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Marc Almond

Peter Mark "Marc" Almond (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer best known from the synth-pop/new wave duo Soft Cell and for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He has also had a diverse career as a solo artist. His collaborations include a duet with Gene Pitney on the 1989 UK number one single "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart". Almond's career spanning over four decades has enjoyed critical and commercial acclaim, and he has sold over 30 million records worldwide. He spent a month in a coma after a near-fatal motorcycle accident in 2004 and later became a patron of the brain trauma charity Headway.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to arts and culture.

Early life
Almond was born in Southport, Lancashire, the son of Sandra Mary Diesen and Peter John Almond, a Second Lieutenant in the King's Liverpool Regiment. He was brought up nearby at his grandparents' house in Birkdale with his younger sister, Julia, and as a child suffered from bronchitis and asthma. When he was four, they left their grandparents' house and moved to Starbeck, Harrogate. Two years later they returned to Southport, and then moved to Horsforth, Yorkshire. There, he attended Horsforth Featherbank Infant School.

At the age of 11, Almond attended Aireborough Grammar School near Leeds. He found solace in music, listening to British radio pioneer John Peel. The first albums he purchased were the soundtrack of the stage musical Hair and Benefit by Jethro Tull, and the first singles were "Green Manalishi" by Fleetwood Mac and "Witches Promise" by Jethro Tull. He later became a great fan of Marc Bolan and David Bowie, and got a part-time job as a stable boy to fund his music listening. After his parents' divorce in 1972, he moved with his mother back to Southport where he attended King George V School. He gained two O-Levels in Art and English and was accepted onto a General Art and Design course at Southport College, specialising in Performance Art.

Almond applied to Leeds Polytechnic, where he was interviewed by Jeff Nuttall, also a performance artist, who accepted him on the strength of his performing skills. During his time at art college, he did a series of performance theatre pieces: Zazou, Glamour in Squalor, Twilights and Lowlifes, as well as Andy Warhol inspired mini-movies. Zazou was reviewed by The Yorkshire Evening Post and described as "one of the most nihilistic depressing pieces that I have ever had the misfortune to see", prompting Almond to later refer to it as a "success" in his autobiography. He left art college with a 2:1 honours degree. He later credited writer and artist Molly Parkin with discovering him. It was at Leeds Polytechnic that Almond met David Ball, a fellow student; they formed Soft Cell in 1977.

As a child, Almond listened to his parents' record collection, which included his mother's "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez and "The Twist" by Chubby Checker, as well as his father's collection of jazz, including Dave Brubeck and Eartha Kitt. As an adolescent, Almond listened to Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg. He listened at first to progressive music, blues, and rock, and bands such as Free, Jethro Tull, Van der Graaf Generator, the Who, and the Doors. He bought the first ever issue of Sounds because it contained a free poster of Jimmy Page. Almond became a fan of Bolan after hearing him on The John Peel Show, buying the T. Rex single "Ride a White Swan". From then on, Almond "followed everything Marc Bolan did" and it was his obsession with Bolan that prompted Almond to adopt the "Marc" spelling of his name. He discovered the songs of Jacques Brel through Bowie as well as Alex Harvey and Dusty Springfield. Brel became a major influence.

1980s
Almond and Dave Ball formed the synthesiser-based duo Soft Cell and signed to the Some Bizzare label. Their hits included "Tainted Love" (UK No. 1), "Bedsitter" (UK No. 4), "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" (UK No. 3), "Torch" (UK No. 2), "What!" (UK No. 3), "Soul Inside" (UK No. 16), and the club hit "Memorabilia". Soft Cell's first release was an independent record (funded by Dave Ball's mother) entitled "Mutant Moments" via Red Rhino Records in 1980.

"Mutant Moments" came to the attention of music entrepreneur Stevo Pearce, who at the time was compiling a "futurist" chart for the music papers Record Mirror and Sounds which featured young, upcoming and experimental bands of the new wave of electronic sound. He signed the duo to his Some Bizzare label and they enjoyed a string of nine Top 40 hit singles and four Top 20 albums in the UK between 1981 and 1984. They recorded three albums in New York with producer Mike Thorne: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing and The Art of Falling Apart. Almond became involved with the New York Underground Art Scene at this time with writer/DJ Anita Sarko, which led him to meet artists including Andy Warhol and perform at a number of Art events.

"Tainted Love", a cover of a Gloria Jones Northern Soul classic, was number one in the UK and in many countries over the world, and was in the Guinness Book of Records for a while as the record that spent the longest time in the Billboard Top 100 chart in the US. It also won the best-single award of 1981 at the first Brit Awards. Soft Cell brought an otherwise obscure Northern Soul classic to mass public attention and their version of the song is, to date, the UK's 59th best-selling single of all time, selling over one million copies in the UK.

Marc also became friends with JG Thirlwell and, in 1983, as Clint Ruin, Thirlwell performed with Soft Cell on the Channel 4 show The Switch. Marc travelled to New York with Thirlwell and Nick Cave, where they became part of The Immaculate Consumptive with Lydia Lunch. Almond and Thirlwell continued to work together, ultimately culminating in the Flesh Volcano single in 1987.

In 1982, Almond formed Marc and the Mambas as an offshoot project from Soft Cell. Marc and the Mambas was a loose experimental collective that set the template for the artist that Almond would become. The Mambas at various times included Matt Johnson, Steve James Sherlock, Lee Jenkinson, Peter Ashworth, Jim Thirlwell and Annie Hogan, with whom Almond worked later in his solo career. Under the Mambas moniker, Almond recorded two albums, Untitled and the seminal double opus Torment and Toreros. He disbanded the collective when it started to feel too much like a regular band.

Soft Cell disbanded in 1984 just before the release of their fourth album, This Last Night in Sodom, but the duo briefly reunited in 2001 and again in 2018.

Almond's first proper solo album was Vermin in Ermine, released in 1984. Produced by Mike Hedges, it featured musicians from the Mambas outfit, Annie Hogan, Martin McCarrick and Billy McGee. This ensemble, known as The Willing Sinners, worked alongside Almond for the subsequent albums Stories of Johnny (1985) from which the title track became a minor hit, and Mother Fist and Her Five Daughters (1987), also produced by Mike Hedges. The latter album was highly acclaimed in reviews, with Ned Raggett writing that the 'Mother Fist' album "embraces classic European cabaret to wonderful effect, more so than any American or English rock album since Bowie's Aladdin Sane or Lou Reed's Berlin."

McCarrick left The Willing Sinners in 1987 to join Siouxsie and the Banshees, from which point Hogan and McGee became known as La Magia. Almond signed to EMI and released the album The Stars We Are in 1988. This album featured Almond's version of "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart", which was later re-recorded as a duet with the song's original singer Gene Pitney and released as a single. The track reached No. 1 in the UK. It also reached number one in Germany and was a major hit in countries around the world. The Stars We Are became his biggest selling solo album in the US, and the single "Tears Run Rings" became his only solo single to peak inside the US Billboard Hot 100.

Almond's other recordings in the 1980s included an album of Brel songs, called Jacques, and an album of dark French chansons originally performed by Juliette Gréco, Serge Lama and Léo Ferré, as well as poems by Rimbaud and Baudelaire set to music. This album was released in 1993 as Absinthe, and was initially recorded in the late 1980s then finished in Paris in the early 1990s.

1990s
Almond's first release in the 1990s was the album Enchanted, which spawned the UK Top 30 hit "A Lover Spurned". A further single from the album, "Waifs and Strays", was remixed by Dave Ball who was now in the electronic dance band The Grid. In 1991, Soft Cell returned to the charts with a new remix of "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" followed by a re-release of "Tainted Love" (with a new video). The singles were issued to promote a new Soft Cell/Marc Almond compilation album, Memorabilia - The Singles, which collected some of the biggest hits from Almond's career throughout the previous ten years. The album reached the UK Top 10.

Almond then signed to WEA and released a new solo album, Tenement Symphony. Produced partly by Trevor Horn, the album yielded three Top 40 hits including renditions of the Jacques Brel classic "Jacky" (which made the UK Top 20), and "The Days of Pearly Spencer" which returned Almond to the UK Top 5 in 1992. Later that year, Almond played a lavish one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which featured an orchestra and dancers as he performed material from his entire career. The show was recorded and released as the CD and video 12 Years of Tears.

In 1993 Almond toured Russia (including Siberia) by invitation of the British consul in Moscow. Accompanied only by Martin Watkins on piano, he played small Soviet halls and theatres, often without amplification, and ended at the "mini Bolshoi" in Moscow. Transmitted live on television Almond made a plea for tolerance of gay people. The tour was fraught with troubles, which Almond detailed in his autobiography, but it marked the beginning of his love affair with the genre of Russian folk torch songs known as Romance.

Almond's next album Fantastic Star saw him part with WEA and sign to Mercury Records. Much of Fantastic Star was originally recorded in New York with Mike Thorne, but later after signing to Mercury, was reworked in London. Almond also recorded a session for the album with John Cale, David Johanson, and Chris Spedding; some made the final cut. Other songs were produced by Mike Hedges and Martyn Ware. Adding to the disjointed recording process was the fact that during recording Almond also spent several weeks attending a treatment centre in Canterbury for addiction to prescription drugs. However, on its release Fantastic Star gave Almond a hit single with "Adored and Explored", and also minor hits and stage favourites such as "The Idol" and "Child Star". Fantastic Star was Almond's last album with WEA and also marked the ending of his managerial relationship with Stevo Pearce.

Almond signed to Echo records in 1998 with a more downbeat and atmospheric electronica album, Open All Night. This featured R&B and trip hop influences, as well as torch songs for which he had become known. The album featured a duet ("Threat of Love") with Siouxsie Sioux as well as one ("Almost Diamonds") with Kelli Ali (then of the Sneaker Pimps). "Black Kiss", "Tragedy" and "My Love" were the singles from the album Open All Night.

