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Ashby de la Zouch Castle

Ashby de la Zouch Castle is a ruined fortification in the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. The castle was built by William, Lord Hastings, a favourite of Edward IV, after 1473, accompanied by the creation of a 3000 acre park. Constructed on the site of an older manor house, two large towers and various smaller buildings had been constructed by 1483, when Hastings was executed by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The Hastings family used the castle as their seat for several generations, improving the gardens and hosting royal visitors.

During the English Civil War of the 1640s, Henry, a younger son in the Hastings family, became a Royalist commander in the Midlands. He based himself at the castle until he was forced to surrender it after a long siege. A fresh rebellion occurred in 1648, leading Parliament to slight the castle in order to prevent it being used militarily: the two towers were badly damaged with gunpowder and undermining. Parts of the remaining castle were turned into a new house and continued to be used by members of the Hastings family for many years, although they moved their main residence to Donington Hall.

The castle became famous after it featured in Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe in 1819, and its owner, Francis Rawdon, opened the ruins to visitors. Restoration work was carried out over the course of the next century, but by 1932 the Rawdon family could no longer afford to maintain the castle. It passed into the guardianship of the Ministry of Works, who carried out extensive repairs and opened the castle gardens. In the 21st century, the castle is managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction, receiving 15,164 visitors in 2015. The historian John Goodall considers the site to be an "outstanding example of a late medieval castle", with its grounds forming "one of the best-preserved and most important" examples of an early Tudor garden.

11th–15th centuries
A manor had existed at Ashby-de-la-Zouch from at least 1086, when the location was known as Ascebi. The lands were acquired by Robert de Beaumont, the Count of Meulan and later Earl of Leicester, in 1100. He established the Belmeis family there as his tenants and, after the Belmeis family line died out in 1160, the earls of Leicester reassigned the estate to the La Zouche family, from whom the manor took its later name.

At some point during this period, a manor house was constructed on the same site as the later castle, with a hall and a solar. A settlement grew up alongside the house and, by 1334, the town was probably the sixth-largest in the county. By the mid-1300s, the manor house reportedly included a hall, a chamber, a long house containing service facilities, and was surrounded by a dovecote, orchard and a rabbit warren, accompanied by a 60 acre deer park. The hall and solar were rebuilt by the le Zouches during the second half of the 14th century, but the building remained what the historian Norman Pounds has called a "rather modest manor house".

The le Zouch line died out in 1399, leaving the inheritance of the family estates uncertain. The manor probably passed to Sir Hugh Burnell and, around 1420, onto James Butler, the Earl of Ormond and Wiltshire. The Wars of the Roses broke out in England during 1455 between the rival supporters of the Lancastrian and Yorkist factions. James, a Lancastrian, was captured at the Battle of Towton by the Yorkist leader Edward IV in 1461 and executed; the Crown seized his estates, including the manor of Ashby de la Zouch.

Ashby de la Zouch was converted into a castle by William, Lord Hastings, a favourite of Edward IV; as a minor nobleman he had fought alongside Edward at Towton, but was then knighted and later became the chamberlain of the royal household and the Lieutenant of Calais. William acquired extensive estates across the Midlands during the wars, much of them confiscated from his enemies. Amongst these was Ashby de la Zouch, which was given to William in 1462. His father, Sir Leonard, had maintained the family seat at nearby Kirby Muxloe, but after 1471 William began to use Ashby de la Zouch as his primary residence.

In 1474, Edward granted William the right to crenellate, or fortify, four of his manors and to build deer parks around them. William set about developing the old manorial complex at Ashby de la Zouch with new buildings, and was authorised to create a huge 3000 acre park around it. His intent appears to have been to construct a substantial castle, similar to the royal fortifications at Tutbury and Nottingham, with four huge towers. Work appears to have already started on the site the year before permission was formally given, although it is uncertain whether this referred to the construction of the castle's chapel, or if William had already begun work on the first tower, gambling that the King would subsequently approve it.

Edward IV died in 1483, leaving the kingdom to his young son, Edward V, but his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had his own ambitions for the throne. Lord Hastings was unwilling to support the deposition of Edward V and, as a consequence, Richard summarily executed him that June, ahead of his own coronation. Ashby de la Zouch Castle, only partially completed, and Lord Hastings' other estates were then restored to his widow, Katherine.

16th–17th centuries
The castle passed to William's son, Edward Hastings, who appears to have spent little time at the property, although he hosted a visit from Henry VIII in 1503. It was then inherited by his son, George, who was a royal favourite of Henry VIII and made the Earl of Huntington in 1529, which led to him rebuilding parts of the castle in brick and redesigning the gardens. Henry Hastings inherited the castle in 1560, where he maintained a household of 77 servants. Henry Hastings used it to imprison Mary Queen of Scots in 1569 after she was accused of plotting against Elizabeth I, although he spent most of his time at York, where he led the Council of the North.

It passed onto his younger brother, George, who entertained Queen Anne, Princess Elizabeth, and Prince Henry there on 22 June 1603. The Countess of Derby was welcomed in August 1607 with the Masque at Ashby Castle. His grandson, Henry hosted James I three times between 1612 and 1617, and Charles I in 1634. The gardens were redeveloped, probably to provide a suitable venue for these royal visits. By now, however, several generations of excessive expenditure meant that the family estates had been much diminished, and the family was having trouble maintaining their lavish lifestyle and former prominence in the region.

In 1642, the English Civil War broke out between the supporters of Charles I and Parliament. Henry Hasting briefly joined the royalist cause before his death in 1643, but his eldest son Ferdinando, who inherited the family earldom, remained neutral during the conflict. Ferdinando's younger brother Henry, however, became a key Royalist commander in the Midlands. The castle was strategically well-placed, linking the Royalist territories in the north and the west of England, and giving easy access to the River Trent. Henry used the castle as his base of operations across the region, protecting it by establishing smaller outposts near Donnington and Shardlow. Buildings in the town of Ashby de la Zouch were pulled down to provide materiel to refortify the castle and town, tunnels were dug and an "Irish fort" constructed to help protect the castle.

In early 1643, Parliament placed Newark under siege, and the garrison at Ashby was sent to relieve it. As part of a larger force under Prince Rupert, they forced the surrender of the Parliamentary force. By late 1644, the war turned against the King, and the Parliamentary forces based at nearby Coleorton had contained the garrison in the castle. King Charles passed through the castle in May 1645 on his way to besiege Leicester, but the following month his forces were defeated at the Battle of Naseby; the King briefly stayed at the castle once again as he retreated west. By now, the Royalist cause was largely lost.

Henry returned to the castle from Leicester in September, where another 600 Royalist soldiers soon joined him and its 60-man garrison, carrying out raids on Parliamentary convoys and the garrison at Coleorton. Plague broke out at the end of the year, forcing the besiegers to retreat to Leicester, while the garrison temporarily abandoned the castle buildings and occupied the neighbouring park. Once the epidemic passed, Parliament began to raid the town and Henry worked through Ferdinando to agree the surrender of the castle on good terms: this was achieved in February 1646, and allowed for the release of himself, the garrison and their weapons.

In May 1648, a Royalist rebellion broke out in Kent. There were fresh Parliamentary concerns about Henry Hastings and fears grew that he might reoccupy Ashby de la Zouch Castle. Lord Grey – a rival of the Hastings family in Leicestershire – was put in charge of the castle in August, which was used to hold Royalist prisoners, including James Hamilton, the Duke of Hamilton. Parliamentary worries about the security of the castle persisted and, possibly because of Henry's involvement in the recent rebellion, William Bainbrigg was ordered in November to slight the castle to put it beyond military use. He carried out his orders immediately, demolishing one side of the Great Tower and the Kitchen Tower, undermining the foundations and deploying gunpowder charges.

The Hastings family suffered financially as a result of the war, and Ferdinando was imprisoned for debt in 1653. The family moved to Donington Hall, although some of the remains of the castle were repaired to form a house called Ashby Place, which lay on the north side of the site in the old outer court. Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, lived there after 1746. With the deterioration of the castle and the departure of the Hastings, the neighbouring town also fell into decline. With the death of Francis Hastings in 1789, the castle was inherited by Francis Rawdon, who later became the Earl of Moira.

18th–21st centuries
In 1819, Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe featured a scene involving a tournament at Ashby de la Zouch Castle; the novel was immensely popular and made the location famous. Edward Mammatt, Francis Rawdon's agent, repaired the castle ruins and opened them to visitors, whom Rawdon hoped to attract to the Ivanhoe Baths which he opened nearby. Ashby Place, which had become used as a House of Industry, was pulled down in 1830 and a new house, Ashby Manor, was built in its place. Work continued throughout the 19th century to repair the castle ruins, although they remained mostly covered in ivy.

A local architect, Thomas Fosbrooke, carried out the first archaeological investigation of the site in 1900, and extensive restoration work took place the following years. The Rawdon family were given a government grant for further repairs in 1912 and they began to start charging visitors for entry. The family found themselves unable to afford to maintain the castle, and by the early 1930s the walls had become unstable and dangerous. The castle was placed into the guardianship of the Ministry of Works in 1932, who carried out repairs, replacing some stonework and opening up the surrounding grounds to visitors.

In the 21st century, the castle is managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction, receiving 15,164 visitors in 2015. An archaeological investigation of the castle gardens was carried out in 2006. The site is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument.

Architecture
The ruins of Ashby de la Zouch Castle are located close to the centre of the modern town, and comprise two large towers and associated buildings arranged around a court, with formal gardens to the south. Lord Hastings probably intended his castle to ultimately have four large towers, enclosing the interior buildings with a curtain wall to a regular design, but only half of these towers were completed by the time of his death. The outer court that lay to the north of the surviving complex has been lost; having been converted into first Ashby Place, and then Ashby Manor, it is now occupied by the Manor House Preparatory School. The historian John Goodall considers Ashby de la Zouch to form an "outstanding example of a late medieval castle".

