text:
Shi

Shi or SHI may refer to:

Language

 * Shi, a Japanese title commonly used as a pronoun
 * Shi, proposed gender-neutral pronoun
 * Shi (kana), a kana in Japanese syllabaries
 * Shi language
 * Shī, transliteration of Chinese Radical 44
 * Tachelhit or the Shilha language (ISO 639 code)

Art

 * Shi, a piece in Chinese chess
 * Shi (comics), a comic book series created by William Tucci
 * Shi (poetry), the Chinese conception of poetry
 * Poetry (film) or Shi, a 2010 South Korean film directed by Lee Chang-dong

People

 * Shi (class) (士), the low aristocratic class of Shang/Zhou China, later the scholar-gentry class of imperial China
 * Shi (rank) (士), rank group for non-commissioned officers
 * Shi (personator) (尸), a ceremonial "corpse" involved in early forms of ancestor worship in China

Names

 * Shì (氏), a Chinese clan name previously distinguished from ancestral or family names; see Origin of Chinese surnames
 * Shī (surname), the romanization of the Chinese surname 施
 * Shí (surname), the romanization of the Chinese surname 石
 * Shǐ (surname), the romanization of the Chinese surname 史
 * Shì (surname), the romanization of the Chinese surname 士
 * Shí (surname 時), the romanization of the Chinese surname 時
 * Shi (Korean given name), Korean given name
 * Posthumous name (諡), a traditional East Asian honorary name

Acronym

 * Samsung Heavy Industries, a Korean shipbuilding and offshore EPC company
 * Sumitomo Heavy Industries, a Japanese integrated manufacturer of industrial machinery, automatic weaponry, ships, bridges and steel structure, equipment for environmental protection company
 * Statutory health insurance, or national health insurance
 * Stolen Horse International, American organization helping to recover stolen horses

Mathematics

 * Shi, hyperbolic sine integral

Units

 * Shí or shichen, a traditional Chinese unit of time equal to two hours
 * Shì (市), various administrative divisions generally translated "city" in mainland China, on Taiwan, and in Japan

Other

 * Shchi or "schi", a classic traditional Russian soup
 * SHI International Corp, an American information technology company
 * Shi Islet (獅嶼), Lieyu Township, Kinmen County, Fujian, Republic of China (Taiwan)
 * SHI, the Chapman code for Shetland, UK
 * SHI, the IATA code for Shimojishima Airport in the Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
 * SHI, the National Rail code for Shiplake railway station in the county of Oxfordshire, UK

title: Shi


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Arthur Hastings

Captain Arthur J. M. Hastings, OBE, is a fictional character created by Agatha Christie as the companion-chronicler and best friend of the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. He is first introduced in Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles (originally written in 1916) and appears as a character in seven other Poirot novels, including the final one Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (1975), along with a play and many short stories. He is also the narrator of several of them.

Literary function
Hastings is today strongly associated with Poirot, due more to the television adaptations than to the novels. Many of the early TV episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot were adaptations of short stories, in most of which he appeared in print. A few were stories into which he had been adapted (for example, Murder in the Mews). In Christie's original writings, however, Hastings is not in every short story or novel. He is not a character in either Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express, the two best-known Poirot novels. Of the twenty-two Poirot novels published between 1920 and 1937, he appears in seven. Moreover, when Christie expanded The Submarine Plans (1923) as The Incredible Theft (1937), she removed Hastings.

Hastings appears to have been introduced by Christie in accordance with the model of Sherlock Holmes's associate, Doctor Watson, to whom he bears a marked resemblance. Both narrate in the first person, both are slow to see the significance of clues, and both stand as a form of surrogate for the reader. There are even similarities of role: Hastings is Poirot's only close friend and the two share a flat briefly when Poirot sets up his detective agency. Similarly to Watson, Hastings also has a penchant for speculation and gambling, as well as a military background in the colonial Middle East. The presence of Chief Inspector Japp, a close "literary descendant" of Holmes's Inspector Lestrade, fleshed out Christie's adoption of the Holmes paradigm.

In the novels, Hastings's literary function changes with Poirot's method. In the earlier phase of his career, Hastings is valued for his imaginative approach to cases, inevitably giving rise to fanciful hypotheses that Poirot gently mocks. Poirot himself characterised Hastings thus in "The Mystery of the Spanish Chest" (1932): "How my dear friend, Hastings, would have enjoyed this! What romantic flights of imagination he would have had. What ineptitudes he would have uttered! Ah ce cher Hastings, at this moment, today, I miss him..." Later in her career, Christie's apparatus is less fanciful and the opportunity for wild speculation much diminished. When the need for a sidekick arises in the later novels and stories it is either as:
 * a suspect;
 * Miss Lemon, who, in direct contrast with Hastings, is completely unimaginative;
 * Mr Satterthwaite: a great observer of human nature who avoids passing judgments;
 * Ariadne Oliver: a crime novelist who opened to Christie the opportunity for self-satire.

Although Hastings remains the most popular of Poirot's sidekicks, his appearance in only eight of the thirty-three Poirot novels indicates that the character's service to Christie's literary purpose was somewhat limited.

Career
Similarly to his friend Poirot, details of Hastings's life before 1916 are not revealed, though the reader is able to pinpoint Hastings's approximate birth year as 1886 from the first chapter of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, as he mentions that John Cavendish was 'a good fifteen years [his] senior' though hardly looking 'his forty-five years'. This makes Hastings thirty years old at the start of the novel. It is also mentioned later on that he was employed at Lloyd's prior to the war. Neither his first name nor his rank is mentioned in this novel. Elsewhere he states that he attended Eton College.

Hastings meets Poirot in Belgium several years before their meeting on 16 July 1916, at Styles Court, Essex, which is their first encounter in literature. The two remain friends right up to Poirot's death. Although there is little evidence regarding their possible subsequent meetings, Hastings saw Poirot a year before the latter's death.

Hastings, while being no great detective himself, serves Poirot in many ways. A former British Army officer in World War I, he is brave. He has courage and is often used by Poirot for physical duties such as catching and subduing a criminal. Poirot likes to tease Hastings about being dim-witted at times, but he clearly enjoys the Captain's company. In The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The A.B.C. Murders, Hastings plays a prominent role in the resolution of the mystery, with a casual observation that leads Poirot to the guilty party: In the case of the former, by mentioning that Poirot had to straighten some spill holders and ornaments in Styles, he prompts Poirot to realise that someone had moved them, causing Poirot to discover a crucial piece of evidence. In the case of the latter, he suggests that the error in recipient address of a letter by the murderer was deliberate, thus causing Poirot to realise the murderer had attached greater importance to that particular murder.

Hastings represents the traditional English gentleman—not too bright but absolutely scrupulous, a throwback to the Victorian-era gentleman who is always concerned about "fair play". Hastings himself notes that he is somewhat old-fashioned. While Poirot, who is not above lying, surreptitiously reads other people's letters or eavesdrops, Hastings is horrified of such acts and usually refuses to perform them to help Poirot in one of his cases. Although he lacks Poirot's intellect, Poirot often compliments Hastings' ability to remember facts and details about their cases even if he deplores the manner in which Hastings tells the story at times. Hastings' physical appearance is rarely described in the novels because he is often the narrator. However, it is mentioned that he, like Poirot, has a moustache which becomes a target of the detective's criticism in Peril at End House: 'And your moustache. If you must have a moustache, let it be a real moustache, a thing of beauty such as mine.' Although he has served in the army, Hastings is not a violent man by nature, with Poirot noting during his final letter to Hastings in Curtain that he knows that Hastings is not a murderer.

Relationship with women
Hastings has a soft spot for auburn-haired women. Back in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Hastings was charmed with auburn-haired Cynthia Murdoch and proposed to her. This would become a running gag in the series, with Poirot often teasing Hastings. Whenever Hastings suggests the innocence of a young, beautiful, female murder suspect, Poirot slyly asks "Does she have auburn hair?" This pronounced weakness for pretty women with auburn hair gets Hastings and Poirot into trouble more than once: in The Big Four, while posing as secretary for millionaire Abe Ryland, Hastings trusts false information from a woman with auburn hair, while in the short story Double Sin, Hastings believes auburn-haired Mary Durant.

Despite his preference for auburn hair and his Victorian ideas about not marrying outside one's class, he eventually falls in love with a dark-haired music-hall actress, singer and acrobat Dulcie Duveen, the self-styled 'Cinderella'. They meet in the story The Murder on the Links, the second full-length Poirot novel. Poirot plays a rather significant part in uniting the couple. Hastings then acquires a ranch in Argentina and settles down to a life as a ranchholder.

Later appearances
Hastings's appearances in Poirot's later novels are restricted to a few cases in which he participates on his periodic returns to England from Argentina. Poirot comments in The ABC Murders that he enjoys Hastings's visits because he always has his most interesting cases when Hastings is with him. In the course of The Big Four, Dulcie's life is threatened by members of an international conspiracy. Hastings is forced to risk Poirot's life in return for her promised safety. In other respects there is very little personal detail regarding Hastings in these novels, until Curtain: Poirot's Last Case, which takes place after World War II: with his wife now dead, Hastings rejoins Poirot at Styles to help tackle one last case. The novel culminates with Poirot dying of a heart attack, leaving Hastings a confession explaining his role in events as he tracked a criminal who manipulated others to commit murder for him. Poirot's friendship with Hastings is further referenced when the murderer's attempt to manipulate Hastings in such a manner leaves Poirot resolved to kill his adversary, despite his disapproval of murder, as he knew that his friend would normally never do such a thing.

