not included, such as Conor McGregor and Loni Love. Am I missing something? Brettalan (talk) 04:05, 14 July 2021 (UTC) References for dates of birth are often difficult to find for current "celebrities", and new entries are not allowed without such references. Deb (talk) 08:10, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Page tagged
Unfortunately the addition of large numbers of relatively minor US celebrities has caused the Births and Deaths sections of this article to become very unbalanced, and this needs to be addressed. Deb (talk) 05:19, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:July 14


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Hysteria (Def Leppard album)

Hysteria is the fourth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 3 August 1987, by Phonogram Records. The album is the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough, Pyromania. Hysteria's creation took over three years and was plagued by delays, including the aftermath of drummer Rick Allen's accident that cost him his left arm on 31 December 1984. Subsequent to the album's release, Def Leppard published a book titled Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story, written by Rolling Stone magazine senior editor David Fricke, on the three-year recording process of Hysteria and the difficult times the band endured through the mid-1980s. Lasting 62 minutes and 32 seconds, it is the band's longest studio album to date. The album was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The title of the album was conceived by Allen referring to his car accident, the amputation of his arm, and the ensuing worldwide media coverage surrounding it. It is the last album to feature guitarist Steve Clark before his death in 1991, although songs co-written by him would appear on the band's next album, Adrenalize (1992).

Hysteria was an instant commercial success, reaching number one on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. It is Def Leppard's best-selling album to date, selling over 20 million copies worldwide, including 12 million in the US, and spawned seven hit singles. It remains one of the best-selling albums of all time.

History
Soon after completing the Pyromania tour in February 1984, the band commenced writing and pre-production for what became Hysteria in Dublin, using Fostex 4-track cassette recorders to capture ideas. Early sketches of "Animal", "Gods Of War" and "Armageddon It" were developed during this period. Lange joined them to help with writing and arrangements, but at late notice informed the group he could not commit to producing the album due to burnout from a gruelling schedule from the past few years. Thus, they had to find another producer who was available and they went with Jim Steinman.

Sessions with Steinman began at Wisseloord Studios on 11 August 1984, with Neil Dorfsman as engineer. However, it became clear that Steinman was not the right producer for them, that his standards were not as high as Lange's: Steinman's intention to make a raw-sounding record that captured the moment conflicted with the band's interest in creating a bigger, more pristine pop production. As singer Joe Elliott observed, "[Steinman] wouldn't adapt and we wouldn't compromise", and by October 1984 Steinman was ousted from the project. Dorfsman could not see the album through as he had commitments to work with Dire Straits on what became Brothers in Arms – he would later mention that they "barely [had] drums and bass on seven songs" after three months of work.

After parting ways with Steinman and scrapping the material from those sessions, the band tried to produce the album themselves with Lange's engineer Nigel Green. However, as Steve Clark recalled, "it was very slow work because we didn't have any sort of headmaster there, and we had to try everything five different ways."

On 31 December 1984, Rick Allen lost his left arm when his Corvette (C4) flipped off a country road. Following the accident, the band stood by Allen's decision to return to the drum kit despite his disability, using a combination electronic/acoustic kit with a set of electronic pedals that triggered (via MIDI) the sounds that he would have played with his left arm. The band slowly continued production until Lange returned in the summer of 1985 for vocal sessions in Paris. However, Lange soon felt that the material recorded so far (which ended up sounding close to Pyromania) needed work, leading to another 18 months in the studio. However, the sessions were further delayed by Lange's own auto accident (sustaining leg injuries from which he quickly recovered) and a bout of the mumps suffered by singer Joe Elliott in late 1986.

Hysteria was recorded in a piecemeal way like the previous two albums, with individual parts (or notes, even) being recorded separately. The guitars were recorded first to a LinnDrum click track, which gave Lange and the band the flexibility to re-write and re-record parts of the song as they went along. Then, once the arrangements were finalised, the bass and drums were added towards the end of the recording.

The final recording sessions took place in January 1987 for the song "Armageddon It" and a last-minute composition "Pour Some Sugar on Me", though Lange spent another three months mixing the tracks. The album was finally released worldwide on 3 August 1987, with "Animal" as the lead single in most countries except for the US and Canada where "Women" was the first single.

Concept
The album's goal, set out by Lange, was to be a hard rock version of Michael Jackson's Thriller, in that every track was a potential hit single. Songs were therefore written with this concept in mind, disappointing heavy metal fans who clamoured for a straight sequel to the band's previous album, Pyromania. One song, "Love Bites", was already mostly written in the vein of a country ballad by Mutt Lange when he brought it to the band's attention.

While Pyromania contained traces of Def Leppard's original traditional heavy metal sound found on their first two albums, Hysteria removed them in favour of the latest sonic technology available at the time (best displayed on "Rocket", "Love Bites", "Excitable", and "Gods of War"). As with Pyromania, every song was recorded by every member in the studio separately instead of the whole band. The multiple vocal harmonies were enhanced by Lange's techniques, even pitching background vocals on all tracks. Guitar parts were now focused more on emphasising melody than hard rock's more basic and clichéd riffs.

The band used the Rockman amplifier, developed by guitarist Tom Scholz from the rock band Boston, to record the album. Engineer Mike Shipley described the Rockman as "a shitty little box" with "a godawful sound" that "had no real balls to it", but it was used because the other amplifiers used had an excessively "crunchy" sound ill-suited to layering guitars and which Lange did not think was "commercial" enough.

In addition, all of the album's drum sounds were samples recorded by Lange and the engineers, then played from the Fairlight CMI. In a 1999 interview with Mix magazine, Shipley noted, "Pyromania was done the same way, on cheesy 8-bit Fairlight technology where we had to figure out how to record everything at half speed into the Fairlight to make it sound like it had some tone to it, and we'd be stacking up a bunch of snares and bass drums." Shipley also noted that the drum sounds were dealt with last because each song's structure could change so radically, and because of technical difficulties. This unique approach sometimes led to painstaking lengths of time in the recording studio.

The smash single, "Pour Some Sugar on Me", was the last song written but was quickly finished within two weeks. In sharp contrast, the final version of "Animal" took almost a full three years to be developed but was not as successful as other singles, only reaching number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Commercial performance
David Simone, managing director of Phonogram Records at the time, said the album might have been the most expensive record made in the UK. According to guitarist Phil Collen, the album had to sell a minimum of 5 million copies to break even.

The popularity of Def Leppard in their homeland had significantly grown over the previous four years, and Hysteria topped the charts in Britain in its first week of release. The album was also a major success in other parts of Europe. In the US, however, the band initially struggled to regain the momentum of Pyromania that was lost from such a prolonged absence. The leadoff track, "Women", was selected as the first single for the US and Canada, instead of "Animal", in July 1987. Then-manager Cliff Burnstein reasoned that the band needed to reconnect with their hard rock audience first before issuing more top 40-friendly singles. "Women" became a top ten hit on the rock chart, peaking at number seven, but as predicted, did not make a large impact on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 80.

The success of the album's fourth single, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" would propel the album to the top of the US Billboard 200 albums chart on 23 July 1988, nearly a year after its release – topping the chart three separate times for a combined total of six weeks. Seven singles were eventually released in the United States, with "Love Bites" reaching number one, and three others reaching the top ten. The singles earned similar success in the United Kingdom. In the Billboard issue dated 8 October 1988, Def Leppard held the number one spot on both the singles and album charts with "Love Bites" and Hysteria, respectively.