2000s
Almond relocated in 2000 to Moscow where he rented an apartment. With the encouragement and connections of executive producer Misha Kucherenko, he embarked on a three-year recording project of Russian romance and folk songs, called Heart on Snow. Featuring many Russian stars old and new such as Boris Grebenshchikov, Ilya Lagutenko of the Russian band Mumiy Troll, Lyudmila Zykina and Alla Bayanova and featuring The Rossiya Folk Orchestra conducted by Anatole Sobolev, it was the first time that such a project had been undertaken by a Western artist, many of the loved Soviet era songs sung in English for the first time. The album was produced by musician/arranger Andrei Samsonov. Almond performed many times at the famous, and now demolished, Rossiya Concert Hall with Lyudmila Zykina and Alla Bayanova, and with the Rossiya Folk Orchestra.

In 2001, Soft Cell reunited briefly and released their first new album in 18 years, Cruelty Without Beauty. Two singles came out of this album, "Monoculture" and a cover of the Frankie Valli's "The Night", which led to a Top of the Pops appearance for the band, their first since the mid-1980s. Almond also presented New Music Television that year.

Almond released Stranger Things in 2001.

In October 2004, Almond was seriously injured in a motorbike accident near St Paul's Cathedral, London. Near death and in a coma for weeks, he suffered two huge blood clots and had to undergo emergency surgery twice. He also suffered serious head injuries, multiple breaks and fractures, a collapsed lung and damaged hearing. He began a slow recovery determined to get back on the stage and in the studio.

In June 2007, Almond released an album of cover songs, Stardom Road. Picked to tell a story of his life and career, the album featured songs as diverse as "I Have Lived" by Charles Aznavour, to "Stardom Road" by Third World War, Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night", and "Kitsch" by Paul Ryan. The album featured his first new song since the motorbike accident, "Redeem me (Beauty Will Redeem the World)". Stardom Road was to be one of three albums for the Sanctuary label, the UK's largest independent record label up until 2007 when it got itself into financial difficulty and was sold off in June 2007 to Universal Music Group. In July 2007, Almond celebrated his 50th birthday on stage at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London and in September performed at a tribute show to Marc Bolan, his teenage hero. At the concert he dueted with Bolan's wife, Gloria Jones, on an impromptu version of "Tainted Love". In October 2007, the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent picked Almond's "Strangers in the Night" to represent their show at London's Fashion Rocks. Almond performed for the event at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2008 and 2009, Almond toured with Jools Holland throughout the UK as well as guesting at shows by Current 93, Baby Dee and a tribute show to the late folk singer Sandy Denny at the Festival Hall. In October 2009, Almond released his second album of Russian romances and gypsy songs in an album titled Orpheus in Exile. The album was a tribute to gay Russian singer Vadim Kozin, who was exiled to the gulags of the Arctic Circle. The album was produced by Alexei Fedorov and features an orchestra arranged by Anatole Sobolev.

2010s
In June 2010, Almond released Varieté, his first studio album of self written material since Stranger Things in 2001. The album marks Almond's 30th anniversary as a recording artist, a fact he celebrated with a new concert tour in Autumn 2010. Also in the summer of 2010 Almond was named Mojo Hero, an award given by the music magazine Mojo. The award was presented to Almond by Anohni who flew from New York for the occasion.

In 2011, Almond released the Feasting with Panthers album, a collaboration with musician and arranger Michael Cashmore. It featured poetry set to music, including works by Count Eric Stenbock, Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau, Paul Verlaine and Rimbaud. Later in the same year Almond took part in a music-theatre work Ten Plagues, held at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, as part of the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, from 1 to 28 August 2011. Ten Plagues is a one-man song cycle based on Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year (which dates back to 1722), with metaphors of AIDS and epidemics. It was written for him by Mark Ravenhill and Conor Mitchell. Ten Plagues was awarded a Fringe First Award.

In 2012, Almond took the role of the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca in the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet's experimental rock adaptation of Poppea, based on Monteverdi's original 17th-century opera The Coronation of Poppea. The production also featured ex-Libertines member Carl Barât, French singer-songwriter Benjamin Biolay, Swedish singer Fredrika Stahl and was directed by ex-Clash drummer Peter Howard. Later that year, on 9 August 2012, Almond performed at Anohni's Meltdown Festival in London's Southbank Centre, reforming Marc and the Mambas to perform their second album Torment and Toreros live for the first time. Anohni has stated that Torment and Toreros was her favourite album throughout her teens and that it became the starting point for Antony and the Johnsons. Anohni joined the band on stage for one song, singing "My Little Book of Sorrows" with Almond.

In 2013, Almond revived Ten Plagues and performed it for a month at Wilton's Music Hall in London. He also performed with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson on stage performing Tull's concept album "Thick as a Brick" at The Royal Albert Hall. That year Almond also received The Ivor Novello Inspiration Award which was presented to him by longtime friend and co-Manager Vicki Wickham, and was also awarded the Icon Award from Attitude.

Almond released three albums throughout 2014. First was The Tyburn Tree with composer John Harle, a concept album about dark historical London. This was followed by The Dancing Marquis album, made with a number of collaborators including Jarvis Cocker, Carl Barât and Jools Holland, featuring production from Tony Visconti on some tracks. Finally, Almond released a studio recording of his 2011 show, Ten Plagues - A Song Cycle.

In 2014 Almond was awarded a fellowship from Leeds College Of Music and performed several concerts with the colleges Contemporary Orchestra And Pop Choir.

2015 saw the release of The Velvet Trail, an album of original material co-written and produced by Chris Braide. Almond also worked on a song cycle to accompany the filming of a multi media performance of À rebours (translated as Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans. The score for this project was written by Othon Mataragas with words from Feasting with Panthers collaborator Jeremy Reed. Reed states that he wrote 15 songs for the project commenting that Against Nature is "still probably one of the most decadent books ever written" and that Almond had always wanted to perform it, stating that "now we're both jaded aesthetes we could do it".

In 2016, Almond landed his first major label deal in 20 years, signing a two-album deal with BMG Rights Management. In 2017, the compilation album Hits and Pieces / The Best of Soft Cell & Marc Almond, debuted at number seven in the UK album chart. In September 2017 the album Shadows & Reflections was released, entering the UK chart at No.14.

In 2017 Almond was presented with an honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from Lancashire's Edgehill University, and delivered that year's graduation address.

In September 2018 Soft Cell played the O2 Arena in London celebrating the band's 40-year career.

2020s
Almond's next solo album, Chaos and a Dancing Star, also written with Braide, was recorded in Los Angeles and released in January 2020. Ian Anderson plays flute on the album. During COVID-19 lockdowns, Almond and David Ball wrote a new Soft Cell album, Happiness Not Included, which was released on 6 May 2022. The album contained 12 new tracks, including a collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys on the track Purple Zone which reached number one in the Official Physical Singles Charts and also the Official Vinyl Singles Chart

In the spring of 2022, Almond supported Ukraine and released an English-language cover of the Ukrainian folk song "What A Moonlit Night".

Personal life
Almond divides his time among London, Moscow, and Barcelona.

Almond has stated that he dislikes being pigeon-holed as "a 'gay' artist", saying that such a label "enables people to marginalise your work and reduce its importance, implying that it won't be of any interest to anyone who isn't gay".

In his autobiography, Almond describes being invited for initiation into Anton LaVey's Church of Satan, and that "not being one to turn down a theatrical moment and a chance to be relegated to the bad book, I immediately said yes." Noise musician Boyd Rice performed the simple ceremony in "a small grotto in a wood" close to where the Hellfire Club used to meet. Almond states that the ceremony involved "no dancing naked, no bonfires, no blood sacrifice", but even so "every hair on my neck stood on end and sweat broke out on my top lip." Almond later stated in a 2016 interview with Loud and Quiet that the initiation was "a theatrical joke that got a bit out of hand" and that he is not a Satanist. By 2020, Almond had converted to Druidism.

In response to being appointed OBE at the age of 60, Almond said he is still a "little bit" anti-establishment, but added: "I can't really be a rebel any more. I think it's time to leave it to younger people."

Almond is dyslexic and autistic, which he discovered later in life.

Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" ! scope="col" | Award ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Nominee(s) ! scope="col" | Category ! scope="col" | Result ! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref. ! scope="row" rowspan=3|Brit Awards !scope="row"|Ivor Novello Awards !scope="row"|Mojo Awards
 * rowspan=2|1982
 * Soft Cell
 * British Breakthrough Act
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * "Tainted Love"
 * rowspan=2|British Single of the Year
 * Won
 * 1990
 * "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" (with Gene Pitney)
 * Nominated
 * "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" (with Gene Pitney)
 * Nominated
 * 2013
 * rowspan=2|Himself
 * The Ivors Inspiration Award
 * Won
 * 2010
 * Hero Award
 * Won

Solo albums
• Vermin in Ermine (1984)

• Stories of Johnny (1985)

• Mother Fist and Her Five Daughters (1987)

• The Stars We Are (1988)

• Jacques (1989)

• Enchanted (1990)

• Tenement Symphony (1991)

• Absinthe (1993)

• Fantastic Star (1996)

• Open All Night (1999)

• Stranger Things (2001)

• Heart on Snow (2003)

• Stardom Road (2007)

• Orpheus in Exile (2009)

• Varieté (2010)

• Feasting with Panthers (2011)

• The Tyburn Tree (2014)

• The Dancing Marquis (2014)

• Ten Plagues - A Song Cycle (2014)

• The Velvet Trail (2015)

• Against Nature (2015)

• Silver City Ride (2016)

• Shadows and Reflections (2017)

• How to Destroy Angels (as Coil + Zos Kia + Marc Almond) (2018)

• A Lovely Life to Live (2018)

• Chaos and a Dancing Star (2020)

• I'm Not Anyone (2024)

title: Marc Almond


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George Buchanan

George Buchanan (Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." His ideology of resistance to royal usurpation gained widespread acceptance during the Scottish Reformation. Brown says the ease with which King James VII was deposed in 1689 shows the power of Buchananite ideas.