Final appearance
Curtain provides additional details on Hastings's family: He and Dulcie have two sons and two daughters. One son joins the Royal Navy, while the other and his wife manage the ranch after Dulcie's death. Hastings's daughter Grace is married to a British officer stationed in India. His other daughter, Judith, appears as a character in Curtain. Judith is Hastings's youngest child and his favourite, albeit the child whom he understands the least. She marries Dr John Franklin, a medical researcher, and moves to Africa with him. In the postscript of Curtain, Poirot suggests that Hastings should consider a second marriage with Elizabeth Litchfield, the younger sister of a woman who was manipulated into killing her abusive father by the novel's antagonist. Poirot notes that Elizabeth must be reassured that she is not tainted by her sister's actions and that Hastings is still not unattractive to women. Age is not specifically discussed for Hastings after the first book; he is said to be 30 in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which would leave him at least 60 years old in the earliest setting for Curtain. That novel was published in 1975, though written during the Second World War. No specific time is made clear in Curtain, unlike most of the Poirot stories, however when Poirot says “the food, it is disgusting”, Hastings says “rationing, I suppose”. Food rationing was in place in Britain until midnight on 4 July 1954, nine years after the end of the Second World War. In addition, it is clear that the story is set when capital punishment by hanging was still occurring in the UK; the last woman hanged in the UK was in 1955. These two facts place the events of Curtain in time no later than 1954, and Hastings is therefore, as he says himself, “I’m pushing it a bit”; with four adult children and having done service in the First World War, he must be in his 60s.

Portrayals
Hastings has been portrayed on film and television by several actors, Richard Cooper in Black Coffee (1931) and Lord Edgware Dies (1934); Robert Morley in The Alphabet Murders (1965); Jonathan Cecil in three TV films – Thirteen at Dinner (1985), Dead Man's Folly (1986) and Murder in Three Acts (1986); Dmitry Krylov in the Soviet film Mystery Endhauz (1989, directed by Vadim Derbenyov); and Hugh Fraser, who portrayed Hastings alongside David Suchet's Poirot in 43 of the 70 episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot. He is also a main character in the anime Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple.

In the BBC Radio 4 dramatisations starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot, Captain Hastings was played by Jeremy Clyde in Murder on the Links (1990), and by Simon Williams in Lord Edgware Dies (1992), The ABC Murders (2000), Peril at End House (2000), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (2005), and Dumb Witness (2006).

The Hastings novels
Hastings narrates the majority of the short stories featuring Poirot, but appears in only eight of the novels, seven of which were written before 1940:

 * The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1916 but published in 1920)
 * The Murder on the Links (1923)
 * The Big Four (1927)
 * Peril at End House (1932)
 * Lord Edgware Dies (1933) – published in the U.S. as Thirteen at Dinner
 * The A.B.C. Murders (1936)
 * Dumb Witness (1937) – published in the U.S. as Poirot Loses a Client
 * Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (1975)

Hastings is the narrator of all stories in Poirot Investigates (1924), a collection of short stories. Hastings is also present in Christie's play Black Coffee (1930) and its novelisation alongside Poirot.

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

title: Arthur Hastings


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Zeni

Zeni may refer to:

 * Zeni (letter), a letter of the Georgian alphabet
 * Zeni, Iran, a village in South Khorasan Province, Iran
 * Zeni Husmani (born 1990), Macedonian footballer
 * Zeni (surname), surname

title: Zeni


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Red Ryder

Red Ryder is a Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman which served as the basis for a wide array of character merchandising. Syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the strip ran from Sunday, November 6, 1938, through 1965.

Red Ryder
In 1938, Harman met publisher, writer and comic syndicator Slesinger. At the time, Slesinger had scripted a new comic strip called Red Ryder and was seeking an outstanding Western artist with knowledge of authentic period details and who had a natural gift for drawing scenes from dramatic perspectives. Harman fit the description and was a genuine cowboy who was the ideal spokesperson for the Red Ryder Character franchise.

Slesinger brought Harman to New York and worked with him for a year before Red Ryder was ready to be launched through a carefully planned rollout from comic pages, to movies and radio shows, contests, merchandising tie-ins, and personal appearances by Harman at charity benefits, schools, and civic and Red Ryder youth enrichment events.

Slesinger pioneered the concept of synergy between radio, films, Big Little Books, novels, serial chapters, radio programs, events, rodeos, powwows, commercial tie-ins, and licensed products, such as the Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun, to build brand equity and create lasting and consistent impressions. By the time he launched Red Ryder, Slesinger had already proven his formula for creating evergreen character franchises with characters such as Tarz], [[Winnie the Pooh, and many other golden-age newspaper comic characters.

Red Ryder became the longest-running and most popular comic character of the Western genre in movies, radio, comic strips, comic books, mass market retailing, and the collectors' market. Today, Red Ryder has some of the longest business relationships in the history of the licensing industry.

Toppers
Red Ryder had two topper strips on the Sunday page: Little Beaver (Nov 6, 1938 - Aug 25, 1946) and Red Ryder's Corral of Western Lingo (Sept 8, 1946 - Oct 10, 1948).

Characters and story
Astride his mighty steed Thunder, Red was a tough cowpoke who lived on Painted Valley Ranch during the 1890s in the Blanco Basin of the San Juan Mountain Range, with his aunt, the Duchess, and his juvenile Native-American sidekick, Little Beaver, who rode his horse, Papoose, when they took off to deal with the bad guys. Little Beaver spoke in the pidgin English now considered an offensive caricature. (His most famous catchphrase was "You betchum, Red Ryder!") Other notable characters were Red's girlfriend, Beth Wilder, arch enemy Ace Hanlon, and ranch hand Buckskin Blodgett.

Harman was eventually acclaimed as one of the finest Western pen-and-ink artists, known for his dramatic sense of perspective and authentic action. Contributing artists and writers worked in Stephen Slesinger, Inc's New York studio and contributed to Red Ryder over the years, including Jim Gary, Edmund Good, John Wade ("Johnnie") Hampton, Robert MacLeod, and Bill Lignanti (of The Palm restaurant fame), Gaylord Du Bois (wrote scripts, circa 1939-1940), and Stephen Slesinger who drew detailed storyboards and scripted and approved all of the stories until he died in 1953, when Shirley Slesinger stepped into her husband's shoes, working closely with Bill Lignanti and Jay Rowland. Charlie Dye, Johnnie Hampton, Joe Beeler, and George Phippen were co-founders of the Cowboy Artists of America, of which Harman was also a charter member. When Harman left Red Ryder in 1963 to concentrate on his paintings, MacLeod continued writing the story continuity for the strip, with staff artists of Red Ryder Entp., Inc.

Gaylord Du Bois, a prolific comic book writer associated with Slesinger, scripted Red Ryder and Little Beaver for a short period in 1938 and again in the early 1940s.

Comic books
The first Red Ryder comic book was published by Slesinger's Hawley Publications, Inc. in September 1940, followed by Hi-Spot comics for one issue.

Dell Comics launched its Red Ryder in August 1941, changing its title to Red Ryder Ranch Magazine with #145, and then to Red Ryder Ranch Comics with #149. Red Ryder Comics consisted of reprints of the newspaper strip until issue #47 (June 1947), when it began producing original material. Altogether, Red Ryder Comics enjoyed a first run, for a total of 151 issues, ending in 1957, one of the longest continuous newsstand runs in the U.S., for any Western comic. Over the next four decades, under license from Red Ryder, Enterprises, Inc., King Features Syndicate distributed comic reprints translated into 11 languages, while unauthorized translations have been printed in 30 languages. However, by far, the largest circulation for Red Ryder Comics are those produced in Spanish and distributed throughout the Spanish-speaking world. From 1954 to 1984, under an exclusive licensing agreement with Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc., Novaro distributed 474 regular editions plus extras and specials in 21 countries and territories.

Radio
The Red Ryder radio series began February 3, 1942, on the Blue Network. broadcast three times a week at 7:30 pm Pacific time. When the Blue also acquired The Lone Ranger from the Mutual Broadcasting System, Mutual decided to compete by airing Red Ryder in the same period. Thus, Red Ryder aired on the East Coast that year from May 20 to September 9 on Mutual. The series beat The Lone Ranger in the Hooper ratings, but the success was short-lived. Red Ryder was sold to a regional sponsor, Langendorf Bread, and after four months was no longer heard in the East.

Mutual and Langendorf continued the series on the West Coast Don Lee Network through the 1940s at 7:30 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, always with the familiar organ theme, "The Dying Cowboy" ("Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie"). Announcers on the show included Ben Alexander and Art Gilmore.

The continuing characters of the comic strip were also found in the radio series, produced by Brad Brown with writer-director Paul Franklin and writer Albert Van Antwerp. Reed Hadley portrayed Red Ryder on the radio from 1942 to 1944, followed by Carlton KaDell (1945), and Brooke Temple (1946–51). Arthur Q. Bryan had the role of Roland "Rawhide" Rolinson, and Red's sidekick Buckskin was played by Horace Murphy. Jim Mather provided Indian voices.

Numerous actors played Little Beaver, including members of the Hopi, Jicarilla Apache, Southern Ute, and Navajo Nations. One of the most notable was Robert Blake (on credits as Bobby Blake), Tommy Cook (1942 on), Frank Bresee (1942–46, alternating with Cook), Henry Blair (1944–47), Johnny McGovern (1947–50), and Sammy Ogg (1950–51). During the same mid-1940s time frame, Henry Blair also portrayed Ricky Nelson on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Billed as "America's famous fighting cowboy," Red Ryder was notable because he did not kill his enemies but instead aimed for their guns to disarm them. Such sound effects were handled by James Dick, Monty Fraser, and Bob Turnbull.