The Kitchen Tower stands on the north-west corner of the castle and was intended to supply Lord Hasting's large household. The tower only had two storeys, as the ground floor kitchen had a very high, 34 ft high vaulted ceiling, and its walls were 9 ft thick and made of yellow sandstone. The well-lit kitchen had several hearths and an oven for cooking, a well and a cellar for storage. Above the kitchen was a large room, probably used as a winter parlour. One wall of the tower was slighted in 1648. An underground passage, probably dating from the English Civil War, links the Great Tower with the Kitchen Tower.

Alongside the tower, separated for fire safety by a roofed passageway, was a two-storey service range, including a buttery and pantry. The castle's Great Hall was adapted from the medieval original, and would originally have been subdivided by a line of arches. It was heated by a central heath and the lord and his guests would have eaten on a raised dais at the far end of the hall. The building was raised in height, given new windows and reroofed in the second half of the 17th century. The Great Chamber was a two-storey building, originally with a parlour on the ground level, with a chamber above it used for entertaining guests. Running north from the Great Chamber was a range of buildings used by the senior household staff.

The large chapel, 60 by and built of grey sandstone, lies alongside the Great Chamber, and would originally had an altar on a dais at the north end. One corner of the chapel remains in use as a burial site by the modern Hastings family. An inner, or chapel, court would have been formed by a range of buildings, since lost, stretching between the chapel and the Great Tower. The historian Anthony Emery notes that the castle would have formed a "palace fortress", with the sizeable chapel and adjacent towers constituting symbols of Hastings' power and authority.

The Great Tower was a large structure of grey sandstone, 75 ft tall, formed of a four-storey tower, 30 by internally, linked to a smaller seven-storey tower or turret, 10 by across. The ground floor contained the basement and the entrance-way, protected by a portcullis. The first floor held the kitchen, and had a fire-proof stone-vaulted roof. The upper floors consisted of a parlour and a separate great chamber for the lord, with a withdrawing chamber to one side, all with grander windows than the lower levels, with excellent views of the gardens and the parkland beyond. A treasure chamber, accessible only from the upper storeys using a ladder, was built into the first floor. Emery considers the "richness of the upper rooms and the tower's planning and design qualities" to be outstanding, and likens it to the Yellow Tower of Gwent at Raglan Castle.

Gardens and parkland
The current gardens to the south of the castle date from around 1530; they occupy 0.8 ha, and include two sunken areas, separated by a walkway. The eastern area may have been intended to imitate defensive bastion works, and it originally featured a circular brick tower in the middle of it. The site would originally have had a brick wall running all the way around it, of which only the south-east edge survives. Two brick towers survive at the southern corners, one resembling a clover-leaf, the other with an octagonal design, and would have originally been used as banqueting houses. Beyond the gardens would have been an area planted with trees, called "the wilderness", and smaller compartmented garden and ponds. A triangular building called "the Mount" was built in the wilderness in the early 17th century, and is now a private house. John Goodall considers them to be "one of the best-preserved and most important early Tudor gardens in England".

The original 60 acre park probably lay just to the south of the castle, incorporating the current gardens; it was probably expanded to around 340 acre by William Hastings, and was later named the "Little Park". The original boundaries of the other two parks associated with castle to the north and west, Great Park and Prestop Park, are uncertain.

title: Ashby de la Zouch Castle


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World Esperanto Congress

The World Esperanto Congress (Universala Kongreso de Esperanto, UK) is an annual Esperanto convention. It has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run for 119 years. The congresses have been held since August 5, 1905, every year, except during World War I, World War II, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the 1920s, the Universal Esperanto Association has been organizing these congresses.

These congresses take place every year and, over the 30 years from 1985 through 2014, have gathered an average of about 2,000 participants (since World War II it has varied from 800 to 6,000, depending on the venue). The average number of countries represented is about 60. Some specialized organizations also gather a few hundred participants in their annual meetings. The World Congress usually takes place in the last week of July or first week of August, beginning and ending on a Saturday (8 days in total). For many years ILERA has operated an amateur radio station during the conventions.

Until 1980, meetings were held in Europe and the United States, with the exception of Japan in 1965. Since then, other countries have been Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, South Korea, Australia, Israel, Vietnam and Argentina. In 2024, the congress will be held in Africa for the first time, in Arusha, Tanzania.

Countries
Countries by number of times as host:

Continents
Of the 102 congresses that have happened so far, 84 were hosted in Europe, 8 in Asia, 6 in North America, 3 in South America, 1 in Australia/Oceania and none in Africa.

Cities
Cities by number of times as host:

The remaining cities hosted the event only once.

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

title: World Esperanto Congress


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Christian Slater

Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor. He made his film debut with a leading role in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakthrough role as Jason "J.D." Dean, a sociopathic high school student, in the satire Heathers (1988). He has received critical acclaim for his title role in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), for which he earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2016, with additional nominations in 2017 and 2018.

In the 1990s, Slater starred in a number of big-budget films, including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Broken Arrow (1996), and Hard Rain (1998) as well as cult films like Gleaming the Cube (1989), Pump Up the Volume (1990) and True Romance (1993). His other notable films include roles in The Name of the Rose (1986), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), Windtalkers (2002), Alone in the Dark (2005), Bobby (2006), He Was a Quiet Man (2007), Nymphomaniac (2013), The Wife (2017), and We Can Be Heroes (2020).

In addition to his live-action roles, Slater has had an extensive voice-acting career, with roles like Pips in FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Slater in Archer (2014–2023), Ushari in The Lion Guard (2016–2019), Rand Ridley in Inside Job (2021–2022), and Floyd Lawton / Deadshot in the DC Animated Movie Universe.

Early life
Slater was born on August 18, 1969, in New York City, the son of Michael Hawkins (born Thomas Knight Slater), an actor also known as Michael Gainsborough; and Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), an acting agent turned casting executive and producer. He has a maternal half-brother, Ryan Slater, who also became an actor. His great-uncle was radio personality Bill Slater. He attended the Dalton School, the Professional Children's School and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

1977–1990: Early success
Slater started acting from an early age. His first television role was at the age of eight on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. Following a run on Ryan's Hope, he made his Broadway debut as the lisping Winthrop Paroo opposite Dick Van Dyke in the 1980 revival of The Music Man. Additional Broadway credits include Copperfield, Merlin, Macbeth, Side Man, and The Glass Menagerie. In addition he has performed in London's West End in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Swimming with Sharks.

Slater made his big screen debut in 1985's The Legend of Billie Jean, playing Billie Jean's brother Binx. Though expected to be a big hit, the film fell short at the box office. It has gained a cult following. His career improved with his role in The Name of the Rose (1986) alongside Sean Connery. Slater played Connery's apprentice monk while they investigated a series of murders at a Benedictine abbey. Slater followed this by playing Junior Tucker in Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988).

At the age of 18, Slater played the dark character J.D. in the 1988 film Heathers alongside Winona Ryder. Slater beat out many other actors such as Brad Pitt for the part, and his performance drew comparison with a young Jack Nicholson. Slater also starred in Gleaming the Cube and appeared in Beyond the Stars (both 1989). After Heathers, Slater had offers to play more troubled youths, including as a rebellious teen in Pump Up the Volume (1990) and a wild gunman in Young Guns II (1990), in which Slater acted alongside Emilio Estevez, Lou Diamond Phillips and Kiefer Sutherland.

1991–1999: Box office success
In 1991, Slater was cast as Will Scarlett in the Hollywood big budget production of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves alongside Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman. The film was a commercial success, taking US$390 million worldwide, and Slater became one of the major A-list stars of the 1990s. With Slater being a big Star Trek fan (in addition to his mother, Mary Jo Slater, serving as the casting director for the film), he accepted a cameo role in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, shortly after playing Charlie Luciano in the crime drama Mobsters. The following year he expanded his film genre and starred in the comedy Kuffs opposite Milla Jovovich. In 1993, Slater again stretched his acting skills, playing opposite Marisa Tomei in Untamed Heart and playing Clarence Worley in True Romance, written by Quentin Tarantino, which received many rave reviews. In his review of True Romance, Roger Ebert awarded the movie 3 stars out of 4 and said, "the energy and style of the movie are exhilarating. Christian Slater has the kind of cocky recklessness the movie needs."

He gained the role of the interviewer Daniel Molloy in Interview with the Vampire (1994) after the death of his friend River Phoenix, who was originally cast. Slater subsequently donated his earnings from the film to Phoenix's favorite charities. He played the character of Lewis in the romance film Bed of Roses in 1996 opposite Mary Stuart Masterson, then that of Riley Hale in the big-budget John Woo film Broken Arrow (1996), which also starred John Travolta. In 1998 Slater appeared in crime movie Hard Rain alongside Morgan Freeman. The same year he also starred in the dark comedy Very Bad Things opposite Cameron Diaz.

2000–present: Television roles, Mr. Robot
Since 2000 Slater has mixed TV work with leading roles in mainly lower budget films, along with supporting roles in a few mainstream productions. He appeared in the successful The West Wing and Alias TV series. He was also part of Hollywood films, including Bobby and 3000 Miles to Graceland. He has also worked as a voice-over artist in productions, including the character of 'Pips' in the successful Australian animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and TV documentaries, including Prehistoric Planet and Dinosaur Planet. Slater also voiced the character John Watson a.k.a. "Wonko the Sane" in BBC Radio 4's production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Slater starred in the television series My Own Worst Enemy in 2008 and The Forgotten in 2009. In 2011 he co-starred in the action film The River Murders, with Ray Liotta and Ving Rhames. Also in 2011, he starred in the television series, Breaking In, which ran for two seasons. Slater co-starred with Ving Rhames in the film Soldiers of Fortune (2012), and in the Sylvester Stallone action thriller Bullet to the Head (2013), directed by Walter Hill. He co-starred in the 2014 television series, Mind Games, which was cancelled after five episodes were aired. He was part of the ensemble in Lars von Trier's controversial film, Nymphomaniac.