His treatise De Jure Regni apud Scotos, published in 1579. discussed the doctrine that the source of all political power is the people, and that the king is bound by those conditions under which the supreme power was first committed to his hands, and that it is lawful to resist, even to punish, tyrants. The importance of Buchanan's writings is shown by the suppression of his work by James VI and the British legislatures in the century following their publication. It was condemned by act of parliament in 1584, and burned by the University of Oxford in 1664 and 1683.

Early upbringing and education in Paris
His father, a Highlander and a younger son of the old Buchanan family of Drumakill, owned the farm of Moss, in the parish of Killearn, Stirlingshire, but he died young, leaving his widow, five sons, and three daughters in poverty. George's mother, Agnes Heriot, was of the family of the Heriots of Trabroun, East Lothian, of which George Heriot, founder of Heriot's Hospital, was also a member. Buchanan, a native speaker of Scottish Gaelic, is said to have attended Killearn school, but not much is known of his early education. His brother, Patrick Buchanan, was also a scholar.

In 1520, he was sent by his uncle, James Heriot, to the University of Paris, where he first came in contact with the two great influences of the age, the Renaissance and the Reformation. There, according to him, he devoted himself to the writing of verses "partly by liking, partly by compulsion (that being then the one task prescribed to youth)".

Return to Scotland
In 1522 his uncle died, and George Buchanan, who was at that time severely ill, was unable to stay in Paris and returned to Scotland. After recovering from his illness, he joined the French auxiliaries who had been brought over to Scotland by John Stewart, Duke of Albany, and took part in an unsuccessful siege of Wark Castle on the border with England in late 1523. In the following year he entered the University of St Andrews, where he graduated B.A. in 1525. He had gone there mainly to attend the lectures of John Mair on logic; and when Mair moved to Paris, Buchanan followed him in 1526.

Professor and Procurator
In 1528 Buchanan graduated M.A. at Scots College, University of Paris. The next year he was appointed regent, or professor, in the College of Sainte-Barbe, and taught there for over three years. Sainte-Barbe was one of the most prestigious and advanced colleges at that time. George added to that prestige by creating new reforms in teaching Latin. In 1529 he was elected "Procurator of the German Nation" in the University of Paris, and was re-elected four times in four successive months. He resigned his regentship in 1531, and in 1532 became tutor to Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis, with whom he returned to Scotland early in 1537 having acquired a great reputation for learning.

Theological stance
At this period Buchanan assumed the same attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church as Erasmus: he did not repudiate its doctrines, but considered himself free to criticise its practice. Though he listened to the arguments of the Protestant Reformers, he did not join their ranks until 1553. His first literary production in Scotland, when he was in Lord Cassilis's household in the west country, was the poem Somnium, a satirical attack on the Franciscan friars and the monastic life generally. This assault on the monks was not displeasing to James V, who engaged Buchanan as tutor to one of his natural sons, James Stewart (not the son who was afterwards regent), and encouraged him in a more daring effort. The poems Palinodia and Franciscanus et Fratres remained unpublished for many years, but made the author hated by the Franciscan order.

Arrest, escape and relocation
In 1539 there was persecution in Scotland of the Lutherans, and Buchanan among others was arrested. Although the King had withheld his protection, Buchanan managed to escape and made his way to London, and then Paris. In Paris, however, he found himself in danger when his main enemy, Cardinal David Beaton, arrived there as ambassador, and on the invitation of André de Gouveia, he moved to Bordeaux. Gouveia was then principal of the newly founded College of Guienne, and by his influence Buchanan was appointed professor of Latin. During his time there several of his major works, the translations of Medea and Alcestis, and the two dramas, Jephthes, sive Votum and Baptistes (sive Calumnia), were completed. Michel de Montaigne was Buchanan's pupil at Bordeaux and acted in his tragedies. In the essay Of Presumption he classes Buchanan with Jean d'Aurat, Theodore Beza, Michel de l'Hôpital, Pierre deMontdoré and Adrianus Turnebus, as one of the foremost Latin poets of his time. Here also Buchanan formed a lasting friendship with Julius Caesar Scaliger; in later life he won the admiration of Joseph Scaliger, who wrote an epigram on Buchanan which contains the couplet, famous in its day: "Imperii fuerat Romani Scotia limes; Romani eloquii Scotia limes erit?" Austin Seal and Steve Philp translate this as: 'Just as Scotland was at the apex of the Roman Empire, so Scotland shall be at the apex of Roman eloquence'. (Not only is Buchanan's Latin scholarship extolled, a congratulatory reference to Scotland retaining Scottish law – quintessentially an improved version of Roman law – as the foundation of its legal system is also implied.)

Return to Paris
In 1542 or 1543 he returned to Paris, and in 1544 he was appointed regent in the Collège du cardinal Lemoine. Among his colleagues were Muretus and Turnebus. Although little is known about George during this time, we can gather that he probably once again fell ill according to an elegy he wrote to his comrades Tastaeus and Tevius.

Coimbra
In 1547 Buchanan joined the band of French and Portuguese humanists who had been invited by Gouveia to lecture in the Portuguese University of Coimbra. The French mathematician Elie Vinet, and the Portuguese historian, Jerónimo Osório, were among his colleagues; Gouveia, called by Montaigne le plus grand principal de France, was rector of the university, which had reached the summit of its prosperity under the patronage of King John III. But the rectorship had been coveted by Diogo de Gouveia, uncle of André and formerly head of Sainte-Barbe. It is probable that before André's death at the end of 1547 Diogo had urged the Inquisition to investigate him and his staff; up to 1906, when the records of the trial were first published in full, Buchanan's biographers generally attributed the attack to the influence of Cardinal Beaton, the Franciscans, or the Jesuits, and the whole history of Buchanan's residence in Portugal was extremely obscure.

Trial and imprisonment
A commission of inquiry was appointed in October 1549 and reported in June 1550. Buchanan and two Portuguese, Diogo de Teive and João da Costa (who had succeeded to the rectorship), were committed for trial. Teive and Costa were found guilty of various offences against public order, and the evidence shows that there was ample reason for a judicial inquiry. Buchanan was accused of Lutheran and Judaistic practices. He defended himself, admitting that some of the charges were true. About June 1551 he was sentenced to abjure his errors, and to be imprisoned in the monastery of São Bento in Lisbon. Here he listened to edifying discourses from the monks, whom he found "not unkind but ignorant". In his leisure he began to translate the Psalms into Latin verse, completing the greater part of the work.

Release
After seven months, Buchanan was released on condition that he remain in Lisbon; and on 28 February 1552 this restriction was lifted. Buchanan then sailed for England, but soon made his way to Paris, where in 1553 he was appointed regent in the College of Boncourt. He remained in that post for two years, and then accepted the office of tutor to the son of the Maréchal de Brissac. It was almost certainly during this last stay in France, where Protestantism was being repressed under King Henry II and his son Francis II, that Buchanan took the side of Calvinism.

Espousal of Calvinism
In 1560 or 1561 Buchanan returned to Scotland, and by April 1562 was installed as tutor to the young Mary, Queen of Scots, who read Livy with him daily. Buchanan wrote masques for performanance at her wedding to Lord Darnley, known as the Pompae. Buchanan, throughout his support for Renaissance humanism and his strident criticism the vices of the, had always remained a member of the Catholic Church in Scotland, but he now openly joined the Protestant Reformed Church. Even though he had recently received from the Queen the gift of the revenues of Crossraguel Abbey, he sat in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1563 and in 1566 was appointed principal of St Leonard's College, St Andrews, by the Prince Regent, Earl of Moray. Though a layman, he was made Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1567. He was the last lay person to be elected Moderator until Alison Elliot in 2004, the first female Moderator.

Tutor and other offices
Buchanan accompanied the Regent Moray to England, and his famous Detectio Mariæ Reginæ—a scathing exposure of the Queen's relations to Darnley and the circumstances leading up to his death, published London: John Day, [1571]—was produced to the commissioners at Westminster.

In 1570, after the assassination of Moray, he was appointed one of the preceptors of the young king, and it was through his strict tuition that James VI acquired his scholarship. As the young king's senior tutor, Buchanan subjected James to regular beatings but also instilled in him a lifelong passion for literature and learning. Buchanan sought to turn James into a God-fearing, Protestant king who accepted the limitations of monarchy, as outlined in his treatise De Jure Regni apud Scotos.

While royal tutor he also held other offices: he was for a short time director of chancery, and then became Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, a post which entitled him to a seat in the parliament. He appears to have continued in this office for some years, at least until 1579. John Geddie was his clerk and servant in this role, and copied some of Buchanan's manuscripts.

Final years
His last years were occupied with completion and publication of two of his major works, De Jure Regni apud Scotos (1579) and Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1582).

He died in his first floor flat on Kennedy's Close (destroyed to build the Tron Kirk in 1637 which was in turn curtailed by the building of modern Hunter Square) in Edinburgh on Friday 28 September 1582 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard on the following day. The grave was originally marked by a through-stone but this had sunk into the ground by 1701. Currently, two memorials in Greyfriars each claim to mark his burial: one just north-west of the church and a second, more modest memorial near the eastmost path. The smaller (later) one is correct.

Latin scholar
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "For mastery of the Latin language, Buchanan has seldom been surpassed by any modern writer. His style is not rigidly modelled on that of any classical author, but has a freshness and elasticity of its own. He wrote Latin as if it were his mother tongue." Hugh Trevor-Roper called him "by universal consent, the greatest Latin writer, whether in prose or in verse, in sixteenth century Europe". Buchanan also had a rich vein of poetical feeling, and much originality of thought. His translations of the Psalms and of the Greek plays are more than mere versions; his two tragedies, Baptistes and Jephthes, enjoyed a European reputation for academic excellence. His Pompae verses were written for performance at the court entertainments of Mary, including the Offering of the Rustic Gods sung during a masque devised by Bastian Pagez for the baptism of King James.