Hysteria went on to dominate album charts around the world for three years. It was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA in 1998. The album currently sits as the 51st best selling album of all time in the US. It spent 96 weeks in the US top 40, a record for the 1980s it ties with Born in the U.S.A. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Speaking to Kerrang! in May 2008 about the album's success, Joe Elliott remembered: "For us the first album showed promise, the second showed the true reality of where we were going, the third album worked better in America than it did in England simply because there was no exposure radio-wise over here but by the time we did Hysteria, everything had fallen into place. Airplay and hit singles were one aspect of it but there was also all the hard work we put into the album – we literally did slave over it to get every sound on it right. There was also Rick's accident, of course, and to be honest, I'm sure there was the initial wave of sympathy but I'm equally sure the album would have still worked anyway. None of the other stuff – the touring, the promotion, the videos – none of that would have meant anything if the songs hadn't been there and I'm still really proud of all the songs on Hysteria." On 24 October 2006, a 2-CD "deluxe edition" of the album was released, including a remastering of the original b-sides and bonus tracks from the album's period. These songs include "Tear It Down", "I Wanna Be Your Hero", "Ride Into The Sun" (originally released in 1979 on The Def Leppard E.P.) and "Ring of Fire". Many of these songs, alongside two other Hysteria compositions "Desert Song" and "Fractured Love", had been featured on Retro Active, albeit with remixes, revamps, and new parts added. The deluxe edition Hysteria CD included the original b-side versions of these recordings without alterations.

Another song, "Tonight" was originally recorded on 5 May 1988 during a break in the Hysteria World Tour as a possible b-side to one of the album's upcoming singles. The song was shelved and later re-recorded for the Adrenalize album. The 1988 demo version, which includes Steve Clark on guitar, was eventually released on various CD singles, album deluxe editions and box sets.

Finally, a very tongue in cheek cover of "Release Me" which was made famous by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967 was released as a b-side under the guise of Stumpus Maximus and the Good Ol' Boys. Stumpus Maximus was Malvin Mortimer, a member of the band's road crew who later became their tour manager. The Good Ol' Boys were the members of Def Leppard, singing backup on what is essentially a parody version of the song.

During their 22 March to 10 April 2013 residency at The Joint, Def Leppard performed the album in its entirety, from start to finish. This was followed up with a live album Viva! Hysteria, recorded during the residency and released on 22 October 2013, which includes all of band's fourth studio album being played live.

This would be followed up seven years later as Hysteria: Live at the O2 was released on 29 May 2020, as part of the London to Vegas box set. The live concert was filmed at The O2 Arena in London, England on 6 December 2018, as the band once again played the album in its entirety. Various releases have included a stand-alone edition of this concert have featured combinations of audio, DVD and blu-ray discs.

In the liner notes to the album, the band apologized for the long wait between albums, and promised to never force fans to wait that long between albums again. However, later events, particularly the death of lead guitarist Steve Clark, delayed the next album, Adrenalize, by almost five years.

Critical reception
Hysteria received generally positive reviews. AllMusic's Steve Huey awarded it five stars, stating, "Pyromania's slick, layered Mutt Lange production turned into a painstaking obsession with dense sonic detail on Hysteria, with the result that some critics dismissed the record as a stiff, mechanized pop sell-out (perhaps due in part to Rick Allen's new, partially electronic drum kit)." Huey characterized the album as "pop metal" rather than heavy metal, with reference to the production of Mutt Lange, and called it "arguably the best pop-metal album ever recorded".

In 2005, Hysteria was ranked number 464 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. Hysteria got the same placement on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 best albums of all time, the magazine also ranked the album atop its list of the 50 greatest hair metal albums, and they placed the album on their list of "50 Rock Albums Every Country Fan Should Own". Loudwire placed the album at number two on their list of the top 30 hair metal albums. Hysteria was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. L.A. Weekly and Consequence of Sound both ranked the album number eight on their Hair Metal album lists. Metal Rules put the album on their list of the Top 50 Glam Metal Albums, at number 30. The Ringer called Hysteria "the greatest hair-metal album ever made".

"I can say objectively – because I wasn't in the band then – that Hysteria is one of the greatest records of all time," remarked Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell.

2006 deluxe edition

 * Notes
 * "Rocket" samples dialogue from NASA's Apollo 11 launch as spoken by Jack King.
 * "Gods of War" samples speeches from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher during the coda.
 * "Rock of Ages" (medley) includes "Not Fade Away", "My Generation", "Radar Love", "Come Together" and "Whole Lotta Love"

30th anniversary editions
On 4 August 2017, the band released 30th Anniversary editions of the album. This included remasters of the original songs, B-sides and remixes from the albums era on two discs, the Classic Albums documentary episode of the making of the album, and an audio only version of the Live: In the Round, in Your Face video, recorded in Denver, Colorado at McNichols Sports Arena on 12 and 13 February 1988. This release omits four songs from the concert: "Don't Shoot Shotgun", "Let It Go", "Tear It Down" and "Travelin' Band" (a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover) as well as a Steve Clark guitar solo. Two songs, "Armageddon It" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me", were performed twice in order to record music videos.

 * Notes
 * *Mislabeled as "Lunar Mix (radio edit)", this is a rare promo mix edited from the album version. It differs heavily from the actual Lunar Mix radio edit, which contains elements from both the album version and the full-length Lunar Mix and cuts the second verse in half. The version used for the music video and for Vault significantly shortens the bridge section of the Lunar Mix radio edit.

Def Leppard

 * Joe Elliott – vocals
 * Phil Collen – guitars, backing vocals
 * Steve Clark – guitars, backing vocals
 * Rick Savage – bass, backing vocals, jangle guitar on "Hysteria"
 * Rick Allen – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

 * The Bankrupt Brothers (Def Leppard, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Rocky Newton) – backing vocals
 * Gary Kemp – additional backing vocals on "Animal" (uncredited)

Production

 * Robert John "Mutt" Lange – producer
 * Nigel Green – engineering, production assistance, mixing
 * Ronald Prent – engineering
 * Erwin Musper – engineering
 * Pete Woolliscroft – engineering
 * Mark Flannery – tape operation
 * Philip "Art School" Nicholas – Fairlight CMI programming
 * Mike Shipley – mixing
 * Bob Ludwig – mastering
 * Howie Weinberg – mastering
 * Ross Halfin – photography
 * Laurie Lewis – photography
 * Andie Airfix (Satori) – illustration, artwork and design

title: Hysteria (Def Leppard album)


text:
Tarantella

Tarantella is a group of various southern Italian folk dances originating in the regions of Calabria, Campania and Puglia. It is characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in time (sometimes  or ), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized forms of traditional southern Italian music. The specific dance-name varies with every region, for instance Sonu a ballu in Calabria, tammurriata in Campania, and pizzica in Salento. Tarantella is popular in Southern Italy, Greece, Malta, and Argentina. The term may appear as tarantello in a linguistically masculine construction.

History

The nowadays southern part of Italy was not part of a single country until the mid to late 19th century. The place was a colony of ancient Greece, and even Napoli ("Naples") comes from the Greek word "Neapolis," which means "New City." Before the Unification of Italy, it was part of the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily ("Sikelia" is the original name of this island as a colony of Ancient Greece), and later the Kingdom of Two Sicilies when the two reigns merged. Before the Unification of Italy, it was ruled by Spain and briefly by Austria. There was the ancient Greek city of Tarantas found by Spartans.

In the Italian province of Taranto (taking its name from Tarantas), Apulia, the bite of a locally common type of wolf spider ("Lycos" in Greek means "wolf"), named "tarantula" after the region, was popularly believed to be highly venomous and to lead to a hysterical condition known as tarantism. This type of dance became known as the "tarantella". R. Lowe Thompson proposed that the dance is a survival from a "Dianic or Dionysiac cult", driven underground. John Compton later proposed that the Roman Senate had suppressed these ancient Bacchanalian rites. In 186 BC, the tarantella went underground, reappearing under the guise of emergency therapy for bite victims.

Courtship versus tarantism dances
The stately courtship tarantella danced by a couple or couples, short in duration, is graceful and elegant and features characteristic music. On the other hand, the supposedly curative or symptomatic tarantella was danced solo by a victim of a Lycosa tarantula spider bite (not to be confused with what is commonly known as a tarantula today); it was agitated in character, lasted for hours or even up to days, and featured characteristic music. However, other forms of the dance were and still are dances of couples usually either mimicking courtship or a sword fight. The confusion appears to derive from the fact that the spiders, the condition, its sufferers (tarantolati), and the dances all have names similar to the city of Taranto.