In October 2014, Slater signed on for his title role in the television series on USA Network Mr. Robot. Slater plays a computer hacker, "Mr. Robot," who recruits Rami Malek's character, Elliot, into Slater's band of hackers called fsociety. The series premiered on June 24, 2015, and concluded in 2019 with its fourth season. For his performance, he earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2016, with additional nominations in 2017 and 2018.

Prior to beginning his role in Mr. Robot, Slater announced in 2013 that he was developing and making a film based on Will Viharo's 1993 neo-noir novel Love Stories Are Too Violent for Me, the first of three works to feature Vic Valentine. However, the success of Mr. Robot and contracts for additional seasons has delayed his being able to develop his adaptation.

Slater voices the character "Slater" on the FX original series Archer. He also provided the voice of Ushari the Egyptian Cobra in The Lion Guard. He also made a short film for HP called The Wolf, which shows how easily malware can spread on unprotected printers and computers. In 2018, Christian Slater appeared in The Public, the latest film by Emilio Estevez. At the world premiere of the film at the Toronto Film Festival, Slater discussed his role, Josh Davis, with Ikon London Magazine: "'He (Josh Davis) is definitely the character in the movie who represents that side of politics where he is not as open-hearted as you'd like him to be. He is definitely the guy who feels this is all a mess. And he is a law and order politician in this movie. So hopefully, he is the kind of guy you love to hate'." From 2021 to 2022, he voiced the character Rand Ridley on the adult sci-fi animated sitcom Inside Job. The show's creator announced the cancellation of the show in January 2023.

Personal life
In 2000, Slater married Ryan Haddon, the daughter of model Dayle Haddon. They have two children, a son Jaden Christopher born in 1999, and a daughter Eliana Sophia born in 2001. In 2003, Haddon was arrested for assaulting Slater during an argument at a Hard Rock Cafe while on vacation in Las Vegas. Haddon allegedly threw a glass bottle and cut Slater's neck, which required 20 stitches. Haddon was charged with domestic battery, booked at Las Vegas' Clark County Detention Center, and freed after posting bond. They announced their separation over Christmas in 2004. Slater was living in London at the time, performing in a stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The couple officially separated in 2005 and divorced in 2007.

On December 2, 2013, Slater married his girlfriend Brittany Lopez in Florida after three years of dating. They have one daughter together, born in August 2019.

Slater practices Kempo Karate and divides his time between Coconut Grove in Miami, Florida and Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.

Legal issues
Slater has had difficulties with substance abuse and has undergone treatment. In 1989, Slater was arrested for drunk driving. He was sentenced to ten days in jail. At one time he said, "Work is my hobby, staying sober is my job." After living in recovery, he said in 2009, "Work is my job, and having adventures with my kids. My kids are all-important." "The illusion of being very cool, that drinking is the hip thing to do and that you'll seem like Clark Gable. You go to a party and have a drink and feel like a superhero when the truth is you're looking rather foolish. Showing up for life 24/7 straight and sober can be tough if you're riddled with insecurities. Actually, the fastest way of knowing who you are is to know who you're not."

In 1994, he was arrested when he tried to board a commercial plane with a gun in his baggage. He was sentenced to three days of community service.

In 1997, Slater was convicted of punching his girlfriend, Michelle Jonas, and assaulting a police officer while under the influence of heroin, cocaine, and alcohol. He had consumed them for two days straight and had little to no sleep. He was treated for more than 100 days in a rehabilitation facility while on bail, and then was sentenced to a three-month term in jail, followed by three months in a residential rehab center. He was released from prison after 59 days on the basis of good behavior.

On May 24, 2005, Slater was arrested in Manhattan, after allegedly groping a woman on the street. Slater was charged with third-degree sexual abuse. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence and on the condition that Slater keep out of trouble for six months.

Philanthropy
Slater has been a supporter of several charities, including 21st Century Leaders, Global Green, and Whatever It Takes. Slater appeared in an educational video on behalf of Nelson Mandela’s 46664 charity for AIDS awareness. He has also worked to promote humanitarian work in South Africa. In early May 2009, Slater visited wounded and recovering soldiers of Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the USO. On December 10, 2009, Slater visited Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he contributed work for the television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The episode aired on March 21, 2010.

title: Christian Slater


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 * www.npr.org
 * betterpropaganda.com

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Sugested sounds
I currently favor and am listening to ...

 * The Iceberg/Freedom Of Speech... Just Watch What You Say!

... and it's good. You should check it out. {| class="toccolours" style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; width:255px; text-align:left; clear:right;"
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Movies and shows
Wanna watch something? Check out this entertainment ...

 * Moon (film)
 * Once (film)
 * Equilibrium (film)
 * Heist (film)
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Blade Runner
 * Paycheck (film)
 * 2001: A Space Odyssey
 * The Matrix
 * Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005 film)
 * The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

... maybe you will find some good thoughts for your head. {| class="toccolours" style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; width:255px; text-align:left; clear:right;"
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Free energy
Alternative free energy, in a strict sense, is energy directly transceived from the environment, and utilized without any artificial aid. In a technical sense, free energy means an energy source supplied directly by the environment in unlimited quantity (and this can not be depleted). Free energy here is equated with renewable energy, which is energy from a source which is not subject to depletion and does not include energy sources which are dependent upon limited resources. For more, see these articles ...

 * Sustainable renewable and alternative energy
 * Soft energy technology and renewable energy commercialization
 * Energy development and sustainable energy
 * Distributed generation and energy development

"Free energy" generally means that the primary energy source is "free" (i.e. does not cost anything) for consumption. Thus, free energy is the energy with no or negligible feedstock costs, including solar power (sometimes referred to as "electro-radiant energy"), telluric power, water power, and wind power. Free energy is reported in perpetual motion machines and the inquiries can be engaged in serious discussion of such machines in Free energy and perpetual motion history. {| class="toccolours" style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; width:255px; text-align:left; clear:right;"
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Quotes

 * There manifests itself in the fully developed being - Man - a desire mysterious, inscrutable and irresistible: to imitate nature, to create, to work himself the wonders he perceives. Long ago he recognized that all perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the Akasa or luminiferous aether, which is acted upon by the life giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never ending cycles all things and phenomena. The primary substance, thrown into infinitesimal whirls of prodigious velocity, becomes gross matter; the force subsiding, the motion ceases and matter disappears, reverting to the primary substance.

— Nikola Tesla

Man's Greatest Achievement

May 13, 1907

 * The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of a planter for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation of those who are to come and point the way.

— Nikola Tesla

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Books I ...
... own, use, have read, or use for the rainy days will be listed below. Though this is a listing of books I had owned, not everything I had and read will I list here. The books I ...

recommend ...

 * McWilliams, P. (1994). Life 101: Everything we wish we had learned about life in school — but didn't. Los Angeles, Calif: Prelude Press.
 * Trefil, J. S. (1992). 1001 things everyone should know about science. New York: Doubleday.
 * Sindermann, C. J. (1982). Winning the games scientists play. New York: Plenum Press.
 * Hovenden, F. (1905). On false education. London: Watts.
 * Huxley, A. (1921) Crome Yellow. (1932) Brave New World. (1958) Brave New World Revisited.
 * Huxley, A. (1945). The Perennial Philosophy. Harper & Brothers.
 * Dekker, T., Smeaton, W. H. O. (1620). The Pleasant Comedy of Old Fortunatus.

read and find interesting ...

 * Heckscher, M., & Rogalski, M. (2006). Use this book!: The only book you'll ever need. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.
 * Pheby, J. A. (1995). What's that: The Oxford visual dictionary of nearly everything. New York: Tess Press.
 * Bothamley, J. (1993). Dictionary of theories. London: Gale Research International.
 * Reader's Digest Association. (1986). How to do just about anything. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest Association
 * Kuper, A., & Kuper, J. (1985). The Social science encyclopedia. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
 * Ryan, M. G. (1979). The complete encyclopedia of stitchery. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
 * Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, & Jay, F. (1977). IEEE standard dictionary of electrical and electronics terms. New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
 * Graf, R. F. (1974). Radio Shack dictionary of electronics. Fort Worth, Tex: Radio Shack.
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc. (1957). Encyclopedia Britannica 1957. Chicago, Ill: Encyclopaedia Britannica.
 * Singer, C. J., & Williams, T. I. (1954). A History of Technology. Oxford: Clarendon Press (Volume 1 to 5)
 * McClane, A. J. (1951). The Wise fishermen's encyclopedia: An encyclopedic handbook for fishermen covering the game fish of the world and how to catch them. New York: Wm. H. Wise &.
 * The Lincoln library of essential information; An up-to date manual for daily reference, for self-instruction, and for general culture. (1924). Buffalo: The Frontier Press.
 * Chisholm, H. (1922). The Encyclopædia britannica; the new volumes, constituting, in combination with the twenty-nine volumes of the eleventh edition, the twelfth edition of that work, and also supplying a new, distinctive, and independent library of reference dealing with events and developments of the period 1910 to 1921 inclusive. London: Encyclopædia Britannica, Co. (Volume 1 to 3)
 * Hawkins electrical guide ... Questions, answers & illustrations; a progressive course of study for engineers, electricians, students and those desiring to acquire a working knowledge of electricity and its applications; a practical treatise. (1917). New York: T. Audel &. Volume 1 - 10.

have read ...