Prose works
In addition to these works, Buchanan wrote in prose Chamaeleon, a satire in Scots against Maitland of Lethington, first printed in 1711; a Latin translation of Linacre's Grammar (Paris, 1533); Libellus de Prosodia (Edinburgh, 1640); and Vita ab ipso scripta biennio ante mortem (1608), edited by R. Sibbald (1702). His other poems are Fratres Fraterrimi, Elegiae, Silvae, two sets of verses entitled Hendecasyllabon Liber and Iambon Liber; three books of Epigrammata; a book of miscellaneous verse; De Sphaera (in five books), suggested by the poem De sphaera mundi of Joannes de Sacrobosco, and intended as a defence of the Ptolemaic theory against the new Copernican view.

There are two early editions of Buchanan's works: Thomas Ruddiman's and Pieter Burman's.

Late works
The first of his important late works was the treatise De Jure Regni apud Scotos, published in 1579. In this famous work, composed in the form of a dialogue, and evidently intended to instil sound political principles into the mind of his pupil, Buchanan lays down the doctrine that the source of all political power is the people, that the king is bound by those conditions under which the supreme power was first committed to his hands, and that it is lawful to resist, even to punish, tyrants. The importance of the work is proved by the persistent efforts of the legislature to suppress it during the century following its publication. It was condemned by act of parliament in 1584, and again in 1664; and in 1683 it was burned by the University of Oxford.

The second of his larger works is the History of Scotland, Rerum Scoticarum Historia, completed shortly before his death, and published in 1582. It is remarkable for the power and richness of its style, and of great value for the period personally known to the author, which occupies the greater portion of the book. The earlier part is based, to a considerable extent, on the legendary history of Boece. Buchanan's purpose was to "purge" the national history "of sum Inglis lyis and Scottis vanite" (Letter to Randolph). He said that it would "content few and displease many"; in fact, its matter gave so much offence that a proclamation was issued calling in all copies of it, as well as of the De Jure Regni, that they might be purged of the "offensive and extraordinary matters" which they contained.

Lasting legacy
Buchanan holds his great and unique place in literature not so much for his own writings as for his strong and lasting influence on subsequent writers. His influence was notable by 1726 when Andrew Millar, a prominent 18th-century bookseller, took over James McEuen's bookshop in London at the sign of 'Buchanan's Head, Temple Bar'. The sign for the shop depicted the face of George Buchanan, a testament to Buchanan's early place and reputation in Scottish letters. The island of Mainland, Orkney is sometimes referred to as Pomona (or Pomonia) from an attempted translation by Buchanan, though that name has rarely been used locally.

Modern publications and influence
Polygon Books have published the poet Robert Crawford's selection of Buchanan's verse in Apollos of the North: Selected Poems of George Buchanan and Arthur Johnston (ISBN 1-904598-81-1) in 2006, the 500th anniversary of Buchanan's birth.

In the lead-up to the anniversary Professor Roger Mason of the University of St Andrews has published A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots, a critical edition and translation of George Buchanan's 'De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (ISBN 1-85928-408-6).

Memorials
A statue of Buchanan stands on the west-facing side of the Scott Monument on Princes Street, Edinburgh. It was sculpted by John Rhind.

A memorial stained glass window stands in the south wall of Greyfriars Kirk.

A bust of Buchanan is in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling.

A monument was erected by public subscription in 1789 in the place of his birth, Killearn, Stirlingshire.

title: George Buchanan


text:
Flash mob

A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people that assembles suddenly in a public place, performs for a brief time, then quickly disperses, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and/or artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.

The term, coined in 2003, is generally not applied to events and performances organized for the purposes of politics (such as protests), commercial advertisement, publicity stunts that involve public relation firms, or paid professionals. In these cases of a planned purpose for the social activity in question, the term smart mobs is often applied instead.

The term "flash rob" or "flash mob robberies", a reference to the way flash mobs assemble, has been used to describe a number of robberies and assaults perpetrated suddenly by groups of teenage youth. Bill Wasik, originator of the first flash mobs, and a number of other commentators have questioned or objected to the usage of "flash mob" to describe criminal acts. Flash mob has also been featured in some Hollywood movie series, such as Step Up.

First flash mob

The first flash mobs were created in Manhattan in 2003, by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper's Magazine. The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather. Wasik avoided such problems during the first successful flash mob, which occurred on June 17, 2003, at Macy's department store, by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.

More than 130 people converged upon the ninth-floor rug department of the store, gathering around an expensive rug. Anyone approached by a sales assistant was advised to say that the gatherers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York, that they were shopping for a "love rug", and that they made all their purchase decisions as a group. Subsequently, 200 people flooded the lobby and mezzanine of the Hyatt hotel in synchronized applause for about 15 seconds, and a shoe boutique in SoHo was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.

Wasik claimed that he created flash mobs as a social experiment designed to poke fun at hippies and to highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity and of wanting to be an insider or part of "the next big thing". The Vancouver Sun wrote, "It may have backfired on him ... [Wasik] may instead have ended up giving conformity a vehicle that allowed it to appear nonconforming." In another interview he said "the mobs started as a kind of playful social experiment meant to encourage spontaneity and big gatherings to temporarily take over commercial and public areas simply to show that they could".

Precedents and precursors
In 19th-century Tasmania, the term flash mob was used to describe a subculture consisting of female prisoners, based on the term flash language for the jargon that these women used. The 19th-century Australian term flash mob referred to a segment of society, not an event, and showed no other similarities to the modern term flash mob or the events it describes.

In 1973, the story "Flash Crowd" by Larry Niven described a concept similar to flash mobs. With the invention of popular and very inexpensive teleportation, an argument at a shopping mall—which happens to be covered by a news crew—quickly swells into a riot. In the story, broadcast coverage attracts the attention of other people, who use the widely available technology of the teleportation booth to swarm first that event—thus intensifying the riot—and then other events as they happen. Commenting on the social impact of such mobs, one character (articulating the police view) says, "We call them flash crowds, and we watch for them." In related short stories, they are named as a prime location for illegal activities (such as pickpocketing and looting) to take place. Lev Grossman suggests that the story title is a source of the term "flash mob".

Flash mobs began as a form of performance art. While they started as an apolitical act, flash mobs may share superficial similarities to political demonstrations. In the 1960s, groups such as the Yippies used street theatre to expose the public to political issues. Flash mobs can be seen as a specialized form of smart mob, a term and concept proposed by author Howard Rheingold in his 2002 book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.

Use of the term
The first documented use of the term flash mob as it is understood today was in 2003 in a blog entry posted in the aftermath of Wasik's event. The term was inspired by the earlier term smart mob.

Flash mob was added to the 11th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary on July 8, 2004, where it noted it as an "unusual and pointless act" separating it from other forms of smart mobs such as types of performance, protests, and other gatherings. Also recognized noun derivatives are flash mobber and flash mobbing. Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English defines flash mob as "a group of people who organize on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse." This definition is consistent with the original use of the term; however, both news media and promoters have subsequently used the term to refer to any form of smart mob, including political protests; a collaborative Internet denial of service attack; a collaborative supercomputing demonstration; and promotional appearances by pop musicians. The press has also used the term flash mob to refer to a practice in China where groups of shoppers arrange online to meet at a store in order to drive a collective bargain.

Legality
The city of Brunswick, Germany, has stopped flash mobs by strictly enforcing the already existing law of requiring a permit to use any public space for an event. In the United Kingdom, a number of flash mobs have been stopped over concerns for public health and safety. The British Transport Police have urged flash mob organizers to "refrain from holding such events at railway stations".

Crime
Referred to as flash robs, flash mob robberies, or flash robberies by the media, crimes organized by teenage youth using social media rose to international notoriety beginning in 2011. The National Retail Federation does not classify these crimes as "flash mobs" but rather "multiple offender crimes" that utilize "flash mob tactics". In a report, the NRF noted, "multiple offender crimes tend to involve groups or gangs of juveniles who already know each other, which does not earn them the term 'flash mob'." Mark Leary, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said that most "flash mob thuggery" involves crimes of violence that are otherwise ordinary, but are perpetrated suddenly by large, organized groups of people: "What social media adds is the ability to recruit such a large group of people, that individuals who would not rob a store or riot on their own feel freer to misbehave without being identified."

HuffPost raised the question asking if "the media was responsible for stirring things up", and added that in some cases the local authorities did not confirm the use of social media making the "use of the term flash mob questionable". Amanda Walgrove wrote that criminals involved in such activities do not refer to themselves as "flash mobs", but that this use of the term is nonetheless appropriate. Dr. Linda Kiltz drew similar parallels between flash robs and the Occupy Movement stating, "As the use of social media increases, the potential for more flash mobs that are used for political protest and for criminal purposes is likely to increase.".

title: Flash mob


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SS William G. Mather (1925)

The SS William G. Mather (Official Number 224850) is a retired Great Lakes bulk freighter now restored as a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio, one of five in the Great Lakes region. She transported cargo such as ore, coal, stone, and grain to ports throughout the Great Lakes, and was nicknamed "The Ship That Built Cleveland" because Cleveland's steel mills were a frequent destination.

History
It was built in 1925 by Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, Michigan, as the flagship for Cleveland-Cliffs and was named in honor of the then-company president, William Gwinn Mather. SS William G. Mather remained the Cliffs' flagship until SS Edward B. Greene (now MV Kaye E. Barker of the Interlake Steamship Company fleet) was built in 1951–52. It remained an active part of the Cliffs' fleet until the end of the 1980 navigation season.