Films and television
Red Ryder appeared in a 1940 12-chapter serial, followed by a series of 27 movies (the last four of which were in color). It began in 1940 with the 12-chapter Republic movie serial The Adventures of Red Ryder, played by Don "Red" Barry, who got his nickname "Red" from the role and Tommy Cook as Red Ryder's young Indian sidekick Little Beaver. Subsequently, Wild Bill Elliott and Allan "Rocky" Lane portrayed Red Ryder in several films, both working with Robert Blake as Little Beaver. The last four Red Ryder movies starred Jim Bannon as Red Ryder and Don Kay ("Little Brown Jug") Reynolds as Little Beaver. Both Bannon and Lane filmed pilots for a Red Ryder television series, created by Stephen Slesinger, but neither version was picked up by a network. Both pilots survive and appear in various western DVD collections. An episode of Gunsmoke entitled "I Call Him Wonder" was produced in 1963 as a backdoor pilot for a new Red Ryder and Little Beaver TV Show.

Republic Pictures

 * The Adventures of Red Ryder (1940) (film serial)
 * Tucson Raiders (1944)
 * Marshal of Reno (1944)
 * The San Antonio Kid (1944)
 * Cheyenne Wildcat (1944)
 * Vigilantes of Dodge City (1944)
 * Sheriff of Las Vegas (1944)
 * Great Stagecoach Robbery (1945)
 * Lone Texas Ranger (1945)
 * Phantom of the Plains (1945)
 * Marshal of Laredo (1945)
 * Colorado Pioneers (1945)
 * Wagon Wheels Westward (1945)
 * California Gold Rush (1946)
 * Sheriff of Redwood Valley (1946)
 * Sun Valley Cyclone (1946)
 * Conquest of Cheyenne (1946)
 * Santa Fe Uprising (1946)
 * Stagecoach to Denver (1946)
 * Vigilantes of Boomtown (1947)
 * Homesteaders of Paradise Valley (1947)
 * Oregon Trail Scouts (1947)
 * Rustlers of Devil's Canyon (1947)
 * Marshal of Cripple Creek (1947)

Eagle-Lion Films

 * Ride, Ryder, Ride! (1949)
 * Roll, Thunder, Roll! (1949)
 * The Fighting Redhead (1950)
 * The Cowboy and the Prizefighter (1950)

Telecomics Films
Stephen Slesinger's Telecomics Presents produced three television pilots from 1949-1952.

The pilots were filmed on The Little Beaver and Red Ryder Ranches, in Colorado's Blanco Basin, near Pagosa Springs. The Little Beaver Ranch was built, by Slesinger, to resemble a Western Town. Guests stayed in cabins with facades such as The Court House, Saloon, and Jail.

To film a cut-away Cattle Stampede, Slesinger paid local ranchers fifty cents, for each pound their stock lost, as a result of running in the stampede.

In summers Fred Harman's Red Ryder Ranch and Stephen Slesinger's Little Beaver Ranch hosted settlement house boys and other youth. In July 2020 The Red Ryder Cowboy Honor Club celebrates the 80th Anniversary of these outdoor youth programs. 2020 is also the 70th Anniversary year, of the Red Ryder Roundup Rodeo and July Fourth Celebration, in Pagosa Springs.

Gunsmoke episode
Gunsmoke's 1963 TV Episode "I Call Him Wonder" was an authorized test for a New Red Ryder TV series that was not picked up. It features Little Beaver as Wonder, and is adapted from the original story of how Red Ryder and Little Beaver first met. Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc., retains the copyright and trademark rights to the Red Ryder characters, names, art, and stories.

Products
Slesinger's marketing synergy for Red Ryder and Little Beaver products was trail-blazing. Red Ryder toys; novelties; gifts; accessories; sporting goods; and rugged outdoor, work, and play clothing were sold nationwide and exported by leading North American manufacturers to Europe, Latin America, and as far as Egypt, India, and Japan.

At JC Penney stores across the country, Slesinger created Red Ryder "outposts for dependable American quality and value." These stores within the store were called "Red Ryder Corrals." In addition to educational and sportsmanship contests, special events, and personal appearances, they supplied Red Ryder brand rugged clothing for men and boys. In addition to Red Ryder and Little Beaver outdoor products, licensing included school supplies, lunch kits, and other Red Ryder character hardware and sporting goods.

The outposts also included the legendary Daisy Red Ryder Carbine, which became a father-to-son Christmas gift tradition as memorialized in the 1983 Jean Shepherd film A Christmas Story. The story revolves around the author's childhood memories and a boy trying to get a "Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle BB gun with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time" for Christmas. The film was adapted from the autobiographical fiction of Jean Shepherd, by permission of Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc., which owns the Red Ryder trademarks and copyrights.

Parody
Buckaroo Bugs (1944) features Bugs Bunny in the Wild West with "Red Hot Ryder" as his nemesis.

title: Red Ryder


text:
Legislative consent motion

A legislative consent motion (LCM, also known as a Sewel motion in Scotland) is a motion passed by either the Scottish Parliament, Senedd, or Northern Ireland Assembly, in which it consents that the Parliament of the United Kingdom may (or may not) pass legislation on a devolved issue over which the devolved government has regular legislative authority.

, the three devolved governments have refused or partially refused legislative consent motions on 20 occasions. However, even if consent is refused, the Parliament of the United Kingdom may still pass legislation on the devolved issue in question under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and the understanding that the United Kingdom is a unitary state.

Background
The Scotland Act 1998 devolved many issues relating to legislation for Scotland to the Scottish Parliament. The UK Parliament maintains parliamentary sovereignty and may legislate on any issue, with or without the permission of the devolved assemblies and parliaments.

The motions were named after Lord Sewel, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland who announced the policy in the House of Lords during the passage of the Scotland Act 1998. Noting that the Act recognised the parliamentary sovereignty of the British Parliament, he said that HM Government "would expect a convention to be established that Westminster would not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters in Scotland without the consent of the Scottish Parliament".

The devolved governments have no formal say in how the British Parliament legislates on reserved matters.

Use and application
There are two uses for a legislative consent motion, taking Scotland as the example:

 * 1) When the UK Parliament is considering legislation extending only (or having provisions extending only) to England and Wales, and the Scottish Parliament, being in agreement with those provisions, wishes for the UK Parliament to extend them to Scotland.  This saves the need for separate, similar legislation to be passed by the Scottish Parliament.
 * 2) When Westminster is considering legislation applying to Scotland but which relates to both devolved and reserved matters, where it would otherwise be necessary for the Scottish Parliament to legislate to complete the jigsaw.

As well as legislation about devolved matters, the convention extends to cases where UK bills give executive powers to Scottish Ministers, including in reserved areas, or which seek to change the boundary between reserved and devolved matters.

Guidance on the use of legislative consent motions for Whitehall departments is set out in Devolution Guidance Note 10.

Chapter 9B of the Scottish Parliament's Standing Orders specify the procedure for considering Sewel motions.

Legal status
The convention under which the UK government uses legislative consent motions is not legally binding. It was originally contained in a "memorandum of understanding" between the UK government and the devolved administrations. That document states in an explanatory note that it is not intended to be legally binding, and the paragraph dealing with the convention makes clear that the UK Parliament retains authority to legislate on any issue, whether devolved or not.

""

Since then, however, the convention has been incorporated into law in both Scotland and Wales. However, despite this inclusion, the statements are not legally binding on the UK Parliament.

Scotland Act 2016
In 2016 the UK Parliament passed the Scotland Act 2016 which amended the Scotland Act 1998 to contain an explicit and specific legal reference to the so-called Sewel convention. Section 2 of the 2016 Act reads as follows:

"2 The Sewel convention

In section 28 of the Scotland Act 1998 (Acts of the Scottish Parliament) at the end add— '(8) But it is recognised that the Parliament of the United Kingdom will not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters without the consent of the Scottish Parliament.'"

Wales Act 2017
In 2017 the UK Parliament passed the Wales Act 2017 which amended the Government of Wales Act 2006 to contain an explicit and specific legal reference to Westminster legislation on matters that are devolved to the Welsh Assembly. Section 2 of the 2017 Act reads as follows:

"2 Convention about Parliament legislating on devolved matters

In section 107 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (Acts of the National Assembly for Wales), after subsection (5) insert— '(6) But it is recognised that the Parliament of the United Kingdom will not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters without the consent of the Assembly.'"

Current situation and review
In 2005 the Procedures Committee undertook an inquiry into the use of Sewel motions, and heard evidence from Lord Sewel, Henry McLeish (the former First Minister of Scotland), and Anne McGuire, MP (the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland). Following the review, the motions were retitled legislative consent motions and the procedures enshrined in the parliament's standing orders.

, 131 legislative consent motions had been passed by the Scottish Parliament, 39 in the first session (1999–2003), 38 in the second (2003–2007), 30 in the third (2007–11) and 24 so far in the fourth (2011–16).

In December 2022, the Labour Party announced proposals to strengthen the Sewel convention such that it becomes "constitutionally protected", as part of a report on constitutional reform led by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

title: Legislative consent motion


text:
Inspector Japp

Inspector James Japp (later Chief Inspector Japp) is a fictional character who appears in several of Agatha Christie's novels featuring Hercule Poirot.

Creation
Inspector Japp was inspired by the fictional police detective Inspector Lestrade from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Christie even modelled Japp after the "ferret-like" qualities of Lestrade. In the first novel in which Japp appears, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, he is described as a "ferret-faced man", which is similar to the description of Lestrade as a "ferret-like man" in Doyle's 1891 short story "The Boscombe Valley Mystery".

Appearances
Japp has been depicted in seven novels written by Christie, all featuring Hercule Poirot:
 * The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
 * The Big Four (1927)
 * Peril at End House (1932)
 * Lord Edgware Dies (1933), also known as Thirteen at Dinner
 * Death in the Clouds (1935), also known as Death in the Air
 * The A.B.C. Murders (1936), also known as The Alphabet Murders
 * One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940), also known as An Overdose of Death and The Patriotic Murders. This is his last appearance in any work by Christie, although he is briefly mentioned in two later works.