 * Ikenson, B. (2004).  Patents : Ingenious Inventions, How They Work and How They Came to Be. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. 288 pages.
 * United States. (2003). Soldier's manual of common tasks: Skill level 1. Field manual. Washington (d.c.): Department of the Army; Headquarters.
 * Iannini, R. E. (2003). Electronic gadgets for the evil genius: 21 build-it-yourself projects. TAB electronics. New York: McGraw-Hill.
 * Valone, T. (2002). Harnessing the wheelwork of nature: Tesla's science of energy. Kempton, Ill: Adventure Unlimited Press.
 * Tesla, N., & Childress, D. H. (2000). The Tesla papers. Kempton, Ill: Adventures Unlimited.
 * Seifer, M. J. (1998). Wizard: The life and times of Nikola Tesla : biography of a genius. New York: Citadel Press/Kensington Publishing.
 * Tesla, N., & Childress, D. H. (1993). The fantastic inventions of Nikola Tesla. The Lost science series. Stelle, Ill: Adventures Unlimited.
 * Wright, R. (1992). Stolen continents: The Americas through Indian eyes since 1492. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
 * Hart, M. H. (1992). The 100: A ranking of the most influential persons in history. Secausus, N.J.: Carol Pub. Group.
 * Laubin, R., Laubin, G., & Vestal, S. (1989). The Indian tipi: Its history, construction, and use. Norman, Okla: University of Oklahoma Press.
 * Fletcher, C., & Fletcher, C. (1984). The complete walker III: The joys and techniques of hiking and backpacking. New York: Knopf.
 * Cheney, M. (1981). "Tesla: Man Out of Time". New York, Barnes & Noble Books.
 * Grant, M. (1978). History of Rome. New York: Scribner's.'
 * Burke, J. (1978). Connections. Boston: Little, Brown.
 * Cain, A. H. (1970). Young people and revolution. New York: John Day.
 * Andrews, E. B. (1914). History of the United States, Illustrated. Volume 6. Scribner's.

recommend for a rainy day ...

 * Adams, D. (1993). Mostly harmless. Hitchiker series ; 05. New York: Ballantine Books.
 * McWilliams, P. (1990). Life 101: Everything we wish we had learned about life in school--but didn't. Los Angeles, Calif: Prelude Press.
 * Adams, D., Adams, D., Adams, D., Adams, D., & Adams, D. (1991). The complete hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. Voyager expanded book. Santa Monica, CA: Voyager.
 * Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). The Silmarillion. New York: Ballantine Books.
 * Tolkien, J. R. R. (1973). The fellowship of the ring: Being the first part of The lord of the rings. The Lord of the rings, Pt. 1. New York: Ballantine Books.
 * Tolkien, J. R. R. (1973). The two towers: Being the second part of The lord of the rings. The lord of the rings, Pt. 2. New York: Ballantine Books.
 * Tolkien, J. R. R. (1973). The return of the king: Being the third part of The lord of the rings. The lord of the rings, Pt. 3. New York: Ballantine Books.
 * Tolkien, J. R. R., & Tolkien, C. (1984). The book of lost tales: Part I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

read for fun ...

 * Lacroix, N., & Lacroix, N. (2004). The better sex guide: How to enjoy and maintain a healthy sex life in a loving relationship : the book for modern lovers everywhere. London: Hermes House.
 * Lebowitz, F. (1978). Metropolitan life. New York: Dutton.
 * Hallmark Cards, Inc. (1960). Poetry for pleasure; The Hallmark book of poetry. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.

wish I had ...

 * Tesla, N., & Marinčić, A. (1978). Colorado Springs notes, 1899-1900. Beograd: Nolit.
 * Tolkien, J. R. R. (1966). The hobbit, or, There and back again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
 * Martin, T. C., & Tesla, N. (1894). The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla: With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting. New York: The Electrical Engineer.

Websites I ...
... use and consult will be listed below. Though this is a listing of websites I like, not everything I have bookmarked and consult will I list here; but I will add the sites that I have in my collection as time time goes on that I like. The sites I ...

suggest ...

 * wikiHow : How-to Manual
 * Wiki2 : Front End; See the Chrome Extension

consult and use ...

 * Internet Archive : i.Archive
 * Sacred Archive : i.Sacred Text
 * Google (Google products)
 * G.Search : Google Search : web engine
 * G.Books : Google Book Search : book text
 * G.Scholar : Google Scholar : scholarly literature
 * Internet History Sourcebooks Project
 * Modern Sourcebook : Modern sources
 * Medieval Sourcebook : Medieval sources
 * Ancient Sourcebook : Ancient sources
 * MIT OpenCourseWare : educational materials

check for current events...
News publications
 * Google News : news.google.com
 * C-SPAN : c-span.org
 * NewsHour with Jim Lehrer : pbs.org/newshour
 * Frontline : pbs.org/frontline
 * BBC News : news.bbc.co.uk
 * Current TV : current.com

Technology publications
 * Wired : wired.com
 * Popular Mechanics : popularmechanics.com

Science publications
 * Popular Science : popsci.com
 * Scientific American : scientificamerican.com
 * New Scientist : newscientist.com
 * Nature : nature.com

Government
 * Executive Office : whitehouse.gov/
 * Representatives : house.gov
 * Senate : senate.gov/

visit for fun ...

 * Colbert Nation : colbertnation.com
 * Robot Chicken : adultswim.com/robotchicken

Universe Timeline
 Astronomical year numbering

 * Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

 * See also: $\langle O\rangle$, $\hat{H}$, $i^2=j^2=k^2=ijk=-1$, $\mathcal{H} $''
 * See also: $\langle O\rangle$, $\hat{H}$, $i^2=j^2=k^2=ijk=-1$, $\mathcal{H} $''
 * See also: $\langle O\rangle$, $\hat{H}$, $i^2=j^2=k^2=ijk=-1$, $\mathcal{H} $''

Solar History

 * See also: Sun phases

Earth History

 * Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

Early Earth

Middle Earth

Phanerozoic
Late Earth

 * See also: Ordovician extinction, Age of Fish, Age of Reptiles

Time of Humanity

 * See also: Homo habilis (-2.33e+06 | -1.4e+06), Homo rudolfensis (-1.9e+06),
 * Homo gautengensis (-1.9e+06 | -0.6e+06), and Homo sapiens idaltu (-1.6e+06)
 * See also: Java Man (-1.75e+06), Yuanmou Man (-1.75e+06 : -0.73e+06),

 * Lantian Man (-1.7e+06), Nanjing Man (- 0.6e+06), Tautavel Man (- 0.5e+06),

 * Peking Man (- 0.4e+06), Solo Man (- 0.4e+06), and Peştera cu Oase (- 0.378e+05)

Humanity Transitions

 * See also: Great Spirit and Theistic evolution

Holocene
Timeframes

 * Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details
 * Holocene began at ~11,700 years BP (Before Present).
 * Stone Age ends ~3250 BC. Neolithic begins ~10,200 BC.

Middle Ages

 * Dates are approximate range (based upon influence), consult particular article for details
 * Middle Ages Divisions, Middle Ages Themes  Other

Early Modern

 * Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details
 * Early modern themes Other

Late Modern

 * Dates are approximate range (based upon influence), consult particular article for details

Advice
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The Poor Man's Road to Wealth
There are two ways to get rich — the right way and the wrong way; the easy way and the impossible way; the common way and the rare way. And of course the wrong and impossible way is the common way.

To be rich is to have all the money you want. And the common way of trying to get rich Is to try to get enough money for one's wants. The difficulty in this way is that the wants always grow faster than the money pile. You want to be rich enough to rent a vehicle; when you begin to rent, you want to own a vehicle; when you drive your own vehicle, you want to own a luxury vehicle; when you have a luxury vehicle, you want to own a vehicle for the children.

When a man buys railroads as other men buy vehicles, he may be in straitened circumstances, though he has fifty billions in U. S. bonds. The more money a man has, the poorer he is, if he has not learned to moderate his desires as well as to accumulate his supplies.

The only way to be rich is to keep one's desires within his Income. If one wants what five cents can buy, and he has ten cents, he is wealthy. A bright dime to a street Arab is greater wealth than a thousand dollars to a merchant prince.

The right way to be rich is never to want what you cannot buy, then you always have as much money as you want. This is the easy way. No man can regulate the contents of his purse; every man can regulate the quality of his desires. Capital is not within every man's attainment; contentment is. He is wealthy who has learned two arts; first, how to be contented with what he can get; second, how to use what he has.

It is always easy to have plenty of money : spend less than you earn. It is always easy to have all the money you want: want less than you have.

No easier way exists to better your circumstances, to become a rich man, than by joining a savings and loan association. It is the poor man's road to wealth.

 * }

Top Secret ...
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Exceptionally grave damage to national security ...
(: ... Watch out ... ;) The wikiwarehouse contents vary widely. The classified information is of a sensitive nature to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular classes of persons. Classified articles (with cover story ;) include the following, categorized to origin:

United States items ...