In order to supply the Allied Forces need for steel during World War II, SS William G. Mather led a convoy of 13 freighters in early 1941 through the ice-choked Upper Great Lakes to Duluth, Minnesota, setting a record for the first arrival in a northern port. This effort was featured in the April 28, 1941 issue of Life. It was one of the first commercial Great Lakes vessels to be equipped with radar in 1946. In 1964, it became the very first American vessel to have an automated boiler system, manufactured by Bailey Controls of Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1985, Cleveland-Cliffs sold its two remaining operating steamers to Rouge Steel Company, and gradually sold off its idle vessels until only SS William G. Mather remained, laid up in Toledo, Ohio where she had been since 1980. On December 10, 1987, Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc. donated the steamer SS William G. Mather to the Great Lakes Historical Society to be restored and preserved as a museum ship and floating maritime museum. After it was brought to Cleveland in October 1988 and funding was acquired from local foundations, corporations, and individuals, restoration began. Fire damage to SS William G. Mather's galley and after cabin spaces required a major restoration effort. All over the vessel, most of the work was supplied by volunteers who repaired, cleaned, chipped, painted, and polished brass in order to restore SS William G. Mather's former elegance. In October 1990, it was moved to its permanent berth at the East Ninth Street Pier on Cleveland's North Coast Harbor.

In September 1994 the Great Lakes Historical Society divested itself of the museum. Due, in large part, to a groundswell of local support to keep the Mather in Cleveland, the Harbor Heritage Society was created to negotiate a new lease agreement with the city. Incorporated in June 1995, Harbor Heritage formally acquired SS William G. Mather on July 22, 1995, and in 1996 continued to oversee William G. Mather's ongoing restoration, promotion, and development as a historic vessel. After ten years of negotiations, the City of Cleveland, represented by Mayor Jane L. Campbell signed a 40-year lease on June 15, 2003, allowing William G. Mather to stay at its East 9th Street berth.

On July 30, 1995 the steamship SS William G. Mather was dedicated as an American Society of Mechanical Engineers National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark for its 1954 installation of a single marine boiler and steam turbine engine, its 1964 installation of the Bailey 760 Boiler Control System and American Shipbuilding AmThrust dual propeller bow thruster—all firsts for U.S.-flagged Great Lakes vessels. It had a sister ship of the same class, SS Joseph H. Frantz, which was later converted to diesel, and was scrapped in 2005 after 80 years of continuous use.

Current location
On September 24, 2005, the museum was moved from the East Ninth Street Pier to Dock 32, just west of the East Ninth Street Pier, closer to the Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In October 2006, SS William G. Mather was acquired by the Great Lakes Science Center. Today, the ship is a focal point for interpreting the relationship between technology, history, commerce, and the environment.

title: SS William G. Mather (1925)


text:
Moonlighting

Moonlighting may refer to:

 * Side job, a job taken in addition to one's primary employment

Entertainment

 * Moonlighting (film), a 1982 drama film by Jerzy Skolimowski
 * Moonlighting (TV series), 1985–1989 American television series, starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd
 * "Moonlighting" (theme song), from the above TV series, performed by Al Jarreau
 * Moonlighting (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the television series
 * "Moonlighting" (NCIS), a television episode
 * Moonlighting (The Rippingtons album), 1986
 * Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove, an album by Van Dyke Parks, 1998
 * Moonlighting: The Anthology, an album by Roger Daltrey, 2005
 * "Moonlighting" (Leo Sayer song), 1975

title: Moonlighting


text:
George Buchanan (politician)

George Buchanan (30 November 1890 – 28 June 1955) was a Scottish patternmaker, trade union activist and Member of Parliament.

Buchanan was born in Glasgow, Scotland. A committed socialist, he joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP).

Buchanan was vice-chairman of Glasgow Trades Council and sat on the City Council from 1919 to 1923. At the 1922 general election, he was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Gorbals.

Buchanan supported Home Rule for Scotland and he was associated with the Scottish Home Rule Association. In 1924 he introduced a Scottish Home Rule Bill but despite support from Scottish MPs it was talked out by the Opposition.

In 1932, Buchanan became Chairman of the United Patternmakers Association of Great Britain, which he held for 16 years. He initially agreed with James Maxton's moving the ILP out of the mainstream Labour Party but decided to leave it to rejoin Labour in 1939.

At the 1945 general election, Buchanan retained the seat of Glasgow Gorbals and attained the largest increase in percentage of voters in recorded UK history. After the election, the new prime minister, Clement Attlee, appointed Buchanan as Under-Secretary of State for Scotland. Buchanan also later served as Minister of Pensions.

Buchanan resigned from Parliament in 1948 to take up the position of Chairman of the National Assistance Board and was succeeded by Alice Cullen, who had already succeeded him as the candidate for Glasgow Gorbals.

He died in 1955, at 64.

title: George Buchanan (politician)


text:
XHTML Basic

XHTML Basic is an XML-based structured markup language primarily designed for simple (mainly handheld) user agents, often found in mobile devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, pagers, and set-top boxes..

XHTML Basic is a subset of XHTML 1.1, defined using XHTML Modularization including a reduced set of modules for document structure, images, forms, basic tables, and object support. XHTML Basic is suitable for mobile phones, PDAs, pagers, and settop boxes.

It has replaced WML and C-HTML as more compliant user agents have been developed.

One significant advantage of XHTML Basic over WML and C-HTML is that XHTML Basic pages can be rendered differently in web browsers and on handheld devices, eliminating the need for creating two different versions of the same page.

The initial specification for XHTML Basic was released in 2000. In 2006, the specification was revised to version 1.1, incorporating six new features to better serve the small-device community. The latest update of the specification by the W3C has been performed in 2018.

DOCTYPE
To validate as XHTML Basic, a document must contain the following Document Type Declaration, or DOCTYPE:

A complete valid and well-formed example is:

Served with a MIME type of "application/xhtml+xml".

XHTML-Print
XHTML-Print, which became a W3C Recommendation in September 2006, is a specialized version of XHTML Basic designed for documents printed from information appliances to low-end printers.

title: XHTML Basic


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West Lebanon, New Hampshire

West Lebanon is an area within the city of Lebanon in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States, along the Connecticut River. The ZIP Code area for the community had a population of 4,444 at the 2020 census, out of 14,282 in the entire city. West Lebanon contains a major commercial strip along New Hampshire Route 12A, serving the Upper Valley communities along Interstates 89 and 91. It also hosts the Lebanon Municipal Airport, a number of small software and tech businesses, and a regional daily newspaper, the Valley News. The village serves as a bedroom community for nearby Dartmouth College.

West Lebanon was the site of Lebanon's first settlement in 1761. The village later developed into a regional hub for rail transport, although at that time it was better known to travelers as Westboro. By the 1950s, however, the rail industry had shrunk significantly. The rail service through West Lebanon was eventually terminated, and the village of White River Junction, Vermont, across the Connecticut River, took over most of the remaining services.

Today commerce has replaced transportation as the basis of the economy, and West Lebanon serves as the commercial hub for a U.S. micropolitan area (the Lebanon–Claremont micropolitan area) of over 220,000 people.

title: West Lebanon, New Hampshire


text:
Talk:July 31

1919 Weimar constitution, source note: http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/weimar/innenpolitik/versammlung/ (Deutsches Historisches Museum)

No Fictional Characters?
I think you should allow fictional characters, like Harry Potter. Please? Don't Click  Here chat / what i've done / email 19:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree, but only with very popular fiction (such as the Harry potter books). Mr. Granger 16:33, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I added it but its only a matter of time until its removed. November 2007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.250.186.253 (talk) 21:12, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

 * What do you define as "popular"? IMHO this will only stir up a big debate on the meaning of "popular" if this is to be taken seriously, and will end up going nowhere, back to square one, which is right now. --antilivedT 11:12, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Well, for instance, there is contemporary popular culture, and then there is historical culture. Juliet of Romeo and Juliet was born on July 31st. From Scene III

from Nurse Even or odd, of all days in the year, Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen. On2thenext (talk) 14:34, 25 July 2008 (UTC)on2thenext

 * Wikipedia talk:Days of the year would be the right place to discuss this. --antilivedT 12:42, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I think it's fair enough to have fictional characters as long as it's stated that they're fictional. They are of interest so why not? And yes of course, only popular ones. Where to draw the line of 'popular'? Well of course this comes down to discretion, exactly as when deciding who is famous/important enough to have their date of birth added who is real. It shouldn't open a new debate about the definition of 'popular' - just include characters who are generally conceived to be of enough interest to be worth including. I think Juliet should be added too, do we have a date or approximate date? When was it set, this should be looked into.

Whether fictional characters should be included or not, the description "the boy who lived" is hardly appropriate so I will change this now.

Having said all this, fictional events are not allowed so maybe I'm wrong, but in my opinion dates of birth are of enough interest to Wikipedia users like myself. See Days of the year.

Gul e (talk) 00:02, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Katie P
This appears to be vandalism at the end of the birth list. Mr. Granger 16:33, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Jim Laker takes 10/53 v Australia 1956.

Why is this not allowed as an entry for the day it happened on ? It is a world record in a major sporting event after all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.96.222.82 (talk) 17:21, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

MasoodAhmedMalikMirzaSyedBazmi of Nawabshah Sindh Pakistan
What happened in world history today? Please publish here to watch people. Masood Ahmed Malik Mirza Syed Bazmi (talk) 16:36, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

Today in Pakistan
Publish the events of today in Pakistan for each day of the year please. Masood Ahmed Malik Mirza Syed Bazmi (talk) 16:40, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

 * You would have to tell us what those events were, ensure that there are wiki articles about them, and provide verifiable sources. Thanks, Kiwipete (talk) 09:45, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:July 31


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XHTML Modularization

XHTML modularization is a methodology for producing modularized markup languages in a number of different schema languages (currently DTDs, XML Schema and Relax NG) so that the modules can easily be plugged together to create markup languages.