The dance originated in the Apulia region, and spread throughout the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Neapolitan tarantella is a courtship dance performed by couples whose "rhythms, melodies, gestures, and accompanying songs are quite distinct" featuring faster more cheerful music. Its origins may further lie in "a fifteenth-century fusion between the Spanish Fandango and the Moresque ballo di sfessartia". The "magico-religious" tarantella is a solo dance performed supposedly to cure through perspiration the delirium and contortions attributed to the bite of a spider at harvest (summer) time. The dance was later applied as a supposed cure for the behavior of neurotic women (carnevaletto delle donne).

There are several traditional tarantella groups: Cantori di Carpino, Officina Zoé, Uccio Aloisi gruppu, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Selva Cupina, I Tamburellisti di Torrepaduli.

The tarantella is most frequently played with a mandolin, a guitar, an accordion and tambourines; flute, fiddle, trumpet and clarinet are also used.

The tarantella is a dance in which the dancer and the drum player constantly try to upstage each other by playing faster or dancing longer than the other, subsequently tiring one person out first.

Tarantism
Tarantism, as a ritual, is supposed to have roots in the ancient myths. Reportedly, victims who had collapsed or were convulsing would begin to dance with appropriate music and be revived as if a tarantula had bitten them. The music used to treat dancing mania appears to be similar to that used in the case of tarantism though little is known about either. Justus Hecker (1795–1850), describes in his work Epidemics of the Middle Ages: "A convulsion infuriated the human frame [...]. Entire communities of people would join hands, dance, leap, scream, and shake for hours [...]. Music appeared to be the only means of combating the strange epidemic [...] lively, shrill tunes, played on trumpets and fifes, excited the dancers; soft, calm harmonies, graduated from fast to slow, high to low, prove efficacious for the cure." The music used against spider bites featured drums and clarinets, was matched to the pace of the victim, and is only weakly connected to its later depiction in the tarantellas of Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Heller.

While most serious proponents speculated as to the direct physical benefits of the dancing rather than the power of the music, a mid-18th century medical textbook gets the prevailing story backwards, describing that tarantulas will be compelled to dance by violin music. It was thought that the Lycosa tarantula wolf spider had lent the name "tarantula" to an unrelated family of spiders, having been the species associated with Taranto, but since L. tarantula is not inherently deadly, the highly venomous Mediterranean black widow, Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, may have been the species originally associated with Taranto's manual grain harvest.

Relevant literature

 * Inserra, Incoronata. 2017. Global Tarantella: Reinventing Southern Italian Folk Music and Dances. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press. 226 pages. ISBN 978-0-252-08283-2.

title: Tarantella


text:
University of Tirana

The University of Tirana (Universiteti I Tiranës, abbreviated UT) is a public university located at the central borough of Tirana 10 in Tirana, Albania. It was established as the State University of Tirana (SUT) in 1957 through merging of five existing institutes of higher education.

The main building was planned by Italian architect, Gherardo Bosio at the beginning of 1940. It is situated at the Mother Teresa Square, south of the city center of Tirana.

The primary language of instruction is Albanian, but there are a number of faculties of foreign languages which are carried out in English, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese and other languages.

The University of Tirana was founded in 1957 as the State University of Tirana (Universiteti Shtetëror i Tiranës), through the merging of five existing institutes of higher education, the most important of which was the Institute of Sciences, founded in 1947. Immediately after the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985, the university was renamed the Enver Hoxha University of Tirana (Universiteti i Tiranës Enver Hoxha) until 1992.

Academics and size
The university is the largest and highest ranking university in Albania. It includes eight colleges, 50 academic departments, and 41 study programs or majors. Most programs are offered in Tirana; a few smaller affiliated campuses are located in other Albanian cities, including Saranda in the southern part of the country and Kukës in the north. It offers three-year Bachelor, one- or two-year Master, and three- to five-year doctorate degree programs, in accordance with the Bologna system.

The current campus is urban and decentralised. A new large and centralised campus has been planned in the southeast periphery of Tirana. Students dorms are grouped in a separate location called Student City (Qyteti Studenti) in southeast Tirana.

UT is the biggest university in Albania, and among the biggest in Europe with 35 000 students. In 2013 the college accepted 95 new Ph.D. students. These are students in possession of bachelor's degrees.

Faculties and departments

 * Faculty of Social Sciences
 * Faculty of Natural Sciences
 * Faculty of History and Philology
 * Faculty of Law
 * Faculty of Economic Sciences
 * Faculty of Foreign Languages
 * Department of Physical Education

Notable people

 * Sali Berisha (born 1944), cardiologist, President of Albania and Prime Minister
 * Shpresa Gjongecaj (born 1952), Professor of Numismatics
 * Odhise Grillo, writer of children's books
 * Nexhmije Hoxha (1921–2020), politician
 * Shefki Hysa, writer and journalist
 * Helena Kadare (born 1943), author
 * Ismail Kadare (1936—2024), novelist and poet, winner of the 2005 Man Booker International Prize, the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award, and the 2015 Jerusalem Prize.
 * Harilla Papajorgji (1933–2019), politician and professor
 * Ardian Klosi (1957–2012), publicist and activist
 * Dhori Kule (born 1957), Rector of the University of Tirana
 * Pandeli Majko (born 1967), politician
 * Jakup Mato (1934–2005), publicist and educational administrator
 * Laura Mersini-Houghton, cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and professor
 * Ilir Meta (born 1969), Albanian President
 * Fatos Nano (born 1952), Prime Minister of Albania, member of the Albanian Parliament
 * Anila Paparisto, entomologist and 2002 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards recipient.
 * Drita Ziri, tv host and Miss Earth 2023

title: University of Tirana


text:
Adrenalize

Adrenalize is the fifth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 31 March 1992 through Mercury Records. It is the first album by the band recorded without guitarist Steve Clark, who died in 1991, although most songs were written and partially demoed before his death, they were re-recorded solo by Phil Collen in 1991-1992. It is the only album recorded by Def Leppard as a four-member band. Spawning seven singles, four of them – "Let's Get Rocked", "Make Love Like a Man", "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad", and "Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)" – were major hits.

"Tear It Down" is a re-recording of a song written during a recording session following the completion of the Hysteria album, and released as B-side for that album's single "Women" in 1987. The song received radio airplay and was performed by the band live at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.

"White Lightning" is dedicated to the memory of Clark, who has writing credits on six of the album's ten tracks.

Background
Def Leppard had faced long delays, and the challenge of drummer Rick Allen losing his arm while making their previous album, Hysteria, and while trying to follow up the success, they also faced the prospect of doing so with a different producer, as Robert John "Mutt" Lange was already working with Bryan Adams. At the same time guitarist Steve Clark had been suffering from alcohol addiction since 1989, spending six sessions in rehab. Clark was involved in writing six of the songs on the album, but was given an ultimatum over his alcoholism in September 1990, and put on a six-month leave of absence. Clark died four months later, in January 1991.

The band tried to continue the recording process, going back into the studio the day after Clark's death to cope with the loss, but it took a few months before they were able to work to what they felt was a satisfactory standard.

Recording
Instead of replacing Clark with a new member, the band recorded the album as a four-piece. "We had recorded demos on multitrack," recalled fellow guitarist Phil Collen. "I was sitting there with him when he played the original parts. I could relay that. But it was like playing along to a ghost."

This was also the band's first album since 1980's On Through the Night not to be produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Instead, the band took matters in their own hands and produced the album themselves along with longtime engineer Mike Shipley; with Lange credited as executive producer.

"We coped without Mutt quite well…" recalled Joe Elliott. "Mutt was in his studio in Guildford with Bryan Adams and we'd be in Dublin, talking every day… But it wasn't as adventurous as Hysteria. It was more of a rock album, less experimental. It's like with Pink Floyd: to me, Adrenalize was our Wish You Were Here and Hysteria was our Dark Side of the Moon."