 * The Ark of the Covenant (Biblical/film Raiders of the Lost Ark)
 * The Holy Grail
 * The Spear of Destiny (Biblical artifact – Spear of Longinus that pierced Christ's side)
 * Martian war machine (Fiction – Movie/Television series War of the Worlds)
 * Water vial (Fiction – labeled "Fountain of Youth")
 * Kryptonite samples (Fiction – mineral from the "Superman" comic books)
 * The Blob (Fiction – film The Blob)
 * The Stargate (Fiction – film/TV Stargate)
 * Amelia Earhart's plane (Fact – plane lost June 2, 1937)
 * 300 MPG Carburetor (Conspiracy theory)
 * UFOs (see Project Bluebook)
 * Audio recordings and visual recording of Close Encounters' Mothership
 * Black helicopters (Conspiracy – see Men In Black)
 * HAL 9000 prototype (Fiction – film 2001: A Space Odyssey)
 * Avro Arrow Fighter plane prototypes (Sightings and theories abound – one of many top secret aircraft)
 * Medicinal Brazilian rain forest plants
 * Hindenburg failure analysis (Conspiracy, bomb aboard)
 * Philadelphia Experiment equipment (Fiction/Conspiracy – film Philadelphia Experiment – supposed real event)
 * N-ray detector (Conspiracy/Junk Science – "Discovered" by René Blondlot in 1903)
 * Nazi nuclear weapons
 * Nazi Swiss gold (Two and a half (2 1/2) tons)
 * Cryogenic suspension chambers
 * Nikola Tesla's confiscated personal effects
 * Wilhelm Reich's confiscated personal effects
 * Several species of Jackalopes (Fiction – Mythical Creature)
 * Gary Gygax's confiscated personal effects
 * Steve Jackson Games Files (Real Event – office (Steve Jackson Games) raided March 1, 1990 by Secret Service)
 * Captain America's Shield (Fiction – comic book "Captain America")
 * Marilyn Monroe Diaries (Conspiracy – missing pages containing evidence of JFK assassination)
 * U.S. Navy map of Gilligan's Island (Fiction – television show)
 * Collected JFK evidence from the National Archive (Conspiracy – containing evidence of JFK assassination)
 * John F. Kennedy's brain (Real – missing after autopsy)
 * Bodies
 * Al Capone
 * John F. Kennedy (the Ultimate Conspiracy)
 * Elvis Presley (supposed "faked death")
 * Jimmy Hoffa (Teamster that vanished on July 30, 1975)
 * Walt Disney (Urban Legend – supposedly frozen)
 * Bigfoot (Mythical Creature)
 * Extraterrestrials

British items ...

 * James Bond's gear (Ian Fleming's character)
 * The Loch Ness Monster (Mythical creature)
 * Marie Celeste's ship logbook (Historic – The crew mysteriously vanished on November 7, 1872)
 * A strategic reserve of railway trains
 * Red Book of Westmarch (Fiction – J.R.R. Tolkien's original manuscript)
 * Live Dodo bird (Extinct animal)
 * Live Tasmanian tiger

Vatican items ...

 * Dante Alighieri's diagram of Hell (Biblical/Fiction – book, "The Divine Comedy")
 * King Solomon's Mines map(Fiction – book, "King Solomon's Mines")
 * Shroud of Turin (Biblical Artifact that is very controversial)
 * Jesus' cross (i.e., The True Cross) (many artifacts claiming to be the real pieces)
 * The crucification nails
 * The Crown of Thorns
 * Veronica's Veil

Soviet items ...

 * Protocols of the Elders of Zion list (Fiction/Real – Hoax to blame secret Jewish Cabal)
 * Vladimir Lenin's last order
 * Lockheed U-2 spy plane (Real – shot down May 1, 1960 over Soviet territory)
 * The Amber Room (Real – dismantled by Soviet army in Berlin at the end of WWII)
 * Hitler's diary (Real/Fiction – many hoaxes, are any of them real?)
 * Bodies
 * Adolf Hitler
 * Eva Braun

Japanese items ...

 * Tojo Hideki's telegram copy to Franklin D. Roosevelt giving warning of the Pearl Harbor attack (Conspiracy theory)
 * Godzilla (Fictional Monster)
 * Ultraman (Fictional Hero)
 * Goddess Amaterasu's sword (given to the first Emperor) (Mythology)
 * Bodies
 * Emperor Jinmu (神武天皇; Jinmu Tennō) (First Emperor)
 * Tojo Hideki (東條 英機) (WWII General)
 * the fictional remains of Akira (Fiction)

 * }

 * }

Beer metrics
Beer is the world's most widely consumed alcoholic beverage, and is the third-most popular drink overall, after water and tea.

title: User:Reddi


text:
St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario)

The St. Marys River, sometimes written St. Mary's River, drains Lake Superior, starting at the end of Whitefish Bay and flowing 74.5 mi southeast into Lake Huron, with a fall of 23 ft. For its entire length it is an international border, separating Michigan in the United States from Ontario, Canada.

The twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan are connected across the St. Marys River by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge. The St. Marys Rapids are just below the river's exit from Lake Superior and can be bypassed by huge freight ships through the man-made Soo Locks and the Sault Ste. Marie Canal.

Two of the Ontario tributaries of this river are the Garden River and the Bar River. Other Canadian tributaries include Fort Creek, the Root River, the Little Carp River, the Big Carp River, the Lower Echo River, Desbarats River, and the Two Tree River. The US tributaries to the St. Marys River are the Gogomain River, the Munuscong River, the Little Munuscong River, the Charlotte River, and the Waiska River.

History
Before Europeans arrived, Ojibwe (Chippewa) Indigenous Americans fished, traded, and maintained a portage around the rapids of the St. Marys River, which they referred to as Baawitigong, meaning "at the cascading rapids". French explorer Étienne Brûlé was the first European to travel up the rapids in about 1621. In 1641 Jesuit priests Isaac Jogues and Charles Raymbault ventured the same route as Brûlé, finding many Ojibwe at the rapids, and named it Sault Ste. Marie. Sault (Middle and early Modern French spelling of saut) means "jump"; hence, the secondary meaning "rapids" because the water 'jumps.'

Fort St. Joseph was built on the Canadian shore in 1796 to protect a trading post, and ensure continued British control of the area. The fort fulfilled its role in the War of 1812.

The first modern lock was completed in May 1855 by Erastus Corning's St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company, and was known as the "American Lock". Today, there are four parallel locks on the American side of the river, although only two are in regular use. The Soo Locks became part of the Great Lakes Waterway system in 1959.

Partially due to the American refusal of passage through the Soo Locks during the Wolseley Expedition, a Canadian Lock was built in 1895. The current Canadian Lock is used for recreational boats and is a National Historic Site of Canada.

During World War II, the Soo Locks and the St. Marys River waterway were heavily guarded by U.S. and Canadian forces coordinated by the U.S. Army's Central Defense Command. During the waterway's usable season from March through November, 90 percent of the United States' iron ore production for domestic use passed through it in 1939, making the waterway critical to maintaining war production. A battalion of infantry, stationed at nearby Fort Brady, provided security beginning just after the outbreak of the European war in September 1939; this was reduced to a company in mid-1940 and replaced by a military police battalion in May 1941. After Pearl Harbor in December 1941, fear of possible air or paratroop attacks by German forces led to a major expansion of defence measures. Scenarios envisioned included U-boats in Hudson Bay launching attack aircraft, and one-way bombing or paratroop missions along a great circle route from German-occupied Norway. Units deployed included the 131st Infantry Regiment, an anti-aircraft regiment, and a barrage balloon battalion for a total in mid-1942 of 7,000 troops in the area. Canada provided an anti-aircraft battalion, elements of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, barracks and defensive positions for some of the U.S. force, and a warning system of 266 aircraft observation posts of the Aircraft Identity Corps extending northward to Hudson Bay. This was augmented by five U.S.-staffed radar stations in northern Ontario. By late 1943, with no threat emerging and spare components stockpiled in the event of lock damage, the U.S. forces were cut to 2,500 troops, and the AA and air warning defences were abandoned. In January 1944 the garrison was further reduced to a single military police battalion.

Islands

 * Drummond Island (Michigan)
 * Neebish Island (Michigan)
 * St. Joseph Island (Ontario)
 * Squirrel Island (Ontario / Garden River First Nation)
 * Sugar Island (Michigan)
 * Whitefish Island (Ontario / Batchewana First Nation)
 * Lime Island (Michigan)

Bridges
The Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, a steel truss arch bridge, takes road traffic across the river. Directly to the west is the Sault Ste. Marie International Railroad Bridge, which carries rail traffic on a single set of tracks.

Power plants
The Edison Sault Electric Hydroelectric Plant, located at the eastern end of the Sault Ste. Marie Power Canal which runs between Lake Superior and Lake Huron through the city south of the American locks, is one of the longest hydroelectric plants in the world at 1340. ft in length. The plant consists of 74 three-phase generators capable of generating 25 to 30 megawatts. It was completed in 1902. The hydro plant is faced with stone quarried during the excavation of the Sault Ste. Marie Power Canal.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates a hydroelectric generating plant directly north of the American locks.

Finally, the Francis H. Clergue Generating Station, owned and operated by Brookfield Renewable Energy, Inc., is a hydroelectric generating plant located directly north of the Canadian lock with a generating capacity of 52 MW. It was completed in 1981.

Canal
The Edison Sault Power Canal is used to power the Saint Marys Falls Hydropower Plant at its eastern end. The canal separated downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, from its mainland, making it an island. It was begun in September 1898 as the Michigan Lake Superior Power Company Canal, but completed by Edison Sault Electric Company in June 1902. Measured from its headgates to its end at the power plant, it is 2.25 mi in length, between 200. and 220. ft wide, and 24 ft deep. The water runs down the canal at speeds upwards of 7 mph.

Locks
The American Soo Locks are the major transportation route around the St. Marys Rapids, but the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal is still used by recreational and tour boats.

Other works
A set of compensating works are located at the mouth of the rapids, which are used to control the outflow of water from Lake Superior. Completed between 1901 and 1921, the works were built to provide greater supply of the rivers flow through the three hydroelectric plants and locks on the river. This flow is controlled by the International Joint Commission. The works consists of 16 sluice gates, half of which are on the American side, and the other half on the Canadian side of the river. On average, upwards of 93% of the river's flow is diverted by the compensating works to power generation and navigational uses.