In most of these appearances, Japp is a minor character with minimal interactions with Poirot or involvement in the plot. He also appears in the short story The Flock of Geryon (see The Labours of Hercules).

Japp emerges however as a major character and partner to Poirot in Lord Edgware Dies. He returns in this capacity in Death in the Clouds and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, before being written out of the series. In number of appearances, Japp is comparable to Arthur Hastings who was featured in eight of the Poirot novels.

Inspector Japp is also briefly mentioned in the Tommy and Tuppence book The Secret Adversary (1922); his card is brought to Julius Hersheimmer at the end of chapter five. In chapter seventeen of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Japp is mentioned by a police superintendent to Poirot as having asked after him. Japp is mentioned by Poirot in Death on the Nile (1937), and by Colonel Weston in Evil Under the Sun (1941), the next book in the Poirot series after his final appearance. Japp is also mentioned in the novel Taken at the Flood (1948) by Superintendent Spence during a conversation with Hercule Poirot.

Japp's career in the Poirot novels extends into the 1930s but, like Hastings, he disappeared from Christie's writing thereafter. A police officer somewhat similar in character (Superintendent Spence) was introduced as a significant recurring character in the later Poirot novels.

Japp appears in Christie's stage play Black Coffee, written in 1929. He remarks to Poirot that it has been a "long time" since they last met, in connection with "that Welsh case", which is not otherwise identified. Japp also appears in Charles Osborne's novelisation of Black Coffee.

Like those of Miss Lemon and Arthur Hastings, the role of Inspector Japp in Poirot's career has been exaggerated by adaptations of Christie's original novels, specifically by the TV series Agatha Christie's Poirot, where these characters are often introduced into stories that did not originally feature them.

Characteristics
Inspector Japp has a tendency to jump to conclusions, and to accept simple solutions to cases. However, he becomes a more competent and respected police detective over time, eventually earning a promotion to Chief Inspector and demonstrating his capability in this position. He respects Poirot's abilities but is sometimes rude to him, though over the years, he becomes more of a friend to Poirot and works more closely with him. Japp sometimes accuses Poirot of "making things difficult" when Poirot contradicts a solution which Japp believes is correct; however, when Japp is proved wrong, he acknowledges his mistake and makes remarks such as "you're the goods!" to Poirot. In One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, the last novel in which he appears, Japp visits Poirot at his flat to apologise after doubting him and to tell Poirot he was right.

When off duty, Japp is an "ardent botanist", according to Hastings in the 1923 short story "The Market Basing Mystery". Japp is described as "little, sharp, dark and ferret-faced" in the 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and as a "little ferret-faced fellow" in the 1923 short story "The Kidnapped Prime Minister".

Portrayals
The role of Japp is played by Philip Jackson in the British TV series Agatha Christie's Poirot, where Hercule Poirot's character is played by David Suchet. Before Suchet took on the role of Poirot, he had previously played Japp himself in the 1985 film Thirteen at Dinner, where Peter Ustinov played Poirot. Philip Jackson portrays Japp as working-class and 'thoroughly British', not very intelligent but an extremely diligent, canny and active police officer with a good but rather dry sense of humour, characteristics which often serve as a perfect foil to Poirot's personality, who is intelligent, elegant, upper-class but rather slow in movements and of a very serious nature.

In the same television series, Japp is already a Chief Inspector in the first episode, his full name is James Harold Japp according to the episode "The Chocolate Box", and he has been promoted to Assistant Commissioner by the time he appears in the episode "The Big Four".

Philip Jackson is also one of the actors who played Japp in the BBC Radio adaptations of Poirot stories, produced contemporaneously with the Suchet TV series and starring John Moffatt as Poirot. In the radio dramatisations, Inspector Japp was played by Norman Jones in Lord Edgware Dies (1992), by Philip Jackson in The ABC Murders (2000), Death In The Clouds (2003), One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (2004), and The Mysterious Affair at Styles (2005), and by Bryan Pringle in Peril at End House (2000).

Japp is played by Melville Cooper in the 1931 film adaptation of Christie's stage play Black Coffee.

As the inspector's name is spelled similarly and pronounced in the same way as the ethnic slur Jap, he was renamed Inspector Sharp (シャープ警部) in the Japanese anime series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple (NHK, 2004).

In the Professor Layton series of puzzle video games for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, the fictional Scotland Yard chief inspector Chelmey appears visually and contextually as a comically incompetent caricature of Inspector Japp as played by Philip Jackson.

A retired Japp is played by Kevin McNally in The ABC Murders (2018); the series starts with Japp dying of a heart attack, and a recurring sub-plot is Inspector Crome, Japp's protege, expressing distrust of Poirot as he feels that working with Poirot ruined Japp's career.

title: Inspector Japp


text:
Sea monster

Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.

Sightings and legends
Sea monster accounts are found in virtually all cultures that have contact with the sea. For example, Avienius relates of Carthaginian explorer Himilco's voyage "...there monsters of the deep, and beasts swim amid the slow and sluggishly crawling ships." (lines 117–29 of Ora Maritima). Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed to have encountered a lion-like monster with "glaring eyes" on his return voyage after formally claiming St. John's, Newfoundland (1583) for England. Another account of an encounter with a sea monster comes from July 1734. Hans Egede, a Dano-Norwegian missionary, reported that on a voyage to Godthåb on the western coast of Greenland he observed:

"a most terrible creature, resembling nothing they saw before. The monster lifted its head so high that it seemed to be higher than the crow's nest on the mainmast. The head was small and the body short and wrinkled. The unknown creature was using giant fins which propelled it through the water. Later the sailors saw its tail as well. The monster was longer than our whole ship."

Ellis (1999) suggested the Egede monster might have been a giant squid.

There is a Tlingit legend about a sea monster named Gunakadeit (Goo-na'-ka-date) who brought prosperity and good luck to a village in crisis, people starving in the home they made for themselves on the southeastern coast of Alaska.

Other reports are known from the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans (e.g. see Heuvelmans 1968). Cryptozoologists suggest that modern-day sea monsters are surviving specimens of giant marine reptiles, such as an ichthyosaur or plesiosaur, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, or extinct whales like Basilosaurus. Ship damage from Tropical cyclones such as hurricanes or typhoons may also be another possible origin of sea monsters.

In 1892, Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans, then director of the Royal Zoological Gardens at The Hague, saw the publication of his The Great Sea Serpent, which suggested that many sea serpent reports were best accounted for as a previously unknown giant, long-necked pinniped.

It is likely that many other reports of sea monsters are misinterpreted sightings of shark and whale carcasses (see below), floating kelp, logs or other flotsam such as abandoned rafts, canoes and fishing nets.

Alleged carcasses
Sea monster corpses have been reported since recent antiquity (Heuvelmans 1968). Unidentified carcasses are often called globsters. The alleged plesiosaur netted by the Japanese trawler Zuiyō Maru off New Zealand caused a sensation in 1977 and was immortalized on a Brazilian postage stamp before it was suggested by the FBI to be the decomposing carcass of a basking shark. Likewise, DNA testing confirmed that an alleged sea monster washed up on Newfoundland in August 2001, was a sperm whale.

Another modern example of a "sea monster" was the strange creature washed up in Los Muermos on the Chilean sea shore in July 2003. It was first described as a "mammoth jellyfish as long as a bus" but was later determined to be another corpse of a sperm whale. Cases of boneless, amorphic globsters are sometimes believed to be gigantic octopuses, but it has now been determined that sperm whales dying at sea decompose in such a way that the blubber detaches from the body, forming featureless whitish masses that sometimes exhibit a hairy texture due to exposed strands of collagen fibers. The analysis of the Zuiyō Maru carcass revealed a comparable phenomenon in decomposing basking shark carcasses, which lose most of the lower head area and the dorsal and caudal fins first, making them resemble a plesiosaur.

In May 2017, The Guardian published an article claiming a giant sea monster's corpse was found in Indonesia, and also published an alleged photograph of "it."

Example

 * Aspidochelone, a giant turtle or whale that appeared to be an island and lured sailors to their doom
 * Bakunawa
 * Bloop (sound) Because it was spreading worldwide
 * Capricorn, Babylonian sea goat featured in the Zodiac
 * Cai Cai-Vilu
 * Cetus, a monster sent by Poseidon to devour Andromeda, only to be destroyed by Perseus
 * Charybdis of Homer, a monster whose mouth formed a whirlpool that sucked any ship nearby beneath the ocean
 * Cirein-cròin
 * Curruid, from whose bone the Gae Bulg is made in Celtic mythology
 * Devil Whale, a demonic whale the size of an island
 * Hafgufa, a whale of fabulous size, described as a sjóskrímsli 'sea monster' together with the lyngbakr
 * Hydra, Greek multi-headed dragon-like beast
 * Iku-Turso, reputedly a type of colossal octopus or walrus
 * Ipupiara
 * Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent and nemesis of Thor in Norse mythology
 * Kraken, a gigantic octopus, squid, or crab-like creature
 * Lacovie
 * Leviathan
 * Lusca
 * Makara
 * Proteus
 * Scylla of Homer, a six-headed, twelve-legged serpentine monster that devoured six men from each ship that passed by
 * Sirens
 * Taniwha
 * Tiamat
 * Timingila
 * Umibōzu
 * Yacumama

Older reports
Sea monsters reported first or second hand include:

 * A giant octopus by Pliny (not to be confused with the documented Giant Pacific octopus)
 * Sea monk
 * Various sea serpents
 * Tritons by Pliny
 * Cormac Ua Liatháin in the 6th century supposedly saw a horde of tiny creatures the size of frogs that had spines, which attacked his boat in the North Atlantic according to an account written by Adomnan of Iona