Commercial performance and reception
Adrenalize debuted at No. 1 on both the UK Albums Chart and, in the following week, on the U.S. Billboard 200. It stayed at No. 1 of the Billboard chart for five weeks keeping Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch off the top spot, and spent 65 weeks on the charts in total.

The album received mixed reviews: some critics praised its production values and instantly catchy and radio-friendly material, while others called it tired and formulaic. In a four-star review for Rolling Stone, J.D. Considine wrote: "Adrenalize is so relentlessly catchy that it almost seems as if the band is about to abandon its heavy-metal roots for the greener fields of hard pop." Other reviewers also noted the album's less metal sound and pointed out its lack of cohesion. A staff writer for Sputnikmusic said that, despite the slick production, the album doesn't match the standard set by the band's previous two records, which they referred to as masterpieces."

Writing in 2009, after Pyromania and Adrenalize have been reissued, Toby Cook of The Quietus said that, despite Adrenalize 's many flaws, "the record buying public of '92 cared not." Indeed, the album would go on to sell more than seven million copies worldwide, remaining Def Leppard's last studio album to achieve major mainstream success.

Deluxe edition (Bonus CD)

 * Tracks 1–4 are taken from the band's In the Clubs... In Your Face EP, recorded at Bonn, Germany, on 29 May 1992
 * Tracks 5 & 6 taken from "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" single.
 * Tracks 7 & 8 taken from "Tonight" single.
 * Track 9 taken from "Make Love Like a Man" UK single and "Two Steps Behind" US single.
 * Track 10 taken from "Two Steps Behind" single.
 * Tracks 11 & 12 taken from "Let's Get Rocked" single.

Personnel

 * Joe Elliott – lead vocals, backing vocals
 * Phil Collen – lead and rhythm guitars (except acoustic guitar on "Tonight"), backing vocals, Cockney rhyming rap on "Make Love Like a Man"
 * Rick Savage – bass guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar on "Tonight"
 * Rick Allen – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

 * The Sideways Mob – backing vocals
 * Robert John "Mutt" Lange, John Sykes – backing vocals
 * Phil "Crash" Nicholas – keyboards on "Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)"
 * Pete Woodroffe - additional guitar on "Let's Get Rocked"

Production

 * Mike "Bat Ears" Shipley – producer, engineer, mixing
 * Def Leppard – producer
 * Pete Woodroffe – engineer, programming, sequencing
 * Robert John "Mutt" Lange – executive producer
 * Robert Scovill – assistant engineer
 * Bob Ludwig – mastering
 * Andie Airfix – art direction
 * Pamela Springsteen – photography

title: Adrenalize


text:
Sid Abel

Sidney Gerald Abel (February 22, 1918 – February 8, 2000) was a Canadian Hall of Fame hockey player, coach and general manager in the National Hockey League, most notably for the Detroit Red Wings, and was a member of Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1943, 1950, and 1952. In 2017 Abel was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.

Playing career
Born in Melville, Saskatchewan, Abel, or "Old Bootnose" as he was known, played junior hockey with the Flin Flon Bombers and joined the Red Wings in 1938. He split the next two seasons between the Red Wings and their affiliates in the International-American Hockey League before becoming a full-time player in 1940. He was named captain of the Red Wings in 1942.

In 1943, Abel left the Red Wings to serve with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. During this time he skated with the RCAF team in Montreal. Abel was demobilized late in the 1946 season; he rejoined the Red Wings just in time for the playoffs and regained the team captaincy.

In 1947, Red Wings' coach Jack Adams placed Abel and Ted Lindsay on a forward line with rookie right winger Gordie Howe. Although Abel was slowed down by an attack of pleurisy late that season, the line led the team to a playoff berth. The following season, Lindsay, Abel and Howe finished first, third and fourth respectively in team scoring, and led the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup Finals.

By the 1949 season, the newly dubbed "Production Line" led the Wings to the first of seven consecutive first-place finishes, an NHL record still standing today, although Howe and Lindsay were hampered by serious injuries that cost them much playing time. Abel was tied with Lindsay for third in NHL scoring and led the league in goals, and he recorded career highs in goals and assists. He was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player, and was named to the First All-Star team.

The next three seasons saw Abel lead the Production Line over all other forward lines in points, and in 1949-50 Lindsay, Abel and Howe finished in the top three in league scoring, equalling the feat of the famed "Kraut Line" of the Boston Bruins in 1939-40. In 1950 Abel was again named to the First All-Star team and won his second Stanley Cup, and in 1950 he was named Second Team All-Star.

Abel was sold to the Chicago Black Hawks in 1952, and was named coach of his new team. He served as player-coach for the next two seasons, the last full-time player-head coach in NHL history.

Though his No. 12 was honoured by the Wings, Abel also wore 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 19 and 20 throughout his career. He wore most of these numbers during his first two seasons, when he split time between the Red Wings and the minors, before settling on number 12. He wore 9 after his return from the RCAF at the end of the 1945–46 season, as Joe Carveth had taken 12 during Abel's military service, and Abel regained 12 in 1946 when Carveth was traded to the Boston Bruins.

Coaching
Abel was the head coach of the Chicago Black Hawks for two seasons from 1952 to 1954. He returned to the Red Wings in 1957–58 and served as Detroit's head coach through the 1969–70 season. Abel also served as the Red Wings' general manager from April 1962 to January 1971.

In 1974 Abel was named general manager of the expansion Kansas City Scouts and served through the 1975–76 season, after which the franchise relocated to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies. Abel served as coach of the Scouts for three games in 1975-76 following the resignation of Bep Guidolin.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Abel worked as a colour commentator on Red Wings radio and television broadcasts beside play-by-play announcer Bruce Martyn.

Legacy
Sid Abel was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969. In 1998, he was ranked number 85 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

Abel's older brother George played for Canada's hockey team at the 1952 Olympics in Oslo, Norway. George scored the winning goal in the final game, securing the only gold medal for Canada that year. Sid's son Gerry played briefly in the NHL, and his grandson Brent Johnson is a goaltender who played several years in the NHL. Sid's son-in-law Bob Johnson was also a goaltender in the NHL.

Abel died on February 8, 2000, fourteen days before his 82nd birthday.

Awards and achievements

 * 2-time NHL first team All-Star (1949, 1950)
 * 2-time NHL second team All-Star (1942, 1951)
 * 3-time Stanley Cup champion (1943, 1950, 1952)
 * Hart Memorial Trophy (1949)
 * Detroit Red Wings #12 retired on April 29, 1995
 * Named part of the first group of players on the list of '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history, in January 2017.

title: Sid Abel


text:
Talk:Michael Cunningham

2003
Yesterday I created an article for "The Hours" novelist Michael Cunningham. As I would have expected there are a number of extant articles that already link to this page. But, there's also a link to it from what's obviously different Michael Cunningham in the article: September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/City of New York casualties which is now erroneously linked to the new article. I'm not sure how to proceed. Can someone help? Thanks. Bill 07:51 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Normally, as 'your' Michael Cunningham is the more famous, the thing to do would be to rename the other one to something like Michael Cunningham (bond broker), and have a brief note at the bottom of Michael Cunningham noting his existence; however, as there's not mention of his profession, I suppose one should move him to Michael Cunningham (author), and at Michael Cunningham put a disambiguation page.
 * HTH.
 * James F. 08:23 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Liking my idea too much, I went ahead and did it.
 * James F. 08:33 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Please restore as it was. The solution is to unlink the name of "Michael Cunningham, who died in the 11th of September 2001 terrorist attacks", who is not encyclopedia material -- Tarquin 08:55 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * This was my first instinct, but I wasn't sure it was proper. Thanks. But since the namespace Michael Cunningham is now occupied by a disambiguation page won't this require administrator intervention? Bill 09:00 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * No, disambiguation pages are just normal pages with some special code in them. You can edit them in the normal way. CGS 11:48 24 Jul 2003 (UTC).