Because all of the other gates are periodically closed, totally dewatering the rapids, a concrete berm was constructed in 1985 along the north side of the rapids south of Whitefish Island as remedial works to protect fish spawning habitat from lower outflow through the rapids due to the operation of the compensation works. The berm begins at Gate #1 of the compensating works so as to retain the ability to provide a dedicated flow over the fish spawning habitat, independent of water supply over the rest of the rapids.

Pollution

The Saint Marys River is listed as a Great Lakes Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada.

title: St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario)


text:
Traffic sign

Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduced, for example the fingerposts in the United Kingdom and their wooden counterparts in Saxony. With traffic volumes increasing since the 1930s, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to overcome language barriers, and enhance traffic safety. Such pictorial signs use symbols (often silhouettes) in place of words and are usually based on international protocols. Such signs were first developed in Europe, and have been adopted by most countries to varying degrees.

International conventions
International conventions such as Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals and Geneva Convention on Road Traffic have helped to achieve a degree of uniformity in traffic signing in various countries. Countries have also unilaterally (to some extent) followed other countries in order to avoid confusion.

Categories

Traffic signs can be grouped into several types. For example, Annexe 1 of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals (1968), which on 30 June 2004 had 52 signatory countries, defines eight categories of signs:

 * A. Danger warning signs
 * B. Priority signs
 * C. Prohibitory or restrictive signs
 * D. Mandatory signs
 * E. Special regulation signs
 * F. Information, facilities, or service signs
 * G. Direction, position, or indication signs
 * H. Additional panels

In the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand signs are categorized as follows:
 * Regulatory signs
 * Warning signs
 * Guide signs
 * Street name signs
 * Route marker signs
 * Expressway signs
 * Freeway signs
 * Welcome signs
 * Informational signs
 * Recreation and cultural interest signs
 * Emergency management (civil defense) signs
 * Temporary traffic control (construction or work zone) signs
 * School signs
 * Railroad and light rail signs
 * Bicycle signs

In the United States, the categories, placement, and graphic standards for traffic signs and pavement markings are legally defined in the Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices as the standard.

A rather informal distinction among the directional signs is the one between advance directional signs, interchange directional signs, and reassurance signs. Advance directional signs appear at a certain distance from the interchange, giving information for each direction. A number of countries do not give information for the road ahead (so-called "pull-through" signs), and only for the directions left and right. Advance directional signs enable drivers to take precautions for the exit (e.g., switch lanes, double check whether this is the correct exit, slow down). They often do not appear on lesser roads, but are normally posted on expressways and motorways, as drivers would be missing exits without them. While each nation has its own system, the first approach sign for a motorway exit is mostly placed at least 1000 m from the actual interchange. After that sign, one or two additional advance directional signs typically follow before the actual interchange itself.

History
The earliest road signs were milestones, giving distance or direction; for example, the Romans erected stone columns throughout their empire giving the distance to Rome. According to Strabo, Mauryas erected signboards at distance of 10 stades to mark their roads. In the Middle Ages, multidirectional signs at intersections became common, giving directions to cities and towns.

In 1686, the first known Traffic Regulation Act in Europe was established by King Peter II of Portugal. This act foresaw the placement of priority signs in the narrowest streets of Lisbon, stating which traffic should back up to give way. One of these signs still exists at Salvador street, in the neighborhood of Alfama.

The first modern road signs erected on a wide scale were designed for riders of high or "ordinary" bicycles in the late 1870s and early 1880s. These machines were fast, silent and their nature made them difficult to control, moreover their riders travelled considerable distances and often preferred to tour on unfamiliar roads. For such riders, cycling organizations began to erect signs that warned of potential hazards ahead (particularly steep hills), rather than merely giving distance or directions to places, thereby contributing the sign type that defines "modern" traffic signs.

The development of automobiles encouraged more complex signage systems using more than just text-based notices. One of the first modern-day road sign systems was devised by the Italian Touring Club in 1895. By 1900, a Congress of the International League of Touring Organizations in Paris was considering proposals for standardization of road signage. In 1903 the British government introduced four "national" signs based on shape, but the basic patterns of most traffic signs were set at the 1908 World Road Congress in Paris. In 1909, nine European governments agreed on the use of four pictorial symbols, indicating "bump", "curve", "intersection", and "grade-level railroad crossing". The intensive work on international road signs that took place between 1926 and 1949 eventually led to the development of the European road sign system. Both Britain and the United States developed their own road signage systems, both of which were adopted or modified by many other nations in their respective spheres of influence. The UK adopted a version of the European road signs in 1964 and, over past decades, North American signage began using some symbols and graphics mixed in with English.

In the U.S., the first road signs were erected by the American Automobile Association (AAA). Starting in 1906, regional AAA clubs began paying for and installing wooden signs to help motorists find their way. In 1914, AAA started a cohesive transcontinental signage project, installing more than 4,000 signs in one stretch between Los Angeles and Kansas City alone.

Over the years, change was gradual. Pre-industrial signs were stone or wood, but with the development of Darby's method of smelting iron using coke-painted cast iron became favoured in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Cast iron continued to be used until the mid-20th century, but it was gradually displaced by aluminium or other materials and processes, such as vitreous enamelled and/or pressed malleable iron, or (later) steel. Since 1945 most signs have been made from sheet aluminium with adhesive plastic coatings; these are normally retroreflective for nighttime and low-light visibility. Before the development of reflective plastics, reflectivity was provided by glass reflectors set into the lettering and symbols.

New generations of traffic signs based on electronic displays can also change their text (or, in some countries, symbols) to provide for "intelligent control" linked to automated traffic sensors or remote manual input. In over 20 countries, real-time Traffic Message Channel incident warnings are conveyed directly to vehicle navigation systems using inaudible signals carried via FM radio, 3G cellular data and satellite broadcasts. Finally, cars can pay tolls and trucks pass safety screening checks using video numberplate scanning, or RFID transponders in windshields linked to antennae over the road, in support of on-board signalling, toll collection, and travel time monitoring.

Yet another "medium" for transferring information ordinarily associated with visible signs is RIAS (Remote Infrared Audible Signage), e.g., "talking signs" for print-handicapped (including blind/low-vision/illiterate) people. These are infra-red transmitters serving the same purpose as the usual graphic signs when received by an appropriate device such as a hand-held receiver or one built into a cell phone.

Then, finally, in 1914, the world's first electric traffic signal is put into place on the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 5.

Typefaces
Typefaces used on traffic signs vary by location, with some typefaces being designed specifically for the purpose of being used on traffic signs and based on attributes that aid viewing from a distance. A typeface chosen for a traffic sign is selected based on its readability, which is essential for conveying information to drivers quickly and accurately at high speeds and long distances.

Factors such as clear letterforms, lines of copy, appropriate spacing, and simplicity contribute to readability. Increased X-height and counters specifically help with letter distinction and reduced halation, which especially affects aging drivers. In cases of halation, certain letters can blur and look like others, such as a lowercase "e" appearing as an "a", "c", or "o".

Dispute of standard typefaces for North American traffic signs
In 1997, a design team at T.D. Larson Transportation Institute began testing Clearview, a typeface designed to improve readability and halation issues with the FHWA Standard Alphabet, also known as Highway Gothic, which is the standard typeface for highway signs in the U.S.

The adoption of Clearview for traffic signs over Highway Gothic has been slow since its initial proposal. Country-wide adoption faced resistance from both local governments and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), citing concerns about consistency and cost, along with doubts of the studies done on Clearview’s improved readability. As stated by the FHWA, "This process (of designing Clearview) did not result in a necessarily better set of letter styles for highway signing, but rather a different set of letter styles with increased letter height and different letter spacing that was not comparable to the Standard Alphabets."

The FHWA allowed use of Clearview to be approved on an interim basis as opposed to national change, where local governments could decide to submit a request to the FHWA for approval to update their signs with Clearview, but in 2016 they rescinded this approval, wanting to limit confusion and inconsistency that could come from a mix of two typefaces being used. In 2018, they again allowed interim approval of Clearview, with Highway Gothic remaining the standard.

Automatic traffic sign recognition
Cars are beginning to feature cameras with automatic traffic sign recognition, beginning 2008 with the Opel Insignia. It mainly recognizes speed limits and no-overtaking areas. It also uses GPS and a database over speed limits, which is useful in the many countries which signpost city speed limits with a city name sign, not a speed limit sign.

Rail traffic
Rail traffic has often a lot of differences between countries and often not much similarity with road signs. Rail traffic has professional drivers who have much longer education that what's normal for road driving licenses. Differences between neighboring countries cause problems for cross border traffic and causes need for additional education for drivers.

Asia

 * Pakistani Traffic Rules and Road Signs
 * Indian Traffic Rules and Signals
 * The Road User's Code: The Language of the Road by the Transport Department of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR

Europe

 * Signs and markings British traffic signs from the Highway Code
 * Danish traffic signs
 * securite-routiere.gouv.fr
 * Know Your Traffic Signs - Department for Transport (UK)
 * German traffic signs and signals
 * Norma 8.,1-IC Style manual for road signs in Spain

Canada

 * Government of Quebec traffic control devices library - Extensive list of all road signs and signals from the Quebec Transport Ministry
 * Road Signs in Ontario, from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
 * ICBC – Signs, signals and road markings from ICBC

United States of America

 * Federal Highway Administration publications:
 * Part 2: Signs from the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
 * Standard Highway Signs and Markings
 * Manual of Traffic Signs – private website based on the MUTCD
 * Ensuring That Traffic Signs Are Visible at Night: Federal Regulations Congressional Research Service
 * Traffic Signs, An Evolution of Road Signs from 1925 to Present
 * 1920’s – a Turning Point in Traffic Sign Design and Sign Shapes
 * Road Traffic Signs & Pedestrian Signs - Tips and Articles - Traffic Sign History

Typefaces

 * Public domain fonts used on road signs

Other

 * Traffic signs in Russian Federation
 * A collection of street signs and traffic lights
 * Photos of directional signage on motorways
 * Road signs
 * Traffic signs in Croatia

title: Traffic sign


text:
Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie may refer to:

People

 * Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in Michigan

Places

 * Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
 * Sault Ste. Marie (federal electoral district), a Canadian federal electoral district serving the Ontario city
 * Sault Ste. Marie (provincial electoral district), a Canadian provincial electoral district serving the Ontario city
 * Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, United States

Other uses

 * HMCS Sault Ste. Marie, a ship of the Royal Canadian Navy

title: Sault Ste. Marie


text:
User talk:Reddi

If a rule prevents you from improving Wikipedia, ignore it. By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well. That is one of the ends for which they exist ... Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry ... To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery.