Newer reports

 * Cadborosaurus of the Pacific Northwest
 * Champ of Lake Champlain
 * Chessie of the Chesapeake Bay
 * Nessie of Loch Ness
 * Issie of Lake Ikeda, Kyushu
 * Ogopogo of Okanagan Lake
 * Lusca
 * Morgawr
 * Ningen, a humanoid creature sighted in the seas north of Japan
 * Fjörulalli, also called Shore Laddie, Arnarfjörður, Westfjords, Iceland
 * Sea Horse Arnarfjörður, Westfjords, Iceland
 * The Shell monster Arnarfjörður, Westfjords, Iceland
 * Hafmaður Arnarfjörður, Westfjords, Iceland

In fiction

 * Great Fish in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Jonah
 * Creatures of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, including Cthulhu itself.
 * Creatures in such sci-fi/horror films as Deepstar Six, The Rift, Deep Rising and Deep Shock.
 * Clover
 * Cyrus from Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent by Bill Peet
 * Fictional portrayals of the Giant Squid, like in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.
 * Giant octopus in It Came from Beneath the Sea.
 * Iku-Turso in Lönnrot's Kalevala
 * Giganto
 * Godzilla
 * Mothra (Aqua Form)
 * Gorgo
 * Manda
 * Kraken as depicted in Clash of the Titans (both the 1981 and 2010 versions).
 * Kraken as depicted in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
 * Ebirah
 * Titanosaurus
 * Zigra
 * Moby Dick
 * Rhedosaurus
 * The Terrible Dogfish
 * Jaws
 * Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
 * Sea Serpent as depicted in C.S. Lewis' novel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and its 2010 film adaptation, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
 * The Meg, the giant moray eel Great Abaia, and the giant squid Lusca. The Great are 3 sea monsters featured as bosses in the survival video game "Stranded Deep"
 * The sea monster from Monkeybone is an inhabitant of Down Town and is performed by Nathan Stein. It resembles a piscine humanoid that is protruding from the back of its large seahorse-like mount.
 * In Ninjago: Seabound, Wojira is a Giant Sea Serpent/Dragon that can control water and wind using the storm and wave amulets.
 * In the 1980 film Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur, Piisuke is Nobita's pet dinosaur and sea monster.
 * In the 2021 film Luca, Luca Paguro and his friend Alberto Scorfano are 13–14 year old humanoid sea monsters that assume the form of Humans when they are dry on land.
 * The 2022 film The Sea Beast featured an assortment of sea monsters.

title: Sea monster


text:
2000–2001 California electricity crisis

The 2000–2001 California electricity crisis, also known as the Western U.S. energy crisis of 2000 and 2001, was a situation in which the U.S. state of California had a shortage of electricity supply caused by market manipulations and capped retail electricity prices. The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts, one of the state's largest energy companies collapsed, and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis's standing.

Drought, and delays in approval of new power plants, also decreased supply. This caused an 800% increase in wholesale prices from April 2000 to December 2000. In addition, rolling blackouts adversely affected many businesses dependent upon a reliable supply of electricity, and inconvenienced many retail consumers.

California had an installed generating capacity of 45 GW (gigawatts, or billions-of-watts). At the time of the blackouts, demand was 28 GW. A demand-supply gap was created by energy companies, mainly Enron, to create artificial shortages. Energy traders took power plants offline for maintenance during days of peak demand to increase the price. Traders were thus able to sell power at premium prices, sometimes up to a factor of twenty times its normal value. Because the state government had a cap on retail electricity charges, this market manipulation squeezed the industry's revenue margins, causing the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and near bankruptcy of Southern California Edison in early 2001.

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the crisis was possible because of legislation instituted in 1996 by the California Legislature (AB 1890) and Governor Pete Wilson that deregulated some aspects of the energy industry. Enron took advantage of this partial deregulation and was involved in economic withholding and inflated price bidding in California's spot markets.

The crisis cost between US$40 and $45 billion.

Market manipulation
As the FERC report concluded, market manipulation was only possible as a result of the complex market design produced by the process of partial deregulation. Manipulation strategies were known to energy traders under names such as "Fat Boy", "Death Star", "Forney Perpetual Loop", "Wheel Out", "Ricochet", "Ping Pong", "Black Widow", "Big Foot", "Red Congo", "Cong Catcher" and "Get Shorty".

In a letter sent from David Fabian to Senator Boxer in 2002, it was alleged that:
 * "There is a single connection between northern and southern California's power grids. I heard that Enron traders purposely overbooked that line, then caused others to need it. Next, by California's free-market rules, Enron was allowed to price-gouge at will."

Effects of partial deregulation
On a federal level, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, for which Enron had lobbied, opened electrical transmission grids to competition, unbundling generation and transmission of electricity.

On the state level, part of California's deregulation process, which was promoted as a means of increasing competition, was also influenced by lobbying from Enron, and began in 1996 when California became the first state to deregulate its electricity market.

Energy deregulation put the three companies that distribute electricity into a tough situation. Energy deregulation policy froze or capped the existing price of energy that the three energy distributors could charge. Deregulating the producers of energy did not lower the cost of energy. Deregulation did not encourage new producers to create more power and drive down prices. Instead, with increasing demand for electricity, the producers of energy charged more for electricity. The producers used moments of spike energy production to inflate the price of energy. In January 2001, energy producers began shutting down plants to increase prices.

Government price caps
By keeping the consumer price of electricity artificially low, the California government discouraged citizens from practicing conservation. In February 2001, California governor Gray Davis stated, "Believe me, if I wanted to raise rates I could have solved this problem in 20 minutes." However, in San Diego, where San Diego Gas & Electric had paid off its debt, market rates were charged beginning in July 1999. Prices doubled in two months due to a hot summer, and people protested by not paying their full bills and calling the power company.

When the electricity demand in California rose, utilities had no financial incentive to expand production, as long term prices were capped. Instead, wholesalers such as Enron manipulated the market to force utility companies into daily spot markets for short term gain. For example, in a market technique known as megawatt laundering, wholesalers bought up electricity in California at below cap price to sell out of state, creating shortages. In some instances, wholesalers scheduled power transmission to create congestion and drive up prices.

After extensive investigation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) substantially agreed in 2003:

 * "...supply-demand imbalance, flawed market design and inconsistent rules made possible significant market manipulation as delineated in final investigation report. Without underlying market dysfunction, attempts to manipulate the market would not be successful."

 * "...many trading strategies employed by Enron and other companies violated the anti-gaming provisions..."

 * "Electricity prices in California’s spot markets were affected by economic withholding and inflated price bidding, in violation of tariff anti-gaming provisions."

New regulations
In the mid-1990s, under Republican Governor Pete Wilson, California began changing the electricity industry. Democratic State Senator Steve Peace was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy at the time and is often credited as "the father of deregulation". The author of the bill was Senator Jim Brulte, a Republican from Rancho Cucamonga. Wilson admitted publicly that defects in the deregulation system would need fixing by "the next governor".

Supply and demand
California's population increased by 13% during the 1990s. The State did not build any new major power plants during that time, and California's generation capability decreased 2 percent from 1990 through 1999, while retail sales increased by 11 percent.

California's utilities came to depend in part on the import of excess hydroelectricity from the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon and Washington. During that time, California relied upon out-of-state generators to supply 7 to 11 gigawatts of power.

In the summer of 2001 a drought in the northwest states reduced the amount of hydroelectric power available to California. Moreover, wholesale prices of natural gas spiked nationwide, rising from around $2 per 1 e6BTU at the beginning of 1999 to over $10 per million BTU in the winter of 2000-2001.

The main line which allowed electricity to travel from the north to the south, Path 15, had not been improved for many years and became a major bottleneck point which limited the amount of power that could be sent south to 3,900 MW.

The International Energy Agency estimates that a 5% lowering of demand would result in a 50% price reduction during the peak hours of the California electricity crisis in 2000/2001. With better demand response the market also becomes more resilient to intentional withdrawal of offers from the supply side.

Some key events
Rolling blackouts affecting 97,000 customers hit the San Francisco Bay area on June 14, 2000, and San Diego Gas & Electric Company filed a complaint alleging market manipulation by some energy producers in August 2000. On December 7, 2000, suffering from low supply and idled power plants, the California Independent System Operator (ISO), which manages the California power grid, declared the first statewide Stage 3 power alert, meaning power reserves were below 3 percent. Rolling blackouts were avoided when the state halted two large state and federal water pumps to conserve electricity.

Most notably, the city of Los Angeles was unaffected by the crisis because government-owned public utilities in California (including the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power) were exempt from the deregulation legislation and sold their excess power to private utilities in the state (mostly to Southern California Edison) during the crises. That enabled much of the greater Los Angeles area to suffer only rolling brown-outs rather than long term black outs suffered in other parts of the state.

Consequences of wholesale price rises on the retail market
As a result of the actions of electricity wholesalers, Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) were buying from a spot market at very high prices but were unable to raise retail rates. For a product that the IOU's used to produce for about three cents per kilowatt hour of electricity, they were paying eleven to fifty cents, or occasionally even more, but they were capped at 6.7 cents per kilowatt hour when charging their retail customers. As a result, PG&E filed bankruptcy, and Southern California Edison worked diligently on a workout plan with the State of California to save their company from the same fate.

According to a 2007 study of Department of Energy data by Power in the Public Interest, retail electricity prices rose much more from 1999 to 2007 in states that adopted deregulation than in those that did not.

Involvement of Enron
One of the energy wholesalers that became notorious for "gaming the market" and reaping huge speculative profits was Enron Corporation. Enron CEO Kenneth Lay mocked the efforts by the California state government to thwart the practices of the energy wholesalers, insisting that "no matter what we 'crazy people in California' did that he had people working for him at Enron that could figure out a way to make money". The original statement was made in a phone conversation between S. David Freeman (Chairman of the California Power Authority) and Kenneth Lay in 2000, according to the statements made by Freeman to the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce and Tourism in April and May 2002.