 * yes.... but i think Bill means an admin needs to delete the disamb to then move back the origianl page. -- Tarquin 12:10 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Indeed, Tarquin is correct; if some kind admin will delete the disambiguation page, I'll patch things up from there. Please?  Bill 16:10 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * To unlink one name out of thousands appearing on the page seems at best arbitrary, surely? I don't think the Michael Cunningham should be on the Wikipedia either, but I haven't the time to re-edit the source page to strip out all the persons' links from that page. This way is, if not good, possible.
 * Perhaps I was and am being overly cautious and lazy, though.
 * If people want me to undo the 'damage' I have done, I'm happy to. Sorry about this.
 * James F. 16:18 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * It's not really arbitrary. It's the one instance (AFAIK) of an unpopulated link on the page that's inhibiting rational use of the Wikipedia namespace.  I do agree that theoretically all the unpopulated links should be removed.  Most of them will never have articles.  If someone wants to create an article for any of these people, they can create the link when they create the article. Bill 16:54 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * I found 4 by cursory random glancing at sucessful links (no, I don't remember which ones, as I was just checking), so I'd guess there are quite a few of these. Some of them (very few) are sucessful links and also point to what they were meant to; working out which ones are which is only do-able by a human, and stripping off all of the links would be a step in the wrong direction.
 * Maybe it's just me, but I find stop-gap measures undesirable.
 * James F. 19:10 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * You're missing my point, I think. It's the unpopulated links (those that are displayed in red) that I'm addressing.  I have no problem with the links that point to real articles.  However, it's not worth the struggle.  I had some more work to do with the Cunningham article and links thereto and my main concern is that the article name remain stable. Bill 20:37 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Moved back
Obviously, the author's article belongs here. Whenever we have one person immensely (or even just noticeably) more famous than the other, we reserve the main article title for that person e.g. Paul Simon, John Adams, and others. --Jiang 01:55, 5 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Author Photo
Is it possible to add a photo of Cunningham? I think he should have one.--NYKenny 12:45, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Specimen Days
The article falsely states that "Specimen Days" 'was not well received by American critics'; on metacritic.com, it has a score of 74 out of 100 (generally favourable reviews), based on the opinions of 27 well-known critics. --Sanssheriff 00:20, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I return here more than a year and a half later with the same issue: one unfavourable review does not mean the book 'was not well received by American critics'. In fact, it's the only truly negative review it's got, and, on top of that, that was written by Michiko Kakutani, who is famous for her harsh, affected articles. Read her Wikipedia entry. Most of the other reviews for the book range from "favourable" to "outstanding." If everyone is ok with it, I will edit the article to reflect that. Sanssheriff (talk) 01:17, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Micheal Cunningham/Interview
I've attached a link to a one hour live interview wiht Michael Cunningham that is wonderful. I think anyone who wants an in depth look at this writers personal experience and his work would benefit from hearing this interview. I've attached the link. http://www.victorialautman.com/ontherecord.shtml#cunningham Corkyshag (talk) 20:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Neutrality tags
Placing bias tags on an article is unhelpful unless an explanation is given on the talk page as to why the neutrality of the article is disputed. I'm removing the tags. If someone wishes to return them, please explain here specifically which elements of the article you consider POV. -- Shelf Skewed  Talk  19:41, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

John Twelve Hawks
I have the notion that John Twelve Hawks = Michael Cunningham. I happened to read Specimen Days soon after completing The Traveler. (Yes, I'm American.) I'm commenting here because the GOB has read (or attempted) both. I haven't found anyone else yet that has. He actually negatively compared both to another book (Spin), which is why I found this site on the Internet and decided to post my comment here.

Here's what I have. 1st, both The Traveler and Specimen Days combine sci/fi/fantasy with heavy-duty social criticism to the point that the reigning political system is seen as totally evil and/or failed. (That rules out Stephen King or J.K.Rowling, for example, but not Margaret Atwood.) Specimen Days, like The Traveler contains a character who wants to disappear. The Traveler has the Brethren; Specimen Days has the Family. Specimen Days also has the Company (like the Vast Machine?). Cunningham even uses the term "off the grid." (Is it that common?) Like Maya in The Traveler, the Simon character in S.D., Part 3, is learning to feel love.

At 1st I didn't think Specimen Days had a religious aspect like The Traveler. But that's in part b/c I 1st listened to an audio of the book and didn't pick up on the titles of the parts. Part 2 is The Children's Crusade. Also, the two main male characters in The Traveler are Gabriel and Michael, while those in S.D. are Luke and Simon. (Incidentally, the title of Part 1 is In the Machine.)

On the Night Shade Books forum on the subject, I learned about an essay by John Twelve Hawks that could be bought on Amazon. In that rant, he sounded like Cunningham's character "Walt" in Part 2 of S.D. Both The Traveler and S.D. have some messianic ideas (although the messianic folks in S.D. are the murderous terrorists while those in The Traveler are the good guys). Also, Hawks refers in his rant to a security guard watching variations from normal behavior on a video monitor and having to decide whether to call the police--like the beginning of S.D.'s Part 2 where the lady hotline worker has to distinguish crank callers from violent terrorists.

Well, that's about it. Couldn't an experienced author get into an alter ego as into one of his characters for the purpose of writing under an assumed name? It is interesting that the GOB has similar criticisms of both books. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.120.215.108 (talk • contribs)

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title: Talk:Michael Cunningham


text:
Talk:Urban tribe

I was looking at the entry for Urban tribe which includes the following statement: Urban Tribes are the groups of never-married's between the ages of 25 and 39 who gather in common-interest groups and enjoy the urban lifestyle.

My inclination is to remove the "rapidly growing" assertion. Even if Urban Tribes are or recently have been rapidly growing (probably subject to debate anyway), such a trend would have to be quite ephemeral. As such, I wonder if it is appropriate for an encyclopedia article. I'm curious how others feel about this. Bill 10:40 20 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Maybe it means that the groups grow rapidly, not the trend. :-) Seriously, I agree that it's not a good idea to have that kind of assertion in there. -- ESP 00:15 21 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Rather than deleting the "rapidly growing" claim, it would be interesting to know who claimed that the trend is growing, and when. AxelBoldt 17:57 21 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * The author of the externally linked article makes this claim. I felt that urban tribes are missing as a wikipedia node and quickly inserted this definition. Maybe I should have quoted the article more properly. Apologies. jsilence

The Term's Origin
There has been a misunderstanding here. The term "urban tribe" was originally coined by french sociologist Michel Maffesoli. It's first widespread use came from his book Le Temps des tribus (1988). Seven years later it was translated to english.

So, Ethan's article was published 13 later than Maffesoli's book. Musicaindustrial 20:40, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Urban tribe


text:
Talk:New Imperialism/Archive 6

6 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 1 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 2 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 3 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 4 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 5 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 6 (You are here.) Talk:New Imperialism/archive 7 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 8 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 9 Talk:New Imperialism/Linking to the alternative version from the top of the article Talk:New Imperialism/archive 10 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 11 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 12 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 13 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 14 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 15 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 16 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 17 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 18 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 19 Talk:New Imperialism/archive 20

 * talk to Talk:Economic theories of the New Imperialist era

Why does 172 keep removing the text here? Much of this was just posted yesterday, and the comments by erzengel (back in April) are certainly relevant. Pizza Puzzle

I'm placing it in this archive, not removing it. 172

--- Pizza Puzzle: anyone is free to archive talk. You can find the latest messages above in archive 6. This time I'm going to protect the page. 172

 * And anyone is free to unarchive it, which I have just done - there is no reason whatsoever to archive one day old talk on a matter which has not yet been resolved unless the talk page is so long that people cannot edit it (which it is not). Such archiving makes it harder to contribute to recent discussion. --Camembert