Although it was originally designed to help manage the development of various XHTML Profiles, such as XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic for mobile devices, and XHTML Print for sending to printers, the methodology is independent of XHTML, and has been used for the definition of other markup languages as well, such as SVG and MathML.

Method
XHTML Modularization consists of three essential parts
 * 1) a technique or methodology (as explained, actually independent of XHTML, and applicable to any XML-based markup language) for defining abstract modules of a markup language, and implementing those modules in various schema languages, such as DTDs, XML Schema, and Relax NG.
 * 2) a collection of abstract modules
 * 3) a number of implementations of those modules in various schema languages.

To define a language using these modules, you only have to define a driver in one or more of the implementation schema languages, that causes the necessary modules to be loaded.

Application to XHTML
In its application to XHTML, it provides a means for defining modules of XHTML to allow subsetting and extending XHTML in a controlled way.

Core modules are: Other modules include applet, image, forms and basic forms.
 * Structure (html, head, body, title...)
 * Text (h1, h2, h3... p, pre...)
 * Hypertext (a)
 * List (ul, li...)

title: XHTML Modularization


text:
Respiratory tract

The respiratory tract is the subdivision of the respiratory system involved with the process of conducting air to the alveoli for the purposes of gas exchange in mammals. The respiratory tract is lined with respiratory epithelium as respiratory mucosa.

Air is breathed in through the nose to the nasal cavity, where a layer of nasal mucosa acts as a filter and traps pollutants and other harmful substances found in the air. Next, air moves into the pharynx, a passage that contains the intersection between the oesophagus and the larynx. The opening of the larynx has a special flap of cartilage, the epiglottis, that opens to allow air to pass through but closes to prevent food from moving into the airway.

From the larynx, air moves into the trachea and down to the intersection known as the carina that branches to form the right and left primary (main) bronchi. Each of these bronchi branches into a secondary (lobar) bronchus that branches into tertiary (segmental) bronchi, that branch into smaller airways called bronchioles that eventually connect with tiny specialized structures called alveoli that function in gas exchange.

The lungs which are located in the thoracic cavity, are protected from physical damage by the rib cage. At the base of the lungs is a sheet of skeletal muscle called the diaphragm. The diaphragm separates the lungs from the stomach and intestines. The diaphragm is also the main muscle of respiration involved in breathing, and is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system. The lungs are encased in a serous membrane that folds in on itself to form the pleurae – a two-layered protective barrier. The inner visceral pleura covers the surface of the lungs, and the outer parietal pleura is attached to the inner surface of the thoracic cavity. The pleurae enclose a cavity called the pleural cavity that contains pleural fluid. This fluid is used to decrease the amount of friction that lungs experience during breathing.

Structure
The respiratory tract is divided into the upper airways and lower airways. The upper airways or upper respiratory tract includes the nose and nasal passages, paranasal sinuses, the pharynx, and the portion of the larynx above the vocal folds (cords). The lower airways or lower respiratory tract includes the portion of the larynx below the vocal folds, trachea, bronchi and bronchioles. The lungs can be included in the lower respiratory tract or as separate entity and include the respiratory bronchioles, alveolar ducts, alveolar sacs, and alveoli. The respiratory tract can also be divided into a conducting zone and a respiratory zone, based on the distinction of transporting gases or exchanging them.

The conducting zone includes structures outside of the lungs – the nose, pharynx, larynx, and trachea, and structures inside the lungs – the bronchi, bronchioles, and terminal bronchioles. The conduction zone conducts air breathed in that is filtered, warmed, and moistened, into the lungs. It represents the 1st through the 16th division of the respiratory tract. The conducting zone is most of the respiratory tract that conducts gases into and out of the lungs but excludes the respiratory zone that exchanges gases. The conducting zone also functions to offer a low resistance pathway for airflow. It provides a major defense role in its filtering abilities.

The respiratory zone includes the respiratory bronchioles, alveolar ducts, and alveoli, and is the site of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange with the blood. The respiratory bronchioles and the alveolar ducts are responsible for 10% of the gas exchange. The alveoli are responsible for the other 90%. The respiratory zone represents the 16th through the 23rd division of the respiratory tract.

From the bronchi, the dividing tubes become progressively smaller with an estimated 20 to 23 divisions before ending at an alveolus.

Upper respiratory tract
The upper respiratory tract can refer to the parts of the respiratory system lying above the vocal folds, or above the cricoid cartilage. The larynx is sometimes included in both the upper and lower airways. The larynx is also called the voice box and has the associated cartilage that produces sound. The tract consists of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, the pharynx (nasopharynx, oropharynx and laryngopharynx) and sometimes includes the larynx.

Lower respiratory tract
[[File:illu quiz lung05.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|1. Trachea

2. Mainstem bronchus

3. Lobar bronchus

4. Segmental bronchus

5. Bronchiole

6. Alveolar duct

7. Alveolus]]The lower respiratory tract or lower airway is derived from the developing foregut and consists of the trachea, bronchi (primary, secondary and tertiary), bronchioles (including terminal and respiratory), and lungs (including alveoli). It also sometimes includes the larynx. The lower respiratory tract is also called the respiratory tree or tracheobronchial tree, to describe the branching structure of airways supplying air to the lungs, and includes the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles.

 * trachea
 * main bronchus (diameter approximately 1 – 1.4 cm in adults)
 * lobar bronchus (diameter approximately 1 cm)
 * segmental bronchus (diameter 4.5 to 13 mm)
 * subsegmental bronchus (diameter 1 to 6 mm)
 * conducting bronchiole
 * terminal bronchiole
 * respiratory bronchiole
 * alveolar duct
 * alveolar sac
 * alveolus

At each division point or generation, one airway branches into two smaller airways. The human respiratory tree may consist on average of 23 generations, while the respiratory tree of the mouse has up to 13 generations. Proximal divisions (those closest to the top of the tree, such as the bronchi) mainly function to transmit air to the lower airways. Later divisions including the respiratory bronchiole, alveolar ducts, and alveoli, are specialized for gas exchange.

The trachea is the largest tube in the respiratory tract and consists of tracheal rings of hyaline cartilage. It branches off into two bronchial tubes, a left and a right main bronchus. The bronchi branch off into smaller sections inside the lungs, called bronchioles. These bronchioles give rise to the air sacs in the lungs called the alveoli.

The lungs are the largest organs in the lower respiratory tract. The lungs are suspended within the pleural cavity of the thorax. The pleurae are two thin membranes, one cell layer thick, which surround the lungs. The inner (visceral pleura) covers the lungs and the outer (parietal pleura) lines the inner surface of the chest wall. This membrane secretes a small amount of fluid, allowing the lungs to move freely within the pleural cavity while expanding and contracting during breathing. The lungs are divided into different lobes. The right lung is larger in size than the left, because of the heart's being situated to the left of the midline. The right lung has three lobes – upper, middle, and lower (or superior, middle, and inferior), and the left lung has two – upper and lower (or superior and inferior), plus a small tongue-shaped portion of the upper lobe known as the lingula. Each lobe is further divided up into segments called bronchopulmonary segments. Each lung has a costal surface, which is adjacent to the ribcage; a diaphragmatic surface, which faces downward toward the diaphragm; and a mediastinal surface, which faces toward the center of the chest, and lies against the heart, great vessels, and the carina where the two mainstem bronchi branch off from the base of the trachea.

The alveoli are tiny air sacs in the lungs where gas exchange takes place. The mean number of alveoli in a human lung is 480 million. When the diaphragm contracts, a negative pressure is generated in the thorax and air rushes in to fill the cavity. When that happens, these sacs fill with air, making the lung expand. The alveoli are rich with capillaries, called alveolar capillaries. Here the red blood cells absorb oxygen from the air and then carry it back in the form of oxyhaemaglobin, to nourish the cells. The red blood cells also carry carbon dioxide away from the cells in the form of carbaminohemoglobin and release it into the alveoli through the alveolar capillaries. When the diaphragm relaxes, a positive pressure is generated in the thorax and air rushes out of the alveoli expelling the carbon dioxide.

Microanatomy

The respiratory tract is covered in epithelium, which varies down the tract. There are glands and mucus produced by goblet cells in parts, as well as smooth muscle, elastin or cartilage. The epithelium from the nose to the bronchioles is covered in ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium, commonly called respiratory epithelium. The cilia beat in one direction, moving mucus towards the throat where it is swallowed. Moving down the bronchioles, the cells get more cuboidal in shape but are still ciliated.

Glands are abundant in the upper respiratory tract, but there are fewer lower down and they are absent starting at the bronchioles. The same goes for goblet cells, although there are scattered ones in the first bronchioles.

Cartilage is present until the small bronchi. In the trachea, they are C-shaped rings of hyaline cartilage, whereas in the bronchi the cartilage takes the form of interspersed plates. Smooth muscle starts in the trachea, where it joins the C-shaped rings of cartilage. It continues down the bronchi and bronchioles, which it completely encircles. Instead of hard cartilage, the bronchi and bronchioles are composed of elastic tissue.

The lungs are made up of thirteen different kinds of cells, eleven types of epithelial cell and two types of mesenchymal cell. The epithelial cells form the lining of the tracheal, and bronchial tubes, while the mesenchymal cells line the lungs.

Function
Most of the respiratory tract exists merely as a piping system for air to travel in the lungs, and alveoli are the only part of the lung that exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide with the blood.

Respiration
Respiration is the rhythmical process of breathing, in which air is drawn into the alveoli of the lungs via inhalation and subsequently expelled via exhalation. When a human being inhales, air travels down the trachea, through the bronchial tubes, and into the lungs. The entire tract is protected by the rib cage, spine, and sternum. In the lungs, oxygen from the inhaled air is transferred into the blood and circulated throughout the body. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is transferred from returning blood back into gaseous form in the lungs and exhaled through the lower respiratory tract and then the upper, to complete the process of breathing.