S. David Freeman, who was appointed Chair of the California Power Authority in the midst of the crisis, made the following statements about Enron's involvement in testimony submitted before the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce and Tourism of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on May 15, 2002:

 * "There is one fundamental lesson we must learn from this experience: electricity is really different from everything else. It cannot be stored, it cannot be seen, and we cannot do without it, which makes opportunities to take advantage of a deregulated market endless. It is a public good that must be protected from private abuse. If Murphy's Law were written for a market approach to electricity, then the law would state 'any system that can be gamed, will be gamed, and at the worst possible time.' And a market approach for electricity is inherently gameable. Never again can we allow private interests to create artificial or even real shortages and to be in control.

 * "Enron stood for secrecy and a lack of responsibility. In electric power, we must have openness and companies that are responsible for keeping the lights on. We need to go back to companies that own power plants with clear responsibilities for selling real power under long-term contracts. There is no place for companies like Enron that own the equivalent of an electronic telephone book and game the system to extract an unnecessary middleman’s profits. Companies with power plants can compete for contracts to provide the bulk of our power at reasonable prices that reflect costs. People say that Governor Davis has been vindicated by the Enron confession."

Governor Gray Davis
Some critics, such as Arianna Huffington, alleged that Davis was lulled to inaction by campaign contributions from energy producers. In addition, the California State Legislature would sometimes push Davis to act decisively by taking over power plants which were known to have been gamed and place them back under control of the utilities, ensuring a more steady supply and punished the worst manipulators. Meanwhile, conservatives argued that Davis signed overpriced energy contracts, employed incompetent negotiators, and refused to allow prices to rise for residences statewide much like they did in San Diego, which they argue could have given Davis more leverage against the energy traders and encouraged more conservation. More criticism is given in the book Conspiracy of Fools, which gives the details of a meeting between the governor and his officials; Clinton Administration Treasury officials; and energy executives, including market manipulators such as Enron, where Gray Davis disagreed with the treasury officials and energy executives. They advised suspending environmental studies to build power plants and a small rate hike to prepare for long-term power contracts (Davis eventually signed overpriced ones, as noted above), while Davis supported price caps, denounced the other solutions as too politically risky, and allegedly acted rudely. The contracts Davis signed locked Californians into high electric costs for the next decade. As of October 2011 electric rates in California had yet to return to pre-contract levels.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
On May 17, 2001, future Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Los Angeles Mayor Republican Richard Riordan met with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills. The meeting was convened for Enron to present its "Comprehensive Solution for California," which called for an end to federal and state investigations into Enron's role in the California energy crisis.

On October 7, 2003, Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California to replace Davis.

Over a year later, he attended the commissioning ceremony of a new Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) 500 kV line remedying the aforementioned power bottleneck on Path 15.

Congressional Response to the Crisis
In the Spring of 2001, House Government Affairs Energy Policy and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Doug Ose held a series of field hearings in California and Nevada, receiving testimony from Public Utilities Commission Chair Loretta Lynch, FERC General Counsel Kevin Madden, California ISO President and CEO Terry Winter and Central Valley farmers. During the hearings, the state and federal representatives cast blame on each other, but there was consensus that warning signals to the crisis were missed repeatedly.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was intimately involved with the handling of the crisis from the summer of 2000. There were in fact at least four separate FERC investigations.
 * The Gaming Case, investigating general allegations of manipulation of the Western energy markets.
 * The Enron Western Markets Investigation, FERC Docket Number PA02-2, specifically investigating the involvement of Enron and other companies in manipulating the energy markets.
 * The Refund Case, involving wide-ranging recovery of illegal profits made by some companies during the crisis.
 * The Economic Withholding and Anomalous Bidding Case.

In December 2005, the Commission filed a report to the U. S. Congress on its response to the California Electricity Crisis, which states that "To date, the Commission staff has facilitated settlements resulting in over $6.3 billion".

On August 17, 2013, the British Columbia company Powerex agreed to a $750 million refund as a settlement over charges of manipulating electricity prices during 2000.

title: 2000–2001 California electricity crisis


text:
Cyclomedusa

Cyclomedusa is a circular fossil of the Ediacaran biota; it has a circular bump in the middle and as many as five circular growth ridges around it. Many specimens are small, but specimens in excess of 20 cm are known. The concentric disks are not necessarily circular, especially when adjacent individuals interfere with each other's growth. Many radial segment lines — somewhat pineapple-like — extend across the outer disks. A few specimens show what might be a stem extending from the center in some direction or other.

Cyclomedusa is widely distributed in Ediacaran strata, with a number of species described. It has also been found in sediments dating to the Tonian (~). Cyclomedusa was originally thought to be a jellyfish but some specimens seem to be distorted to accommodate adjacent specimens on the substrate, apparently indicating a benthic (bottom-dwelling) creature. The markings do not match the musculature pattern of modern jellyfish. The fossils have been conjectured to represent a holdfast for some stalked form — possibly an octacorallian, or something else entirely. Alternatively, it was thought that the described species actually represent different modes of preservation for one organism or that several different organisms have been grouped together under one name as a form taxon.

It is now suggested that Cyclomedusa was a microbial colony; D. Grazhdankin reinterprets the concentric rings and radial structures as comparable to those seen in modern-day microbial colonies exposed to homogeneously distributed environmental conditions.

Cyclomedusa is known from Neoproterozoic beds in Ediacara (Australia), Finnmark (Norway), Charnwood Forest (England), Olenek (Russia), North China, Newfoundland, Northwest Canada, Podolia (Ukraine), the Ural Mountains (Russia), the White Sea (Russia), and Sonora (Mexico). It is regarded as a member of the Ediacaran biota— a group of somewhat obscure organisms that thrived just before most of the modern multicellular animal phyla appeared. Cyclomedusa has no known relatives.

title: Cyclomedusa


text:
Joaquín Crespo

Joaquín Sinforiano de Jesús Crespo Torres (22 August 1841 – 16 April 1898) was a Venezuelan military officer and politician. A member of the Great Liberal Party of Venezuela, he served as the president of Venezuela from 1884 to 1886 and again from 1892 to 1898. He began his career as a soldier during the Federal War.

Presidency
Joaquín Crespo became president for the first time in 1884. In 1886 Guzmán Blanco returned as president. Crespo went into exile during the presidency of Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl which marked a break with Guzmán Blanco's policies.

During the second Joaquín Crespo regime, which began in 1892, a new constitution increased the presidential term. The Venezuelan crisis of 1895 saw Venezuela's longstanding territorial dispute with Great Britain come to a head, with the United States giving diplomatic support to Venezuela. Britain claimed the territory as part of British Guiana while Venezuela saw it as Venezuelan. The disputed border was submitted to international arbitration. The arbitral panel awarded most of the territory to Britain in 1899 after Crespo's death.

Subsequent career
In 1897, Crespo did not campaign for a third presidential term but supported Ignacio Andrade against key opponent Jose Manuel Hernandez. Andrade won the election and inaugurated his term on 28 February, 1898. Hernandez decried the results as fraudulent and took up arms. Hernandez was quickly defeated, with resultant political turmoil.

Death
Crespo, who remained a military mainstay of the government, was killed in battle on 16 April 1898 in the Combat of Mata Carmelera while defending the government of Andrade.

He was buried in the Southern General Cemetery. During the crisis in Venezuela, in 2018, the tomb of Crespo and his wife Jacinta was looted and vandalized, leaving their bodies exposed to the elements.

Personal life
Crespo was married to Jacinta Parejo, who served as First Lady of Venezuela from 1884 to 1886, and 1892–1898.

Parents Leandro Crespo 1801- 1889 Maria Aquilina Torres 1819 1889

Brothers and Sisters Tiburcio Antonio de Jesus Crespo Torres 1845- Jose Julian Crespo Torres 1848- Juana de la Rosa Crespo Torres 1853 General Luis Benito Crespo Torres 1855-1933 Cornelia Crespo Torres 1856- 1886 Coronel Hipolito de Jesus Crespo Torres 1859- 1898 ( Married to Maria Suarez)

title: Joaquín Crespo


text: Talk:Mind share

title: Talk:Mind share


text:
Phillip E. Johnson

Phillip E. Johnson (June 18, 1940 – November 2, 2019) was an American legal scholar who was the Jefferson E. Peyser Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an opponent of evolutionary science, co-founder of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC), and one of the co-founders of the intelligent design movement, along with William Dembski and Michael Behe. Johnson described himself as "in a sense the father of the intelligent design movement".

Johnson was a critic of Darwinism, which he described as "fully naturalistic evolution, involving chance mechanisms and natural selection". Johnson argued that scientists accepted the theory of evolution "before it was rigorously tested, and thereafter used all their authority to convince the public that naturalistic processes are sufficient to produce a human from a bacterium, and a bacterium from a mix of chemicals." The scientific community considered Johnson's defense of intelligent design to be pseudoscientific.

Early life and education
Johnson was born in Aurora, Illinois, on June 18, 1940. He received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in English literature from Harvard University in 1961, then studied law at the University of Chicago, where he graduated at the top of his class with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1965. He served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Roger J. Traynor of the California Supreme Court from 1965–1966, then clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren at the Supreme Court of the United States from 1966–1967. In January 1966, Johnson became a member of the State Bar of California.

Career
From 1967 to 2000, Johnson was an active professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and retained the title of professor emeritus at the time of his death. Johnson served as deputy district attorney and held visiting professorships at Emory University and at University College London.