Put new comments below Past discussion can be seen through the History page  =Responses=

So Long, and Thanks for all the comments

 * [replies here; sniping addressed ones; user responding to -  comments; most "quoted" comments are in italics]

=New criticism, comments, and feedback= From time to time I'll respond here and delete the old content; see history if you want the archive. J. D. Redding 22:50, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Telegeodynamics

The article Telegeodynamics has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern: "WP:NOTMIRROR / single primary source public domain source material, not a real thing. Also self promotion of one editors book."

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 16:21, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

FAR notice
I have nominated Middle Ages for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" in regards to the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Borsoka (talk) 03:37, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

title: User talk:Reddi


text:
User:Fabio~enwiki

I am a geophysicist living near Trieste.

Main contributions

 * Linear elasticity

title: User:Fabio~enwiki


text:
Signing

Signing or Signedmay refer to:

 * Using sign language
 * Signature, placing one's name on a document
 * Signature (disambiguation)
 * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice
 * Digital signature, signing as a method of authenticating digital information
 * Traffic sign, a road with a sign identifying is considered signed

title: Signing


text:
Marcheline Bertrand

Marcia Lynne "Marcheline" Bertrand (May 9, 1950 – January 27, 2007) was an American actress who was the former wife of actor Jon Voight and the mother of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven.

Early life
Bertrand was born in Blue Island, Illinois of French-Canadian, Dutch and German descent. She had a younger sister, Debbie, and a younger brother, Raleigh. In 1965, Bertrand's family moved from the Chicago area to Beverly Hills, California, where she attended Beverly Hills High School from sophomore year until graduation.

Bertrand claimed to be of distant Iroquois ancestry from Canada, However, Jon Voight says she was "not seriously Iroquois", and that the Iroquois story is something he and Bertrand made up to make Bertrand seem more "exotic".

Film career
During her early years as an actress, Bertrand studied with Lee Strasberg. In 1971, she played Connie in the episode "Love, Peace, Brotherhood, and Murder" on the fourth season of the television show Ironside. A decade later, she appeared in a minor role in 1982's Lookin' to Get Out, a film co-written by and starring her former husband, Jon Voight. The following year, Bertrand played her final film role in the 1983 comedy The Man Who Loved Women, a remake of the 1977 French film of the same name.

Bertrand then turned her attention toward producing. In 1983, she founded Woods Road Productions with her then-partner, Bill Day. In 2005, Bertrand was the executive producer of the documentary Trudell, which chronicles the life and work of her partner, John Trudell, a Santee Sioux musician and activist. Trudell was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival, and it won the Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Humanitarian work
Bertrand and her partner John Trudell founded the All Tribes Foundation to support the cultural and economic survival of Native peoples. By 2007, the foundation had issued over $800,000 in grants to reservation-based programs that strengthen tribal ways of life and safeguard a future for Native communities.

On International Women's Day in 2003, Bertrand and Trudell produced a benefit concert for Afghan women refugees in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Bertrand, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1999, also founded the Give Love Give Life organization with Trudell; their objective was to raise public consciousness about ovarian and other gynecological cancers through music. The first Give Love Give Life concert was held in February 2004 at The Roxy in West Hollywood. Bertrand and Trudell worked to organize strategic support in the music and film community for Johanna's Law, legislation to fund national outreach and education about the signs and symptoms of gynecological cancers, which was signed into law on January 12, 2007. To benefit the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a second Give Love Give Life concert was held at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles in February 2007, a month after Bertrand died from cancer.

Personal life
Bertrand married actor Jon Voight on December 12, 1971. Following a miscarriage in 1972, they had two children, James Haven and Angelina Jolie, both of whom became actors. Bertrand and Voight separated in 1976, publicly citing Voight's adultery. Bertrand filed for divorce in 1978, which was finalized in 1980.

Following her legal separation from Voight, Bertrand began a relationship with documentary filmmaker Bill Day. They lived together for eleven years but never married. During her later life, Bertrand was in a relationship with activist and musician John Trudell.

At the time of her death, Bertrand had four grandchildren by her daughter. Another granddaughter, who was born the following year, was given the middle name "Marcheline" in her honor.

Bertrand was a Roman Catholic.

Death
Toward the end of her life, Bertrand preferred her privacy and did not grant interviews. After a nearly eight-year battle with ovarian and breast cancer, she died aged 56 on January 27, 2007, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in the company of her children. Bertrand's mother and sister also died of cancer. Her daughter explained, "My grandmother also died young; so, my mother always thought it could happen to her."

title: Marcheline Bertrand


text:
Saint Mary's River

The St. Marys River, St. Mary's River, or St. Mary River may refer to:

Canada

 * St. Mary River (British Columbia), tributary of the Kootenay River
 * St. Mary's River (Nova Scotia), an important Nova Scotia salmon river

United States

 * St. Marys River (Florida–Georgia), forming a portion of the boundary between Georgia and Florida
 * St. Marys River (Indiana and Ohio), tributary of the Maumee River
 * St. Marys River (Maryland), tributary of the Chesapeake Bay
 * Saint Marys River (Virginia), tributary of the South River

Multi-national

 * St. Mary River (Alberta–Montana), tributary of the Saskatchewan River in Montana and Alberta
 * St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario), connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron and forming a portion of the international boundary between the U.S. and Canada

title: Saint Mary's River


text:
Selma Blair

Selma Blair (born Selma Blair Beitner on June 23, 1972) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, The Sweetest Thing, and the Hellboy franchise.

Blair, born in Southfield, Michigan, emerged from a background in legal and political involvement: both her parents were lawyers and her father active in the U.S. Democratic Party. Blair's upbringing was predominantly Jewish. She initially pursued photography at Kalamazoo College before moving to New York to become involved in the arts, graduating from the University of Michigan. Blair's early career was marked by numerous auditions to land her first roles in television and film, with her breakthrough in "Cruel Intentions" and subsequent mainstream success in projects like "Legally Blonde" and "Hellboy."

Blair's personal life include her marriage to Ahmet Zappa and subsequent relationships and motherhood. Her health journey became public with her multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2018, an experience she has openly shared, contributing to her advocacy work. In 2021, Blair starred in Introducing, Selma Blair, a documentary about her life since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her autobiography, Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up, was published by Knopf in 2022.

Early life
Selma Blair Beitner was born on June 23, 1972, in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan, the youngest of four daughters of Molly Ann (née Cooke) and Elliot I. Beitner. Her maternal grandfather was the founder of Penn Fruit and she spent a great deal of her childhood in Philadelphia. Both of her parents were lawyers; her father was a labor arbitrator and was active in the U.S. Democratic Party until his death in 2012; her mother died in 2020. Her parents divorced when Blair was 23. Selma and her sister Elizabeth officially changed their surname to 'Blair'; in her memoir, Blair wrote that, following a concerted effort on the part of her father's girlfriend to derail her career, she did not speak to her father for 12 years.

Blair's father and maternal grandfather were Jewish; her Scottish maternal grandmother, and her mother, were Anglican but Selma and her sisters had a Jewish upbringing and Selma formally converted to Judaism in the second grade; her Hebrew name is 'Bat-Sheva'. Blair attended Hillel Day School in Farmington Hills, and Cranbrook Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills. She then spent two years (1990–1992) studying photography at Kalamazoo College.

At age 21, Blair moved to New York City, where she lived at The Salvation Army. Intending to become a photographer, she attended New York University (NYU), and took acting classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory, the Column Theater, and Stonestreet Studios. She returned to Michigan, transferred from NYU to the University of Michigan and, in 1994, graduated magna cum laude with a triple major in photography, psychology, and English. She then returned to New York City to pursue a career in the arts.

1990–1998: Career beginning
In 1990, during her time at Cranbrook Kingswood, Blair was involved in a production of T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral. She considered it a failure, but her English teacher told her not to give up; that was the first time she thought she could be an actress. In 1993 in New York, an agent discovered her in an acting class and Blair signed with her. After 75 auditions, Blair got her first advertising job, a TV ad for the Theater of Virginia.

Blair won her first professional role in a 1995 episode of the children's sitcom The Adventures of Pete & Pete. In 1996, she landed her first feature film role in the comedy The Broccoli Theory. In 1997, she made her first appearance in a mainstream feature film, the comedy In & Out. She auditioned six times for the role and remained on-set for several weeks, but most of her scenes were cut from the film's final version.

Her first lead role was in the film Strong Island Boys. She then won the lead in the 1997 fantasy film Amazon High. The film, which was proposed as a third show set in the Hercules and Xena mythological genre, did not air, but portions of it were used in the 2000 Xena: Warrior Princess episode "Lifeblood". She was considered for the role of Joey Potter in Dawson's Creek, a role which ultimately went to Katie Holmes. She subsequently appeared in several independent and short productions, including the award-winning Debutante.