Pizza Puzzle, banned under the name Vera Cruz for his conduct on this page, is messing up the proper layout and format, gradually deconstructing this article in a series of so-called "minor edits." To avoid the Vera Cruz/New Imperialism debacle, well-chronicled on the mailing list and the talk page, this page will be protected. 172

 * Don't be ridiculous. Look at what you actually reverted - now seriously, does that look like "deconstruction" to you? I have unprotected the article, and have also unprotected this talk page: I'm intriguied as to why you thought either was necessary or appropriate. It is in any case very bad form to protect pages one is directly involved with. Please do not do this again, or I shall be sorely tempted to ask for your sysop status to be revoked. --Camembert

Don't be fooled by Pizza Puzzle's misleading claims that he is not Vera Cruz. Please read this message, from Jtdril on the Vera/Pizza relation:

 * Please don't treat us like fools, PP. Most of the people have known who you are from day 1. (A simple check of IPs, location etc apart from anything else shows it.) I don't care who you are. All I care is that we don't have a repeat of the Lir/Vera Cruz/Susan Mason/Dietary Fiber performances.You know why and how you got banned repeatedly before. Just avoid doing that again, OK, Adam. That way everyone will be happy and you will be able to continue to edit wiki and most people will simply deliberately ignore the past. It is in your interest to avoid opening up those old wounds. But if you return to your trouble-making old ways then you will be hardbanned again and this time it will be permanent. A lot of people, not withstanding the past, have trusted you and shown respect for you as PP because your standard of behaviour was a big improvement. If you piss them off by acting as before they will never trust you again and treat you to the same all out war waged on Michael and DW, with you being banned the moment you are caught on and every single letter and full stop you place on wiki deleted on sight. IMHO that would be a shame given the talents you could bring, and the contributions you could make, to wikipedia.

 * It is entirely in your hands. But don't insult the intelligence of many intelligent wikiepedians here by playing the "oh golly gosh. Who is this Vera?" lark. There are plenty of wikipedians who can establish within seconds what IP you are using, where you are physically calling from, etc. They have done so (they did it almost as soon a you first came on and established exactly who you are. Nobody on wiki will be fooled by protests of innocence. If you don't want to talk about who you really are, then just don't talk about it at all. But pretending you are not who you demonstrably are is one sure way of generating bad will towards yourself. Just drop the issue, keep up the standards you set as PP and don't revert to previous behaviour and all will be well. But it is entirely up to you whether you want to stay and continue to be a respected working colleague here on wikipedia or whether you want to muck it up and be kicked off. And if you get kicked off again it will be for good, and not a single wikipedian will be supporting your presence on wiki again. So stop messing and get back to work, OK! FearÉIREANN 04:42 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Yet, after this message, Pizza Puzzle made this dubious claim on the New Imperialism talk page: "I don't have a clue why 172 thinks I am some other user. Pizza Puzzle"

Yes, 172, both you and Jtdirl think Pizza Puzzle is Lir, but that doesn't necessarily make it so, and it certainly doesn't make protecting pages that Pizza Puzzle (whoever he may be) makes perfectly good edits to acceptable. --Camembert

It's so frustrating that each time someone deals with this user under any name some naïve; well-intentioned user has to jump in play his games. Take a look at the talk archive. You'll see the disaster that I'm striving to prevent preemptively. He starts with a series of "minor edits" and before you know it he has hijacked the article. This article has been a personal obsession for this user for over half a year. It is the one that got him banned under the name Vera Cruz. His only objective is to annoy and humiliate me. Please, please, take a look at this article's history and you'd see that I’m taking the only measures possible to avert a disaster. 172

hijacking...preemption...*cough* Pizza Puzzle

 * 172, I am trying very hard to keep my temper, but you are making it very difficult indeed for me. I am not "naïve" in this matter - I am well aware of the history of this article. It does not matter what has happened in the past, nothing untoward is happening now. And I repeat, protecting an article which you are directly invovled with is very bad form, especially when there is no need to protect it in any case. If Pizza Puzzle - or anybody else - continually makes changes to the article against consensus, then we can consider protecting the page, but this is certainly not what is going on now, and page protection is very much a last resort. In protecting the page, you not only keep Pizza Puzzle out of it, you keep all other non-sysops out of it as well. Protecting the talk page is particularly pointless. And I REPEAT: it is not useful to archive (some would say "hide") talk which is one day old and about an issue which is still unresolved. --Camembert

 * And for crying out LOUD: archives of article talk pages do not go in the user namespace!! --Camembert

That was just the existing format. This can be fixed later.

 * I did fix it. Then you unfixed it. --Camembert

I found this good quotation by a very trusted, respected contributor about Vera Cruz's conduct on New Imperialism. This will explain my sentiments:

"172, I don't think I can be much help. I cannot reason with VC once he takes it into her head to start "improving" an article with a thousand cuts and changes any more than you can. I don't mean that the task is difficult, I mean that the task, so far as I can tell, is impossible. It makes no real difference if there are dozens of other contributors bringing evidence and reasoned argument to the task: once VC has decided to "improve" an article it just becomes a mindless edit war until she either gets her way or makes a tactical withdrawl in order to concentrate on "improving" something else for a while. Sometimes, these really are improvements. I'm not sure if this is evidence of an intermittent desire to contribute useful information; a camouflage tactic for the real intent; or simply examples of the usual random changes which just happen to be useful ones.

The only two things you can do, so far as I can see, are (a) resign yourself to an eternity of filling up the Wiki database with endless reversions when you could be doing something productive, or (b) on VC's arrival, give up on whatever article she is infesting and go elsewhere." User:172

 * I understand what you sentiments are, there is no need for you to elucidate them further, but please try to understand the points I'm making, which I shall recap here:

 * 1) Protecting a page is a last resort.
 * 2) Just because you suspect Pizza Puzzle is Lir doesn't mean to say that he/she is.
 * 3) Whoever Pizza Puzzle may be, and whatever they may have done in the past, their recent edits to this article are completely OK. If future edits are not OK, we can deal with that as it happens.
 * 4) Archiving talk which is only one day old on matters not yet resolved is counter-productive.

I am going to leave this page for an hour and have several cups of tea. I hope things will have calmed down when I return. --Camembert

um - this page is getting kinda long, but I dont think archiving is the right idea since the last half of this is basically 172 arguing that Im a terrorist. Perhaps we can move all that to Pizza Puzzle is a Terrorist so that the actual discussion is visible? Pizza Puzzle

 * Yes, possibly the latter part of this talk page should be moved somewhere (if nobody else wants it, it can go on my talk page). --Camembert

-- This article got you banned under the name Vera Cruz. Over time, it will get you banned under the name Pizza Puzzle. 172

-- To Pizza Puzzle: Good ahead, create your own page on New Imperialism/temp and see how many Wikipedians agree with you. If you have enough supporter, then no one can stop you from modifying the main article. If you believe that you are right but most Wikipedians don't agree with you, then you should just stay away from the article and regret that nobody agrees with you. That's how democracy works. Don't let edit wars changed into the source of hate. Wshun

I can create temp pages all day long and nobody will ever see them. Pizza Puzzle

 * I don't think there's any point in a /temp page - Pizza Puzzle's edits are quite minor (and, as far as I can see, good), 172 is reverting them because of who he suspects Pizza Puzzle to be rather than because of what the edits are. --Camembert

 * The worry of Pizza Puzzle is relatively easy to settle. A simple way is to put a remainder on the current page. An alternative way is to create two temp page and temporarily change the main article into disambigious page--but it may not be acceptable to most wikipedians.