Unlike the trachea and bronchi, the upper airway is a collapsible, compliant tube. As such, it has to be able to withstand suction pressures generated by the rhythmic expansion of the thoracic cavity that sucks air into the lungs. This is accomplished by the contraction of upper airway muscles during inhalation, such as the genioglossus (tongue) and the hyoid muscles. In addition to rhythmic innervation from the respiratory center in the medulla oblongata, the motor neurons controlling the muscles also receive tonic innervation that sets a baseline level of stiffness and size.

The diaphragm is the primary muscle that allows for lung expansion and contraction. Smaller muscles between the ribs, the external intercostals, assist with this process.

Defences against infection
The epithelial lining of the upper respiratory tract is interspersed with goblet cells that secrete a protective mucus. This helps to filter waste, which is eventually either swallowed into the highly acidic stomach environment or expelled via spitting. The epithelium lining the respiratory tract is covered in small hairs called cilia. These beat rhythmically out from the lungs, moving secreted mucus foreign particles toward the laryngopharynx upwards and outwards, in a process called mucociliary clearance, they prevent mucus accumulation in the lungs. Macrophages in the alveoli are part of the immune system which engulf and digest any inhaled harmful agents.

Hair in the nostrils plays a protective role, trapping particulate matter such as dust. The cough reflex expels all irritants within the mucous membrane to the outside. The airways of the lungs contain rings of muscle. When the passageways are irritated by some allergen, these muscles can constrict.

Clinical significance
The respiratory tract is a common site for infections.

Upper respiratory infection
Upper respiratory tract infections are probably the most common infections in the world.

The respiratory system is very prone to developing infections in the lungs. Infants and older adults are more likely to develop infections in their lungs because their lungs are not as strong in fighting off these infections. Most of these infections used to be fatal, but with new research and medicine, they are now treatable. With bacterial infections, antibiotics are prescribed, while viral infections are harder to treat but still curable.

The common cold, and flu are the most common causes of an upper respiratory tract infection, which can cause more serious illness that can develop in the lower respiratory tract.

Lower respiratory tract infections
Pneumonia is the most common, and frequent lower respiratory tract infection. This can be either viral, bacterial, or fungal. This infection is very common because pneumonia can be airborne, and when you inhale this infection in the air, the particles enter the lungs and move into the air sacs. This infection quickly develops in the lower part of the lung and fills the lung with fluid, and excess mucus. This causes difficulty in breathing and coughing as the lower respiratory tract tries to get rid of the fluid in the lungs. You can be more prone to developing this infection if you have asthma, flu, heart disease, or cancer

Bronchitis is another common infection that takes place in the lower respiratory tract. It is an inflammation of the bronchial tubes. There are two forms of this infection: acute bronchitis, which is treatable and can go away without treatment, or chronic bronchitis, which comes and goes, but will always affect one's lungs. Bronchitis increases the amount of mucus that is natural in your respiratory tract. Chronic bronchitis is common in smokers, because the tar from smoking accumulates over time, causing the lungs to work harder to repair themselves.

Tuberculosis is one of many other infections that occurs in the lower respiratory tract. You can contract this infection from airborne droplets, and if inhaled you are at risk of this disease. This is a bacterial infection that deteriorates the lung tissue resulting in coughing up blood. This infection is deadly if not treated.

Cancer
Some of these cancers have environmental causes such as smoking. When a tobacco product is inhaled, the smoke paralyzes the cilia, causing mucus to enter the lungs. Frequent smoking, over time, causes the cilia hairs to die and can no longer filter mucus. Tar from the smoke inhaled enters the lungs, turning the pink-coloured lungs black. The accumulation of this tar could eventually lead to lung cancer, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common lower respiratory disease that can be caused by exposure to harmful chemicals, or prolonged use of tobacco. This disease is chronic and progressive, the damage to the lungs is irreversible and eventually fatal. COPD destroys the alveoli, and lung tissue which makes breathing very difficult, causing shortness of breath, hyperventilation, and raised chest. The decreased number of alveoli causes loss of oxygen supply to the lungs and an increased accumulation of carbon dioxide. There are two types of COPD: primary and secondary. Primary COPD can be found in younger adults. This type of COPD deteriorates the air sacs, and lung mass. Secondary COPD can be found in older adults who smoke or have smoked and have a history of bronchitis. COPD includes symptoms of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Asthma
The bronchi are the main passages to the right and left lungs. These airways carry oxygen to the bronchioles inside the lungs. Inflammation of the bronchii and bronchioles can cause them to swell up, which could lead to an asthma attack. This results in wheezing, tightness of the chest, and severe difficulty in breathing. There are different types of asthma that affect the functions of the bronchial tubes. Allergies can also set off an allergic reaction, causing swelling of the bronchial tubes; as a result, the air passage will swell up, or close up completely.

Mouth breathing
In general, air is inhaled through the nose. It can be inhaled through the mouth if it is not possible to breathe through the nose. However, chronic mouth breathing can cause a dry mouth and lead to infections.

authors: డా. గన్నవరపు నరసింహమూర్తి

title: Respiratory tract


text:
La Salle

La Salle, LaSalle or Lasalle is part of the names of two men born in 17th century France, Jean-Baptiste de La Salle and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, for whom many places and things are named:

Canada

 * La Salle, Manitoba
 * Ontario
 * LaSalle, Ontario, a municipality in Essex County
 * La Salle Township, Ontario, a geographic township in Nipissing District
 * Quebec
 * LaSalle, Quebec, a borough of Montreal
 * LaSalle—Émard, a federal electoral district in Quebec
 * Lasalle (electoral district), a former electoral district in Quebec

France

 * Lasalle, Gard
 * La Salle, Saône-et-Loire
 * La Salle, Vosges
 * La Salle-de-Vihiers, in the Maine-et-Loire department
 * La Salle-en-Beaumont, in the Isère department
 * La Salle-et-Chapelle-Aubry, in the Maine-et-Loire department
 * La Salle-les-Alpes, in the Hautes-Alpes department
 * La Salle-Prunet, in the Lozère department

Haiti

 * La Salle, Haiti, a rural village in the Pestel commune

Italy

 * La Salle, Aosta Valley

United States

 * LaSalle, Colorado
 * LaSalle, Illinois
 * La Salle, Minnesota
 * La Salle, Texas (disambiguation), multiple locations
 * LaSalle County, Illinois
 * La Salle County, Texas
 * LaSalle Parish, Louisiana
 * LaSalle Park, a neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri
 * LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois
 * La Salle Township (disambiguation)

Education

 * Educational institutions affiliated with the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools
 * Lasallian educational institutions, including a list of schools worldwide
 * La Salle High School (disambiguation), including La Salle School
 * La Salle University (disambiguation)

Transportation

 * LaSalle (Amtrak), a Chicago-Milwaukee train operated by Amtrak
 * LaSalle Expressway, an expressway in Niagara Falls, New York, United States
 * LaSalle station (disambiguation), or La Salle station

Other uses

 * LaSalle (automobile)
 * La Salle (surname)
 * Lasalle & Koch, sometimes called Lasalle's, a defunct department store in Toledo, Ohio
 * LaSalle Bank
 * LaSalle's invariance principle
 * LaSalle Records, a division of Atlantic Records
 * La Salle Theater (Chicago)
 * USS La Salle (AGF-3)
 * USS La Salle (AP-102)

title: La Salle


text:
Talk:Entebbe raid

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 20 April 2024
Change "One of the dead hostages, Dora Bloch, had been murdered" To "One of the dead hostages, Dora Bloch, was murdered" The first sentence gives the impression that she was already dead when the raid happened, which is false.--HeloPait (talk) 19:15, 20 April 2024 (UTC) HeloPait (talk) 19:15, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅. –CWenger ( ^ •  @ ) 19:26, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 26 April 2024
Add ISBN to reference 4 Entebbe: The Most Daring Raid of Israel's Special Forces, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011, by Simon Dunstan, p. 58 [ISBN 9781448818686] Awilling (talk) 06:16, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅ — Sirdog (talk) 06:38, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 3 June 2024
Delete portion of Aircraft refueling section that goes as follows: "While several East African nations, including the logistically preferred choice Kenya, were sympathetic, none wished to incur the wrath of Amin or the Palestinians by allowing the Israelis to land their aircraft within their borders." Cannot find a reasonable reliable source that claims this; books like 90 Days in Entebbe seem to say the exact opposite, mentioning that Kenya was the only country in East Africa with leadership sympathetic to the raid operation. Thanks. SunTunnels (talk) 19:14, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

Name not accurate
The name "raid" in the title is not accurate and should be "operation." The raid to release the hostages was one aspect of the larger operation, but it was not the only event. Additionally, it is reffered to as an operation in several places in the article itself, including when linking to official Israel documents. 5.28.189.222 (talk) 23:25, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

July 3 vs July 4
Should the date be kept as July 4 or changed to July 3? I understand the raid ended on the fourth but it started on the third and as such many Israelis commemorate it on the third (I don't have a source for that as it is anecdotal from an Israeli friend so feel free to ignore that part of my statement if not having a source bothers you). This is not a formal edit request as I think we should discuss first what it should be. Jacob p12 (talk) 01:33, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

 * Why not just put 3–4 July? Although from what I can tell, very little happened on 4 July. –CWenger ( ^ •  @ ) 02:27, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Entebbe raid


text:
George Buchanan (diplomat)

Sir George William Buchanan, (25 November 1854 – 20 December 1924) was a British diplomat. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, he was the youngest son of the diplomat Sir Andrew Buchanan, 1st Baronet and Frances, daughter of the Very Rev Edward Mellish by Elizabeth Leigh.