1999–2004: Breakthrough and mainstream success
Blair achieved her breakthrough in the 1999 coming-of-age drama Cruel Intentions. It received mixed reviews, with Variety finding "newcomer" Blair "too broad" and "overdoing [her role]'s clumsiness". The film made US$75.9 million internationally and brought Blair a nomination for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and a win for "Best Kiss", shared with co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar. Cruel Intentions has since developed a cult following.

In 1999, Blair starred as Zoe Bean on Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane, and was nominated for the Teen Choice Awards for "TV – Breakout Performance". In 2000, following her performance in the teen comedy Down to You, Blair won the Young Hollywood Award for "Exciting New Face". In 2000 and 2002, Blair was included in Vanity Fair's "Hollywood's Next Wave of Stars" issues.

Blair co-starred in the 2001 hit comedy Legally Blonde, portraying a preppy, snobby law student; The Hollywood Reporter found her to be a "strong presence" in her role. The film topped the US box office in its opening weekend; it grossed US$96.5 million in North America and US$141.7 million worldwide. She next starred as a college student having an affair with her professor in the 2001 independent drama Storytelling. It premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival; SPLICEDwire cited Blair and co-star Leo Fitzpatrick for "painfully authentic performances as an emotionally insecure coed and her cerebral palsy-stricken dorm neighbor and lover". In its review, View Auckland noted: "The acting, throughout, is excellent, with Selma Blair giving a mature performance that suggests better roles await her than those she’s had so far." Blair next appeared in the 2002 comedy The Sweetest Thing. While the film was generally panned, it grossed US$68.6 million worldwide. Blair appeared with her co-starts from the film on the cover of Rolling Stone and was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Comedy for her work in the film.

In 2004, Blair took on the role of Liz Sherman, a depressed pyrokinetic superhero, in Guillermo del Toro's blockbuster fantasy film Hellboy, co-starring Ron Perlman. Based on Mike Mignola's popular comic book series, the film was favorably received by critics; The New York Times remarked: "Blair's heavy-lidded eyes seem to be at half mast from some lovely lewd fantasy. With her sleepy carnality and dry, hesitant timing, she is a superb foil for Mr. Perlman's plain-spoken bravado." Hellboy topped the box office in the U.S. and Canada in its opening weekend, and ultimately grossed US$99.3 million.

Also in 2004, Blair played the role of an exhibitionist dancer in John Waters' satirical sex comedy A Dirty Shame, alongside Tracey Ullman. The film received a mixed response; A.V. Club described the production as a "proud retreat back into the sandbox of sexual juvenilia" and a "potty-mouthed manifesto from an elder statesman of shock", while pointing out that Blair and Ullman "throw themselves headfirst into the insanity, reveling in the forfeiture of dignity, self-respect, and self-consciousness their roles demand". Blair also took part on the social project The 1 Second Film as a producer, and was included on the FHM list of "The 100 Sexiest Women of 2004".

2005–2011: Independent films and The Diary of Anne Frank
From 2005 to 2007, Blair appeared in a string of independent films. In 2008, she reprised her role of Liz Sherman in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, where her character had a larger role than its predecessor. The film garnered largely positive reviews from critics and became a worldwide commercial success, grossing US$160 million. Blair was nominated for the Scream Awards for Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show.

In 2008, Blair starred as a drug-addicted and alcoholic mother in Lori Petty's independent drama The Poker House. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, with The Hollywood Reporter considering Blair's performance one her best.

Also in 2008, Blair accepted the titular role on the NBC sitcom Kath & Kim. The sitcom, which was based on the Australian television series of the same name, was canceled after one season.

In 2009, Blair returned to the stage, when she took on the lead role of Kayleen in Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries. In 2010, Blair she lent her voice to narrate the audiobook of The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, originally written by Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Her performance received a 2011 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children nomination.

2012–present: Film and television
In 2012, Blair returned to television as the female lead with the premiere of FX's Anger Management, co-starring Charlie Sheen. She starred in 53 episodes as Dr. Kate Wales, Sheen's neurotic therapist and love interest. The series premiered to mixed critical reviews, but broke ratings records with 5.74 million viewers in its debut and ranks as the most-watched sitcom premiere in cable history. Blair left the show in June 2013, during the shooting of the second season, due to disagreements with Sheen, who fired her via text message.

In 2012, Blair narrated Xfinity TV commercials, including the London 2012 Olympics ads. In 2014, she obtained her first television role since Anger Management when she was cast as Joanna in the Amazon's comedy pilot Really. The pilot was not picked up but, in February 2016, Blair co-starred in the FX miniseries American Crime Story: The People vs. O. J. Simpson.

In October 2012, Blair starred in the political satire sketch The Woman for Romney, about the campaign proposals of Mitt Romney, former Republican Party nominee for the 2012 United States presidential election.

In 2018, Blair was cast in a recurring role on the Netflix science-fiction drama series Another Life; it ran from 2019 to 2021 before being canceled.

In September 2022, Blair became a contestant on season 31 of Dancing with the Stars but left in the fifth week of the competition because of her deteriorating health.

Fashion

Blair is known for her fashion-forward style, and for her frequent radical hairstyle changes. She lent her image to the Marc Jacobs-Brian Bowen Smith clothing line, and has worked with several other fashion designers, including Karen Zambos, Martin Margiela, Isaac Mizrahi, Reinaldo Herrera, and Stella McCartney.

She was featured in the 2002 Pirelli Calendar, and, in 2005, appeared in The New York Times Magazine award-winning photography gallery, "The Selma Blair Witch Project: Fall’s Dark Silhouettes Have a Way of Creeping Up on You" by the art photographer Roger Ballen, at the Palau Robert in Barcelona in 2012.

Blair also appeared with Rainn Wilson singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" for the 2008 Gap winter ad campaign, and was included in Glamour's list of the 50 Most Glamorous Women of 2008.

In 2010, Blair posed with Demi Moore and Amanda De Cadenet for a spread in Harper's Bazaar magazine. In 2012, she became the spokesperson for, and first actress to appear on, the "Get Real For Kids" campaign. In the spring of that year, she released SB, a line of handbags and wallets which she designed.

She has appeared on covers and photo spreads of other magazines, including CR Fashion Book magazine in February 2016. In 1999, she appeared in Seventeen, and in subsequent years, in Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Vogue, Glamour, Rolling Stone, The Lab Magazine, Interview, Dazed & Confused, Hunger, and Elle. She has been the face of fashion houses Chanel, Miu Miu and GAP. She presented parts of the collection of Christian Siriano at a celebration of his 10th stage anniversary at Masonic Hall during New York Fashion Week 2018. In 2020, she appeared as a judge on a Project Runway special.

Personal life
On January 24, 2004, Blair married writer and producer Ahmet Zappa at Carrie Fisher's mansion in Beverly Hills, California. They lived in Los Angeles in a 1920s-era home they bought for $1.35 million. She filed for divorce from Zappa on June 21, 2006, citing "irreconcilable differences." The divorce became final in December 2006.

Blair has dated actors Jason Schwartzman and David Lyons and, from 2008 to 2010, dated her Kath and Kim co-star Mikey Day.

In 2010, Blair began dating fashion designer Jason Bleick; their son, Arthur Saint Bleick, was born that July. In September 2012, they announced that they had separated.

In 2022, Blair and her ex-boyfriend, filmmaker Ron Carlson, who she had been seeing since 2017, requested temporary restraining orders against each other, with both claiming physical abuse. The order requests were mutually dismissed.

Health
In October 2018, Blair revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in August of that year. In a 2023 interview with British Vogue, Blair said that her symptoms had begun to manifest themselves when she was a child, and that her un-diagnosed MS had caused brain damage. As the condition worsened, she was heavily medicated, developed a dependency on alcohol and attempted suicide. She was inspired to reveal the news as a way to thank Allisa Swanson, her costume designer, who had become her unofficial "dresser" for her role in the Netflix series Another Life, saying that Swanson "gets my legs in my pants, pulls my tops over my head, (and) buttons my coats." Blair wrote about her experiences with multiple sclerosis in her memoir, Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up, which was published in May 2022.

Advocacy
On May 27, 2012, Blair was a special guest at the National Memorial Day Concert at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. She presented the story of Brigette Cain, a war widow who lost her husband (Pfc. Norman L. Cain III) in Afghanistan.

Blair supported Marianne Williamson for the 2014 congressional elections.

Blair's charity work and philanthropic causes include Marc Jacobs' Skin Cancer Awareness Campaign, H&M's Fashion Against AIDS 2011 Campaign, Children's Action Network, AmFAR AIDS Research 2011, Lange Foundation (dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned animals), Bulgari-Save the Children 2012 Ad Campaign, No Kid Hungry, Staying Alive Foundation and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. On October 2, 2015, she received the Universal Smile Award during THE SMILE GALA LA 2015 to benefit children with cleft lip and palate. She was included as one of the Silence Breakers selected as the 2017 Time Person of the Year. In December 2021, Michelle Pfeiffer presented Blair with the Equity in Entertainment Award at the Power 100 Women ceremony.

In June 2022, Blair became chief creative officer of Guide Beauty, a company which creates cosmetic products for those with mobility challenges. In December 2022 she was chosen as one of the BBC's 100 women.

Israel-Hamas war comments
In February 2024, Blair made a comment, later deleted, on an Instagram video related to the Israel-Hamas war commenting "Deport all these terrorist supporting goons. Islam has destroyed Muslim countries and then they come here and destroyed minds. They know they are liars. Twisted justifications. May they meet their fate." The comment was criticized as Islamophobic, prompting Blair to delete it and issue a statement apologizing for her remarks.

title: Selma Blair