At the age of 38, Johnson became a born again Christian following a divorce, and later became an elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Johnson recounted that while on a sabbatical in England he sought, through prayer, inspiration for what he should do with the rest of his life, and then received an epiphany after he read Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker (1986) and Michael Denton's Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985). Johnson later said, "Something about the Darwinists' rhetorical style made me think they had something to hide." Despite having no formal background in biology, he felt that he could add insight into the premises and arguments. Johnson stated that he approached the creation evolution dispute not as a scientist but as an academic lawyer by profession, with a specialty in analyzing the logic of arguments and identifying the assumptions that lie behind those arguments. He noted that what people think about evolutionism depends very heavily on the kind of logic they employ and the kind of assumptions they make. Further, he pointed out that four of the eleven members of the special committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences to prepare its official booklet titled Science and Creationism were lawyers. (That first edition of the publication, which was finished in 1984, was prepared as an amicus brief in the Edwards v. Aguillard case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court. ) In 1989, Of Pandas and People by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon was published as the first book to promote intelligent design.

The first edition of Darwin on Trial was published in 1991. In notes listing his sources, Johnson said about Of Pandas and People that "This book is 'creationist' only in the sense that it juxtaposes a paradigm of 'intelligent design' with the dominant paradigm of (naturalistic) evolution, and makes the case for the former. It does not rely on the authority of the Bible." Following that, Johnson sought supporters for his "Wedge Strategy". In the ID blog Evolution News, Casey Luskin described him as the godfather of the intelligent design movement, and PBS said he was "known as the father of intelligent design".

Johnson was a critic of methodological naturalism, the basic principle that science can only investigate natural causes for observable phenomena, and espoused a philosophy he called "theistic realism." He was the author of several books on intelligent design, science, philosophy, and religion, as well as textbooks on criminal law. He has appeared on various programs such as PBS's Firing Line and a Nova episode, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial."

Personal life and death
Beginning in 2001, Johnson suffered a series of minor right brain strokes. His rehabilitations limited his public activities and participation in the debate on intelligent design, because of both their physical effects and Johnson's belief that they were signs from God urging him to spend more time with his faith and family and less in prideful debate. In 2004, he was awarded the inaugural "Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth" by Biola University, a private evangelical Christian college noted for its promotion of intelligent design. Johnson had two children and lived with his wife in Berkeley, California.

Johnson died in early November 2019 at his home.

Intelligent design
Johnson was known as one of the founders of the intelligent design movement, principal architect of the wedge strategy, and the author of the Santorum Amendment.

Johnson rejects common descent and does not take a position on the age of the Earth. These concepts are a common theme in his books, including Darwin on Trial, Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education (1995), Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds (1997), and The Wedge of Truth: Splitting the Foundations of Naturalism (2000). Eugenie Scott wrote that Darwin on Trial "teaches little that is accurate about either the nature of science, or the topic of evolution. It is recommended neither by scientists nor educators." Working through the Center for Science and Culture, Johnson wrote the early draft language of the Santorum Amendment, which encouraged a "Teach the Controversy" approach to evolution in public school education.

Nancy Pearcey, a Center for Science and Culture fellow and Johnson associate, credits Johnson's leadership of the intelligent design movement in two of her most recent publications. In an interview with Johnson for World magazine, Pearcey says, "It is not only in politics that leaders forge movements. Phillip Johnson has developed what is called the 'Intelligent Design' movement ..." In Christianity Today, she reveals Johnson's religious beliefs and his criticism of evolution and affirms Johnson as "The unofficial spokesman for ID" The scientific community views intelligent design as unscientific, pseudoscience and junk science.

Darwin on Trial
In the book Darwin on Trial, 1991, Johnson disputed the tenets of evolution and promoted Intelligent design. He wrote the book with the thesis that evolution could be "tried" like a defendant in court. Darwin on Trial became a central text of the intelligent design movement.

Wedge strategy
In its earliest days the intelligent design movement was called the 'wedge movement'. The wedge metaphor, attributed to Johnson, is that of a metal wedge splitting a log and represents using an aggressive public relations program to create an opening for the supernatural in the public's understanding of science. Johnson acknowledges that the goal of the intelligent design movement is to promote a theistic agenda as a scientific concept.

According to Johnson, the wedge movement, if not the term, began in 1992:

Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State described the wedge strategy:

Johnson is one of the authors of the Discovery Institute's Wedge Document and its "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which attempts to cast doubt on the validity of the theory of evolution, its acceptance within the scientific community, and reduce its role in public school science curricula while promoting intelligent design. The "Teach the Controversy" campaign portrays evolution as "a theory in crisis."

In his 1997 book Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds Johnson summed up the underlying philosophy of his advocacy for intelligent design and against methodological and philosophical naturalism:

Johnson has described the wedge strategy as:
 * "We are taking an intuition most people have [the belief in God] and making it a scientific and academic enterprise. We are removing the most important cultural roadblock to accepting the role of God as creator."
 * "Our strategy has been to change the subject a bit, so that we can get the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of God, before the academic world and into the schools."
 * "This isn't really, and never has been, a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy."
 * "So the question is: 'How to win?' That's when I began to develop what you now see full-fledged in the 'wedge' strategy: 'Stick with the most important thing' —the mechanism and the building up of information. Get the Bible and the Book of Genesis out of the debate because you do not want to raise the so-called Bible-science dichotomy. Phrase the argument in such a way that you can get it heard in the secular academy and in a way that tends to unify the religious dissenters. That means concentrating on, 'Do you need a Creator to do the creating, or can nature do it on its own?' and refusing to get sidetracked onto other issues, which people are always trying to do."

When asked how best to raise doubts and question evolution with non-believers, Johnson responded:

Wedge of Truth
The book Wedge of Truth, published by Johnson in 2000, is an expansion of the Wedge Document. He states that truth has the ability to speak for itself.

Criticism
Johnson has been accused of being intellectually dishonest in his arguments advancing intelligent design and attacking the scientific community. Johnson has employed numerous equivocations regarding the term "naturalism," failing to distinguish between methodological naturalism (in which science is used to study the natural world and says nothing about the supernatural) versus philosophical naturalism (the philosophical belief that nothing exists but the natural world, and adopts as a premise the idea that there is no supernatural world or deities). In fact-checking Johnson's books Darwin on Trial and Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, Brian Spitzer, an associate professor of biology at the University of Redlands, argued that almost every scientific source Johnson cited had been misused or distorted, from simple misinterpretations and innuendos to outright fabrications. Spitzer described Darwin on Trial as the most deceptive book he had ever read.

In 1993 the ASA's Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith published a review of Darwin on Trial by Nancey Murphy, an associate professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, who described Johnson's arguments as "dogmatic and unconvincing", primarily because "he does not adequately understand scientific reasoning." In a later interview she said she faced a campaign to get her fired after she expressed her view that intelligent design was not only poor theology, but "so stupid, I don't want to give them my time." Murphy, who accepts the validity of evolution, said that Johnson called a trustee in an attempt to get her fired and stated "His tactic has always been to fight dirty when anyone attacks his ideas." Johnson admits he had spoken with a former trustee of the seminary who was himself upset with Murphy, but denies any responsibility for action taken against her. He said: "It's the Darwinists who hold the power in academia and who threaten the professional status and livelihoods of anyone who disagrees ... They feel to teach anything but their orthodoxy is an act of professional treason."

Since Johnson is considered by those both inside and outside the movement to be the father and architect of the intelligent design movement and its strategies, his statements are often used to validate the criticisms leveled by those who allege that the Discovery Institute and its allied organizations are merely stripping the obvious religious content from their anti-evolution assertions as a means of avoiding the legal restrictions of the Establishment Clause, a view reinforced by the December 2005 ruling in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial which found that intelligent design is not science and is essentially religious in nature. They argue that ID is an attempt to put a patina of secularity on top of what is a fundamentally religious belief and thus that the "Teach the Controversy" exhortation is disingenuous, particularly when contrasted to his statements in The Wall Street Journal and other secular media. Critics point out that contrary to the Discovery Institute's and Johnson's claims, the theory of evolution is well-supported and accepted within the scientific community, with debates regarding how evolution occurred, not if it occurred. Popular disagreement with evolutionary theory should not be considered as a reason for challenging it as a scientifically valid subject to be taught, they contend.

Critics of Johnson point to his central role in the Discovery Institute's carefully orchestrated campaign known as the wedge strategy. The wedge strategy, as envisioned by the Discovery Institute, is designed to leave the science establishment looking close-minded in the short term with a long-term goal being a redefinition of science that centers on the removal of methodological naturalism from the philosophy of science and the scientific method, thereby allowing for supernatural explanations to be introduced as science. Critics note that Johnson, as a principal officer of the Discovery Institute, often cites an overall plan to put the United States on a course toward the theocracy envisioned in the wedge strategy, and that the Discovery Institute as a matter of policy intentionally obfuscates its agenda. According to Johnson, "The movement we now call the wedge made its public debut at a conference of scientists and philosophers held at Southern Methodist University in March 1992."

During the 1990s, Johnson and several others challenged the scientific consensus by claiming that HIV tests do not detect HIV, AIDS statistics are grossly exaggerated, and that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. As a member of The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis, a prominent AIDS denialist group, Johnson questioned if HIV caused AIDS. He wrote several articles about the subject, including a piece in Reason magazine. He was one of the 12 founding members of The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis and signatory to the group's letter to the editor of Science asserting that HIV is only tautologically associated with AIDS and that HIV tests are inaccurate. Johnson, along with others, have been criticized for their questioning of the scientific and medical consensus that HIV causes AIDS. In the Washington University Law Review, Matthew J. Brauer, Barbara Forrest, and Steven G. Gey faulted Johnson, Wells and others for denying the HIV/AIDS connection and promoting denialism via a petition designed to garner publicity but which did not have any scientific support.

title: Phillip E. Johnson


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Economies of agglomeration

One of the major subfields of urban economics, economies of agglomeration (or agglomeration effects), explains, in broad terms, how urban agglomeration occurs in locations where cost savings can naturally arise. This term is most often discussed in terms of economic firm productivity. However, agglomeration effects also explain some social phenomena, such as large proportions of the population being clustered in cities and major urban centers. Similar to economies of scale, the costs and benefits of agglomerating increase the larger the agglomerated urban cluster becomes. Several prominent examples of where agglomeration has brought together firms of a specific industry are: Silicon Valley and Los Angeles being hubs of technology and entertainment, respectively, in California, United States; and London, United Kingdom, being a hub of finance.