Diplomatic career
Buchanan entered diplomatic service in 1876 and served as Second Secretary in Tokyo, Vienna and Bern and as Secretary in Rome. By 1899, he was serving on the Venezuelan Boundary Commission and later that year was appointed chargé d'affaires at Darmstadt and Karlsruhe. In late 1901, he moved to Berlin, where he was appointed First Secretary at the British embassy. From 1903 to 1908, he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria, and in 1909, he was appointed as Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Invested with the Knight's Grand Cross of Royal Victorian Order in 1909, he was next sworn to the Privy Council. In 1910, Buchanan was appointed as the British Ambassador to Russia. He kept abreast of the political developments in Russia and met some of the leading liberal reformists in the country.

When the Dardanelles were guaranteed by Germany to the Ottoman Empire, Italy sent two secret documents via the British diplomatic corps from Sir Michael Rodd to Buchanan at St Petersburg. They were the evidence that Russia needed to persuade Italy to support its Serbian policy in the Balkans. On 4 March 1915, Imperiali, the Italian envoy to London, presented the documents to Sir Edward Grey on the 16 February authority from Italian Foreign Minister Sonnino. France attached great importance to Italy's decision to join the Allies. Buchanan brought Count Sazonov to the negotiating table.

It has been suggested that to have been secretly encouraged by the then Liberal government in London:

"The British Ambassador George Buchanan was only too aware of the court's 'pro-German sympathies'. He complained to the Duma President, M.V. Rodzianko, in November 1916 that he found it difficult to get an audience at court, and expressed his view 'that Germany is using Alexandra Fedorovna to set the Tsar against the Allies'. Elsewhere, however, Buchanan stated his view that the Empress was 'the unwitting instrument of Germany'."

Buchanan had developed a strong bond with Tsar Nicholas II and attempted to convince him that granting some constitutional reform would stave off revolution. Buchanan actively supported the Duma in its efforts to change Russia's stately system during wartime. Nicholas's opinion of him was under the Tsarina's sway. Knowing that there were plots to stage a palace coup to replace him, Buchanan formally requested an audience with the Tsar in the troubled early days of 1917. At his last meeting with Nicholas, Buchanan pleaded with him in 'undiplomatic' language: "I can but plead as my excuse the fact that I have throughout been inspired by my feelings of devotion for Your Majesty and the Empress. If I were to see a friend walking through a wood on a dark night along a path which I knew ended in a precipice, would it not be my duty, sir, to warn him of his danger? And is it not equally my duty to warn Your Majesty of the abyss that lies ahead of you? You have, sir, come to the parting of the ways, and you have now to choose between two paths. The one will lead you to victory and a glorious peace – the other to revolution and disaster. Let me implore Your Majesty to choose the former."

Although the Tsar was touched by the Ambassador's devotion, he allowed his wife's malevolent attitudes to outweigh the sensible advice that he had been given. After the collapse of the autocracy (see Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia), he developed close relations with the liberal Provisional Government, which was led initially by George Lvov and later by Alexander Kerensky and was formed after the February Revolution. At the same time, Buchanan developed a fear of the dangers of Bolshevism and its growing support. He feared that the Russian Provisional Government would be toppled and tried to warn of the fragility of the government and the dangers of a Bolshevik revolution. Buchanan had reported to London: "They are more active and better organized than any other group, and until they and the ideas which they represent are finally squashed, the country will remain a prey to anarchy and disorder. If the Government are not strong enough to put down the Bolsheviks by force, at the risk of breaking altogether with the soviet, the only alternative will be a Bolshevik Government." However, after the events of the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks' ascension to power, Buchanan was widely criticized for failing to ensure that Tsar and his family were evacuated from Russia before their execution by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg in 1918. It is now known that was not the fault of Buchanan but that of the Tsar's first cousin, King George V, who feared revolutionary trends in Britain and the stability of his own throne and so persuaded the Lloyd George government to rescind the offer that had made to provide sanctuary for the Imperial Family.

Buchanan was disappointed that the fledgling democracy offered by the Provisional Government was strangled by the Bolshevik coup.

In early December 1918, Buchanan fell ill and for the good of his health agreed that it was best for him to leave Russia. His family left St Petersburg on 26 December 1918 and arrived back in Leith, in Scotland, on 17 January 1919. His health soon collapsed, which forced him to spend time recovering in Cornwall.

After his recovery, he was disappointed that after all of his years of service, he was not given a peerage and offered only a two-year ambassadorship in Rome. He accepted the post and served as ambassador to the Kingdom of Italy from 1919 to 1921. While in Italy his wife was found to have terminal cancer and died in April 1921, soon after the family's return to England.

Buchanan's autobiography, My Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic Memories, was published in 1923. It is believed that he had to leave out some of what he knew for fear of losing his pension. He died in 1924.

Honours
British decorations
 * Order of the Bath
 * CB: Companion of the Order of the Bath (civil division) – announced in the 1900 New Year Honours honours list on 1 January 1900, gazetted on 16 January 1900, and invested by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on 1 March 1900. – for services on the Venezuelan Boundary Commission
 * KCB: Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
 * GCB: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
 * Order of St Michael and St George
 * GCMG: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
 * Royal Victorian Order
 * CVO: Commander of the Royal Victorian Order - 1900
 * GCVO: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order

Family
Sir George married on 25 February 1885 Lady Georgiana Meriel Bathurst (1863–1922), daughter of Allen Bathurst, 6th Earl Bathurst by the Hon. Meriel Warren (1839–1872), daughter of George Warren, 2nd Baron de Tabley.

Their only child, daughter Meriel Buchanan (1886–1959). wrote several perceptive books about the Russian October Revolution, which she witnessed, and key figures she had personally known.

title: George Buchanan (diplomat)


text:
Talk:Assignment problem

Old talk
does anyone know why an assignment problem is intersting? Jfeckstein 14:18, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)
 * Not I. But, I haven't studied any assignment problems, so I shouldn't expect to.  Do you think that it isn't encyclopedic?  It is probably useful, and maybe some mathematician will come in and give us some interesting examples. Paullusmagnus 14:31, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)

It seems encyclopedic, and it is informative, but it could be even better. Jfeckstein 14:34, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)
 * It could be better for sure. Sorry I was paranoid.  Paullusmagnus 14:49, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)

This should be linked to matching. Deco 22:45, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

The solution in "Solving an assignment problem" appears to lack symmetry, and could be wrong. It is definitely hard to read.

Also a proper article about the problem should present the known lower bound for it and an asymptotic algorithm for best (or most popular) existing algorithms. Otherwise the reader cannot see how hard the problem is. Wazow 17:42, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Order of preference
What do you call the problem when agents rank the tasks in order of preference instead of assigning them costs? If that is also called the "assignment problem", it would be nice to describe it in this article; otherwise, it would be nice to link to a page that does describe the problem. Hashproduct 23:22, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
 * That is a trivial reduction. Let preference = cost (i.e. rated 1-5, 1 is highest) or cost = 1/preference owise Joseph.Re 20:15, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Not exactly. First of all, there is a problem with the question itself (to ask a proper question is just as important as to give a proper answer). Now, the Assignment problems consists of two parts: weight function and cost function, both of them make the assignment problem the assigment problem. In your answer you assumed that the asking person wants the sum to be the cost function. But if it were so, I believe he would not have asked the question at all, since it is trivial to understand that it does not matter what to sum: weights or places, like when skating is judged. What was asked is the problem of ranking, which is indeed undercovered in wikipedia. There are many situations when  summation is bad idea for ranking, and more complex rank functions are used  (the simplest example (again, from sports competitions) is when the highest and the lowest individual ranks are discarded and the rest is summed), and the best total rank is no longer modelled by the assignment problem. `'Míkka 20:30, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah, I see what you mean. In that case, I agree it would be worthwhile to add. Joseph.Re 16:28, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

dupe?
is this a dupe of Activity selection problem? I'm too tired to tell right now. Spencerk (talk) 22:16, 28 August 2014 (UTC)
 * No, it's a different problem. In the activity selection problem we try to maximize a number of tasks that can be executed in a given timeframe without overlapping. In the assignment problem, we try to assign tasks to workers, where every worker has a cost assigned to each task.143.215.144.105 (talk) 15:24, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Draft:Assignment policy (Economic Policy)
Please consider incorporating material from the above draft submission into this article. Drafts are eligible for deletion after 6 months of inactivity. ~Kvng (talk) 13:22, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Confusing Definition
The first definition of the problem states that the goal is to maximize the number of completed task while minimizing cost, but from later parts I understood that the problem is only cost minimization while all tasks need to be completed. This is a bit confusing and I'm not sure what the right definition is. YotamEdit (talk) 18:32, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

 * I think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_algorithm has a better explanation. Workers can only work on one task (and a task is only assigned 1 worker). So there will always be the same amount of tasks completed.
 * This problem tries to minimize the total cost. Kinda like your second definition, but sometimes if there are less workers than tasks, some tasks won't get a worker, and won't be completed.  AltoStev  ( talk ) 01:04, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

Can genetic algorithms also be used to solve the assignment problem?

title: Talk:Assignment problem


text:
Sign language glove

A sign language glove is an electronic device which attempts to convert the motions of a sign language into written or spoken words. Some critics of such technologies have argued that the potential of sensor-enabled gloves to do this is commonly overstated or misunderstood, because many sign languages have a complex grammar that includes use of the sign space and facial expressions (non-manual elements).

The wearable device contains sensors that run along the four fingers and thumb to identify each word, phrase or letter as it is made in the given sign language. Those signals are then sent wirelessly to a smartphone, which translates them into spoken words at a rate of one word per second.

Scientists at UCLA, where one the many projects was developed, believe the innovation could allow for easier communication for deaf people. "Our hope is that this opens up an easy way for people who use sign language to communicate directly with non-signers without needing someone else to translate for them," said lead researcher Jun Chen.

The researchers also added adhesive sensors to the faces of people used to test the device -- between their eyebrows and on one side of their mouths -- to capture nonmanual features of the language.

title: Sign language glove