 * However if it is just minor edits, then it means the edit wars between 172 and Pizza Puzzle becomes personnal, then I am afraid /temp page is not a good idea and that they have to settle their differences in a more civilized way :P. Wshun

- The following was moved from the Village pump

User:127 protected Talk:New Imperialism, apparently to prevent me from discussing the page with other users. He also moved a huge section of text written yesterday (and today) to an "archive", the entire page he moved was nothing but discussion regarding potentional changes to "his" page; something he apparently doesnt want happening. Pizza Puzzle

Now he just protected New Imperialism because I moved a "see also" out of the middle of nowhere and put it somewhere visible. Is this guy the owner of the site or something, I don't think he likes me. Pizza Puzzle
 * Wikipedia_talk:Protected_page might be a better place to discuss this. The page history makes it look like there's an edit war going on. If this is the case, and 172 is involved in this, then he should not be protecting the page anyway. If you are an admin and you want a page in an edit war in which you are involved to be protected, it is recommended that you contact another admin and ask them to protect the page for you. (from :Protected_page) Angela 23:08 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * For the record, I just unprotected both pages. I am, frankly, at a loss as to why they were protected in the first place (especially the talk page). --Camembert

I suggest we create a formal mechanism to declare an edit war and rules to control it. We ban those who disregard the rules. When there is an edit war, each side should create its version like New Imperialism/temp1 and New Imperialism/temp2 and let others to choose which one is better-through a voting system maybe. No matter what the voting result is, the ones involving in the edit war should not start the war again unless they get new ideas. During the edit war, the article may be protected--not because we want to ban somebody from modify it, but because we don't want the edit war affecting the general public. Of course, we have to choose a mediator acceptable to both sides to oversee the edit war. Wshun

Its a good idea except that one user will leave his article at New Imperialism and the other will be forced to the temp page where they will feel marginalized and left out. Pizza Puzzle

 * We have Current disputes over articles to report "edit wars". I'm not sure if a set of formalised rules on how to handle them would be possible, but feel free to have a go (you could start with a note on Wikipedia talk:Current disputes over articles, perhaps) - everyone would be grateful to you, I'm sure, if you could come up with a workable system. --Camembert

 * Each side should create its own version? That's an awful system. To suggest that we create two POV articles and vote on which one is the best seems quite bizarre to me. Each side should work together to produce an acceptable compromise. Lengthy discussion, not voting, is the best way to acheive a well-informed and intelligent result. (posted via edit conflict, twice)-- Tim Starling 00:11 23 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Yes, but what do u do when people refuse to discuss? Or when they insist that discussion must continue indefinitely? Pizza Puzzle

 * You need a good mediator to help out. User:Stephen Gilbert is doing a great job at sorting out a long running edit war on the Open Directory Project page. A temp page has been created when all concerned parties put forward their suggestions for and against various things being included. Angela

Each side with its own version is an awful system, but it is better than an ongoing edit war which may change into nonsense hatre. To win an edit war, one may need continuously modifying its own version to be plausible to most wikipedians. I believe naively that the winning version would be as NPOV as possible. Do not underestimate the power of voting. Wshun

Both sides doing alternative versions is the worst possible solution. The problem here is that we have an article that is far too big (50K!!!!) and with a bad history of edit wars, some of whom involved both protagonists and which got one banned the last time. Each side sees not merely what is happening now but is influenced by the past, seeing edits now as part of an ungoing war. 172 was wrong to protect the page, but Pizza Puzzle is hardly contributing to a good working environment by plonking large chunks of text onto 172's talk page and by provocatively implying a simple archiving of a talk page was censorship. It is in PP own interest to avoid a rerun of past battles that caused so much bad blood last time. FearÉIREANN 01:35 23 Jul 2003 (UTC)

... Pizza Puzzle

 * talk to Talk:Economic theories of the New Imperialist era

End of content moved from village pump

title: Talk:New Imperialism/Archive 6


text:
Phoneutria

Phoneutria is a genus of spiders in the family Ctenidae. They are mainly found in northern South America, with one species in Central America. Members of the genus are commonly referred to as Brazilian wandering spiders. Other English names include armed spiders (armadeiras in Brazilian Portuguese) and banana spiders (a name shared with several others).

Description
The spiders in the genus can grow to have a leg span of 13 to 18 cm. Their body length ranges from 17 to 48 mm. While some other araneomorph spiders have a longer leg span, the largest Phoneutria species have the longest body and the greatest body weight in this group. The genus is distinguished from other related genera such as Ctenus by the presence of dense prolateral scopulae (a dense brush of fine hairs) on the pedipalp tibiae and tarsi in both sexes. Phoneutria are easily confused with several other non-medically significant ctenids, especially Cupiennius, in which the recently described C. chiapanensis also has bright red hairs on the chelicerae. Additionally, some Phoneutria species lack red hairs on the chelicerae, making it an unreliable identification feature. The presence of a dark linear stripe or stripes on the frontal (dorsal) palps and presence of a single thin black line running anterior-posterior along the dorsal carapace may help identify Phoneutria. Other features are the strong ventral marking on the underside of the legs with contrasting dark mid-segments and lighter joints, and the pattern on the ventral (underside) of the abdomen with several rows of black dots, or an overall reddish colour.

The characteristic defensive posture with frontal legs held high is an especially good indicator to confirm a specimen is Phoneutria, especially alongside correct colour patterns. During the defensive display the body is lifted up into an erect position, the first two pairs of legs are lifted high (revealing the conspicuous black/light-banded pattern on the leg underside), while the spider sways from side to side with hind legs in a cocked position.

Taxonomy
The genus Phoneutria was started by Maximilian Perty in 1833. The genus name is from the Greek φονεύτρια, meaning "murderess". Perty placed two species in the genus: Phoneutria rufibarbis and Phoneutria fera. The former is treated as a nomen dubium; the latter is the type species of the genus.

Species
, the World Spider Catalog accepted the following species:
 * Phoneutria bahiensis Simó & Brescovit, 2001 – Brazil
 * Phoneutria boliviensis (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897) – Central, South America
 * Phoneutria depilata (Strand, 1909) – Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador
 * Phoneutria eickstedtae Martins & Bertani, 2007 – Brazil
 * Phoneutria fera Perty, 1833 (type) – Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana
 * Phoneutria keyserlingi (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897) – Brazil
 * Phoneutria nigriventer (Keyserling, 1891) – Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina
 * Phoneutria pertyi (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897) – Brazil
 * Phoneutria reidyi (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897) – Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Guyana

Behaviour
Wandering spiders are so-called because they wander the jungle floor at night, rather than residing in a lair or maintaining a web. During the day they hide inside termite mounds, under fallen logs and rocks, and in banana plants (hence the "banana spider" nickname) and bromeliads. P. nigriventer is known to hide in dark and moist places in or near human dwellings.

P. nigriventer mates during the dry season from April to June, which leads to frequent observations of the species during this time.

Distribution
Phoneutria are found in forests from Costa Rica southwards throughout South America east of the Andes including Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and into northern Argentina. Three species (P. reidyi, P. boliviensis and P. fera) are found in the Amazon region, one species (P. fera) is restricted to the Amazon, and one (P. depilata) ranges into Central America in Panama and Costa Rica. The remaining species are restricted to Atlantic Forest of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, including forest fragments in the Cerrado savanna. In Brazil, Phoneutria is only absent in the northeastern region north of Salvador, Bahia.

Phoneutria has been introduced to Chile and Uruguay.

Banana shipments
These spiders acquired their other common name, "banana spider", because it is claimed that they are occasionally found in shipments of bananas, though the number of reports is exaggerated due to common misidentifications of unrelated spiders. A survey of spiders found in international shipments to North America revealed that only 7 of 135 spiders were Phoneutria species, six being Phoneutria boliviensis from bananas and one Phoneutria nigriventer from a shipment of electrical parts. Spiders from genera such as Cupiennius had been misidentified by experienced arachnologists. Cases continue to be reported but without evidence of expert identification. In 2005, a man was bitten in Bridgwater, England by a spider in a shipment of bananas and, in 2014, a south London family photographed a spider that they claim was in a bunch of bananas delivered to their home.