Economies of agglomeration have some advantages. As more firms in related fields of business cluster together, their production costs tend to decline significantly (firms have multiple competing suppliers; greater specialization and division of labor result). Even when competing firms in the same sector cluster, there may be advantages because the cluster attracts more suppliers and customers than a single firm could achieve alone. Cities form and grow to exploit economies of agglomeration.

Diseconomies of agglomeration are the opposite. For example, spatially concentrated growth in automobile-oriented fields may create problems of crowding and traffic congestion. The tension between economies and diseconomies allows cities to grow but keeps them from becoming too large.

At the foundational level, proximity—especially to other facilities and suppliers – is a driving force behind economic growth and is one explanation for why agglomeration effects are so evident in major urban centers. While the concentration of economic activity in cities has a positive effect on their development and growth, cities, in turn, help foster economic activity by accommodating population growth, driving wage increases, and facilitating technological change.

Advantages of agglomeration
When firms form clusters of economic activity, particular development strategies flow into and throughout this area of economic activity. This helps accumulate information and the flow of new and innovative ideas among firms to achieve what economists call increasing returns to scale. Increasing returns to scale are internal economies of scale for a firm, and may allow for establishing more of the same firm outside the area or region. Economies of scale external to a firm result from spatial proximity and are called agglomeration economies of scale. Agglomeration economies can be seen as the external condition for companies and the internal condition for the region.

Increasing returns to scale, according to Beckmann, is integral to understanding why urban centers form. These increasing returns to scale "give rise to [urban systems]," capturing "the trade-off between transportation costs and economies of scale". Agglomeration economies exist when production is cheaper because of this clustering of economic activity. As a result of this clustering, it becomes possible to establish other businesses that may take advantage of these economies without joining any big organization. This process may help to urbanize areas as well.

Benefits arise from the spatial agglomeration of physical capital, companies, consumers, and workers:
 * Low transport costs: physical proximity to other firms and centers of production can minimize costs associated with transportation. While this may have been the case for many manufacturing firms in the United States, Glaeser and Gottlieb argue that reducing transportation costs is more important for firms producing services. Moreover, other studies have shown that when negative externalities like pollution are taken into account, agglomerated city centers are more likely to be dispersed over a larger geographical area rather than be confined to a single, metropolis-like urban region.
 * Geographic advantages: A longstanding theory in urban economic literature is that firms (and cities) are likely to agglomerate where there are natural geographic advantages, which would give these firms both comparative and cost advantages over their competitors. Ellison and Glaeser argue that while this may be true for firms whose location decisions are highly sensitive to cost differences or geographic locations, such as the wine industry, they find that only 20% of geographic agglomeration effects in the United States can be explained by "natural" cost advantages.
 * Labor pooling and matching: agglomerating effects, such as an increase in population and therefore, human capital, arguably help improve matching within the economy, e.g. employees with employers, suppliers with buyers, and so on. Moreover, massive urban areas like cities, which contain a multitude of industries in a localized area, can help firms offset their reaction to shocks more efficiently by 'pooling' labor resources together.
 * Knowledge spillovers: the accumulation of knowledge and human capital in concentrated areas like major urban centers can contribute to the sharing of production technologies (i.e., know-how) between firms. Econometric analysis by Liang and Goetz showed that agglomeration effects account for technology-intensive industries benefiting from Jacobs-type knowledge spillovers. Furthermore, agglomerated centres of production, like cities, also facilitate learning—that is, knowledge generation, diffusion, and accumulation – on a larger scale than smaller economic regions.

Disadvantages of agglomeration
While the existence of cities can only persist if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, agglomeration would also lead to traffic congestion, pollution, and other negative externalities caused by the clustering of a population of firms and people. These adverse effects will cause economies of scale. Another source of agglomeration diseconomies—higher crowding and increased waiting time—can be observed in disciplines or industries that are characterized by constrained access to relevant production facilities or resources. As stated above, these factors are what decrease the pricing power of firms because of the many competitors in the area, as well as a shortage of labor and a lack of flexibility among firms for the laborers abound. Large cities experience these problems, and this tension between agglomeration economies and agglomeration dis-economies may contribute to the area's growth, control the growth of the area, or cause the area to experience a lack of growth.

The economies of agglomeration have also been shown to increase inequality both within urban areas and between urban and rural areas. The Oxford development economist Paul Collier has proposed that the gains of agglomeration should be taxed as rents, which leads to behavior-distorting rent-seeking (Henry George theorem). This would be ethical and efficient in that gains would be better aligned with deserts, and rent-seeking would be curbed. Collier recommends a tax calculated by combining high-income and metropolitan locations, which can then be redistributed to other cities that have been hard hit by agglomeration.

The disadvantages of agglomerations are to be mentioned:

 *  For the environment:  The high level of economic agglomeration is probably the cause of environmental pollution, including air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, etc. One example is the economic agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta region in China. Because of the concentration of individuals and industry, the serious air pollution in the Yangtze River Delta has not only caused some extreme weather problems but also increased some diseases. Adjusting the city’s spatial structure can alleviate environmental problems and release environmental pressures. Energy consumption is another environmental problem. The agglomeration of the economy led to a rapid increase in population and industries, which caused serious energy problems. It would also cause some pollution and provide higher requirements for production technology.
 *  Economic:  Economic agglomeration can create some economic benefits but also tends to widen the disparity between rich areas and poor areas and increase interregional inequality. Interregional inequality cannot be prevented because it is a necessary stage during economic development. The serious inequality problem even causes issues of social instability and political uncertainty. The government needs to provide some politics to improve equality, such as investing in human capital and innovation. Economic agglomeration may also affect rural areas. The over-agglomeration in the city would affect agricultural production and cause unemployment problems.
 *  For society,  Economic agglomeration also caused some social problems. First, the increased population led to high land prices. To reduce the inequality problem, the government may tax the land in the agglomeration area, increasing the land price. Second, the agglomeration of the economy also creates a high demand for infrastructure. It is important to coordinate the public goods problem, find the best volume of public contribution, and prevent poor or overburdened infrastructure.
 *  For companies,  economic agglomeration would cause fierce competitive pressure. Competition can reduce the market price, motivating companies to innovate and increase production efficiency. However, over-competition would hinder companies' development and innovation, and would also generate some social problems.

Types of economies
Two types of economies are considered large-scale and have external economies of scale: localization and urbanization economies. Localization economies arise from many firms in the same industry located close to each other. There are three sources of localization economies: The first is the benefit of labor pooling, which is the accessibility that firms have to a variety of skilled laborers, which in turn provides employment opportunities for the laborers. The second benefit is the development of industries due to the increasing returns to scale in intermediate inputs for a product, and the third source is the relative ease of communication and exchange of supplies, laborers, and innovative ideas due to the proximity among firms.

Core-periphery model
While localization and urbanization economies and their sources are crucial to sustaining agglomeration economies and cities, it is important to understand the long-term result of the function of agglomeration economies, which relates to the core-periphery model. The core-periphery model features an amount of economic activity in one main area surrounded by a remote area of less dense activity. The concentration of this economic activity in one area (usually a city center) allows for the growth and expansion of activity into other and surrounding areas because of the cost-minimizing location decisions of firms within these agglomeration economies to sustain high productivity and advantages, which therefore allow them to grow outside of the city (core) and into the periphery. A small decrease in the fixed cost of production can increase the range of locations for further establishment of firms, leading to loss of concentration in the city and possibly the development of a new city outside the original city where agglomeration and increasing returns to scale existed.

If localization economies were the main factor contributing to why cities exist with the exclusion of urbanization economies, then it would make sense for each firm in the same industry to form its city. However, in a more realistic sense, cities are more complex than that, which is why the combination of localization and urbanization economies forms large cities.

Source of economies
From the localization of firms, labor market pooling emerges. Large populations of skilled laborers enter the area and can exchange knowledge, ideas, and information. The more firms there are in this area, the greater the competition is to obtain workers, resulting in higher wages for the workers. However, the fewer firms there are and the more workers there are at a location the lower the wages for those workers will be.

The second contribution to localization economies is the access to specialized goods and services provided for clustering firms. This access to specialized goods and services is known as an intermediate input. It provides increasing returns on scale for each of the firms located within that area because of the proximity to available sources needed for production. If intermediate inputs are tradable, a core-periphery notion will have many firms located near each other to be closer to their required sources. Suppose there are tradable resources and services nearby but no related industries in the same area. In that case, there are no networking linkages, which makes it difficult for all firms in the area to obtain resources and increase production. The decreased transportation costs associated with the clustering of firms lead to an increase in the likelihood of a core-periphery pattern; the result will be that more intermediate inputs will be focused at the core and, therefore, will attract more firms in related industries.

The third source relating to localization economies is technological spillovers. One final advantage of this source is that clustering in specific fields leads to quicker diffusion or adoption of ideas. For production to be at its maximum and for firms to sell their products, they require some feasible access to capital markets. New forms of technology can create problems and involve risk; the clustering of firms creates an advantage to reduce the uncertainty and complications involved with using new technology through information flow. The capital flow and technology industry is concentrated within specific areas, and therefore, it is to the advantage of the firm to locate near these areas. This technological impact, specifically in the communications field, will provide and dismiss the barrier between firms in the same industry located further away and nearby, leading to a greater concentration of information flow and economic production and activity. Furthermore, technological spillovers may be more beneficial to smaller cities in terms of their growth than larger cities because of the existing informational networks that already helped them form and grow.

title: Economies of agglomeration