Medical significance
The genus Phoneutria includes some of the relatively few species of spiders known to present a threat to humans. Danger to humans does not only comprise toxicity, but also factors such as the spider's capacity to deliver a sufficient dose of venom, a disposition that makes a bite likely, and proximity to human habitation. These spiders' wandering nature is another reason they are considered so dangerous. In densely populated areas, Phoneutria species usually search for cover and dark places to hide during daytime, leading them to hide in houses, clothes, cars, boots, boxes and log piles, where they may bite if accidentally disturbed.

Spider mouthparts are adapted to envenomate very small prey; they are not well-adapted to attacking large mammals such as humans. Some believe that various spiders like Phoneutria, that use venom mainly to kill prey, can deliver a "dry" bite in defense to purposely conserve their venom, as opposed to a more primitive spider like Atrax that usually delivers a full load. A study in March 2009 suggests that Phoneutria inject venom in approximately one-third of their bites, and only a small quantity in one-third of those cases. Another study similarly suggested that only 2.3% of bites (mainly in children) were serious enough to require antivenom. Research in this area is hindered by the difficulty of identifying particular species. Nevertheless, there are a few well-attested instances of death. In one case, a single spider killed two children in São Sebastião. The spider was positively identified as a Phoneutria by Wolfgang Bücherl. Fatalities are usually attributed to respiratory arrest, secondary to systemic effects, or directly to envenoming. Systemic effects occur in 9% to 27% of cases; symptoms at the sites are more frequent, occurring from 83% to 96% of cases. The severity of the cases can be related to the sex of the spider, since the male produces less venom and is less lethal than the females, except for P. boliviensis, where the male is more toxic. Symptoms may appear within 10 to 20 minutes after the bite, and death within two to six hours, where severe pain radiates to the rest of the limb, systemic effects include tachycardia, increased blood pressure, vertigo, fever, sweating, visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing and paralysis. Death is usually caused by respiratory arrest. These spiders seem to produce a smaller amount of venom during cold months (June to September) a minimum amount of 0.03 mg, an average of 0.44 mg and a maximum of 1.84 mg, during the summer months. The maximum amount among individuals was 3.10 mg (October 26), 4 mg (November 3), 5 mg (November 4) and 8 mg (October 31); 7 mg of dried venom is enough to kill 500 mice subcutaneously and 1,000 intravenously.

P. nigriventer is the species responsible for most cases of envenomation in Brazil because it is commonly found in highly populated areas of southeastern Brazil, such as the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo.

Reported cases
A 45-year-old man, with no nervous background, employed in the agricultural section of the Butantan Institute, working barefoot, was bitten at 10:40 AM on the small toe of his left foot by a medium-sized Phoneutria. Immediately he felt intense pain that radiated to his foot and leg. He also reported visual disturbances, and when he tried to enter the building, he fell. Without strength, he was supported by two men to the laboratory, where he was examined. He could not stand, had difficulty seeing, difficulty talking (he could not answer questions), and complained of severe general pain and intense cold. He was sweating profusely, there was hyper nasal secretion and salivation, which made him blow his nose and spit constantly. He was agitated, with generalized tremors and continuous cramps in his left foot and leg, and an irregular pulse with 112 beats per minute. An hour after the accident, the serum was injected into the left buttock. During the next hour, the pulse became faster, thready, almost uncountable, and the temperature decreased, with a worsening of the general condition. At noon the victim received a new injection of serum and by 1:00 pm there was improvement.

In another case, a 22-year-old woman, four months pregnant, was bitten on the hand. She experienced severe generalized pain with paroxysm, had difficulty keeping up and talking, moaned, had cramps, generalized tremors, excessive sweating, and rapid pulse (140–150 beats per minute); after receiving the antidote the victim stabilized. In another case, a 16-year-old boy was bitten on his left hand. The victim had severe general pain, visual disturbance, generalized tremors, cramps, profuse sweating, and a weak, irregular to rapid pulse.

A 23-year-old market worker moving a bunch of bananas was bitten on his hand by P. nigriventer in São Paulo, Brazil. The specimen measured 3.5 cm long and 6 cm with its legs. It was reported that the wound was extremely painful, with the victim noticing that the bite area was sweating and the hair on his skin stood on end. He also reported that the pain radiated to his chest, and that his heart began to race. The victim was dizzy and nauseated, felt cold, began to drool and vomit, and exhibited priapism. He was later treated with anesthetics, tetanus prophylaxis and anti-venom, and recovered 36 hours after the bite.

Another case occurred with a 52-year-old man, bitten by an adult female P. nigriventer. Immediately after the bite he experienced severe local pain, blurred vision, profuse sweating and vomiting. From one to two hours after the bite he presented agitation and high blood pressure; at four hours after the heart rate was high at 150 beats per minute, mild tachypnea, cold extremities, profuse sweating, generalized tremors and priapism. He was treated with anesthetics, anti-venom and fluid replacement.

In 2005, an English man was bitten twice by a spider identified as a Phoneutria, which was hidden in a box of bananas. It was reported that his hand became swollen, he felt dizzy, and that when he got home he collapsed. He was taken to the hospital and received treatment, but his condition continued to deteriorate. He reported chest tightness, difficulty breathing, and both his blood pressure and heart rate were high. He was treated with increased saline to release toxins from the body, and was discharged the next day. He took almost a week to recover.

A 70-year-old man, bitten by a spider with a legspan of 5 to 6 cm, he was cutting sugarcane at the residence of São Pedro de Alcantara, in the countryside, when a spider jumped on his shoulder, and came "walking" by the right arm to the back where it bit his hand (bled at the time), he felt intense pain at the time. The spider had several young in the abdomen. The patient evolved with agitation, anxiety, blood pressure 200x110 mmHg, heart rate with 62 beats per minute, respiratory rate 36 breathing movements per minute, respiratory distress, hyperemia, edema and radiating pain. After 50 minutes, the patient was admitted to the emergency department of the HU with blood pressure 150x90 (after captopril), mild dyspnea (patient pneumectomized by TU), with paresthesias and local condition as previously reported. He received anesthetic infiltration, dipyrone and two vials of serum, the right hand remained red and swollen, with improvement in anxiety symptoms and controlled blood pressure.

Another case occurred in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where a man bitten by a Phoneutria developed numbness in his legs, redness, headache and loss of sense of time and space.

Reports of deaths
In a case that occurred in Itanhaém, São Paulo, a 40-year-old man bitten in the foot, presented significant pain and generalized contractures, dying six hours after the accident.

A 7-year-old child, bitten in the ear, presented convulsions, opisthotonos and progressive paralysis, dying 17 hours after the accident.

In a case that occurred in Franca, a 10-year-old child bitten on the middle finger of the right hand, presented severe pain, trismus, tremors in the right arm and face, evolving to permanent contracture, respiratory paralysis, cyanosis and convulsions, dying in 30–40 minutes after the accident.

In São Sebastião, São Paulo, two brothers, 6 months and 18 months old, the children woke up during the night crying and screaming, dying soon after (time of death is not described). The father removed the sheets and found the spider, which was referred to the Butantan Institute, identified as a large female Phoneutria nigriventer.

A 3-year-old girl, bitten on the third finger of her right hand, presented immediate local pain, periods of alternating prostration, cold sweating, chest and abdomen pains and 3 episodes of vomiting, was admitted to UNICAMP 3 hours after the accident, with the same symptoms. 5 vials of AV (Antivenom) and local anesthetic infiltration were administered, and there was improvement in symptoms, with decrease in sweating, but still agitated, 2–3 hours after AV, there was a picture of significant diarrhea (semi-liquid stools) evolving to 2nd degree dehydration. Parenteral hydration was started, 3h30 min post AV, her heart rate was 160 beats per minute, and respiratory rate was 72 at 4 hours post AV. Between 4h15min and 4h30min after AV, she had peripheral cyanosis, a heart rate of 150 beats per minute and dyspnea, and loss of peripheral venous access. Afterwards, there was disseminated pulmonary stertoration, and worsening of agitation, dyspnea and bradycardia, while being performed orotracheal intubation, manual ventilation, adrenaline and external cardiac massage, she later died.

title: Phoneutria