text:
Colin Meads

Sir Colin Earl Meads (3 June 1936 – 20 August 2017) was a New Zealand rugby union player. He played 55 test matches (133 games), most frequently in the lock forward position, for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks, from 1957 until 1971.

Meads is widely considered one of the greatest players in history. Nicknamed 'Pinetree' due to his physical presence, he was an icon within New Zealand rugby, and was named the country's Player of the Century at the NZRFU Awards in 1999.

Early life and family
Colin Earl Meads was born to Vere Meads and Ida Meads (née Gray) on 3 June 1936, in the town of Cambridge in the Waikato region. His father Vere was a descendant of early settlers Joseph Meads and Ann Meads (née Coates), who emigrated to New Zealand from England in 1842. Vere's grandfather Zachariah Meads was among the first British children to be born in Te Aro, Wellington, in 1843, and his grandmother Elizabeth Meads (née Lazare) was the daughter of an Irish minister who had educated freed slaves on the island of Mauritius before emigrating to Wanganui. Vere and his wife raised their five children on a sheep farm near Te Kūiti. Meads credited the farming lifestyle for his strong physique and high level of fitness. Meads' brother Stanley Meads was also a noted rugby player, playing 30 matches as an All Black. In 11 matches Stanley and Colin locked the All Black scrum.

Meads and his wife Verna had five children: Karen Stockman, Kelvin Meads, Rhonda Wilcox (who represented New Zealand in the Silver Ferns netball team), Glynn 'Pinecone' Meads (who also played and managed rugby for provincial side King Country) and youngest daughter Shelley Mitchell (who played for the New Zealand women's basketball team). Meads raised his family on a farm on the outskirts of Te Kūiti and continued to live in the area until his death in 2017.

Rugby career
Meads played his club rugby throughout his career for Waitete R.F.C in Te Kūiti. He played his first game for King Country in 1955 against Counties, at the age of 19. He had a memorable game, scoring a try, and even a drop-goal (an unusual feat for a lock). He would play a further 138 games for the province.

In 1955 Meads was also selected for the New Zealand under 21 side which toured Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He "played all eight matches, scored three tries and was recognised by the Rugby Almanack as one of the 1955 season's most promising players." In 1956 Meads played in national trials and was selected for the North Island team as a loose forward, but was considered too young to play for the All Blacks against the Springboks.

Meads was selected for the 1957 tour of Australia. He played in ten matches and made his test debut, against the Wallabies. He played both tests, scoring a try in the second. Although normally a lock, he played at flanker and number 8, and even wing (from where he scored a try), as the All Black team was strong on locks. From 1957 until 1971 Meads was effectively an automatic pick for the All Blacks, missing selection for just two series; the British & Irish Lions in 1959 and Australia in 1962. There are differing accounts of how he acquired his nickname "Pinetree". Roger Boon believes he was the first to come up with the name in 1955. Alternatively, when he toured Japan in the New Zealand Under-23 team in 1958 teammate Ken Briscoe gave him the nickname and it stuck.

He was named captain of the All Blacks 11 times, his first in a 23–9 victory over the Combined Services during the 1963–64 tour of Britain. His captaincy debut for the All Blacks in a test match came in his final series against the Lions in 1971. His final international game ended in a 14–14 draw, giving the Lions a 2–1 series victory, their only series win over the All Blacks. He seriously injured his back in a Land Rover accident at the end of the year and never played for the All Blacks again. Meads recovered enough to continue playing for King Country for two more years before retiring, amassing a total of 361 first class matches, a record that stood for 42 years.

His strength and high threshold for pain became legendary — best illustrated when in a game against Eastern Transvaal in South Africa, in which he emerged from a particularly vicious ruck with his arm dangling horribly, with an obvious fracture, yet completed the match. When the doctor cut away his shirt and confirmed the break, Meads muttered, "At least we won the bloody game." He missed the first two Tests, but returned for the third with his still broken arm held together by a thin guard. Another incident occurred when Meads was kicked in the head, causing a large gash. The All Blacks doctor at the time wanted to take him to hospital so they could use anaesthetic, but Meads ordered him to do it right there in the dressing room.

He also had the reputation of being a "hard man" and "an enforcer". Benoit Dauga, the player Meads thought had kicked him in the head, ended up with a broken nose. South African center John Gainsford once tried to challenge Meads, who proceeded to hold his wrists in a grip that was "like being held in a band of steel" and simply said "Don't bother, son." Meads considered the Welsh player Rhys Williams and Irishman Willie John McBride just as hard as himself. However, he considered the "one-eyed Springbok" Martin Pelser as his toughest opponent.

Meads was involved in some controversial incidents. In 1967, he was sent off by Irish referee Kevin D. Kelleher for dangerous play against at Murrayfield, becoming only the second All Black suspended in a test match at the time. The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph said of the incident that 'For one with Meads' worldwide reputation for robust play, this was rather like sending a burglar to prison for a parking offence.'

In Australia he is notorious for having ended the career of Ken Catchpole by wrenching Catchpole's leg while he was pinned down, tearing his hamstring off the bone and severely rupturing his groin muscles. Meads says he was just trying to put him on the ground and did not realise his other leg was pinned. Years later he was invited to a dinner in Catchpole's honour, but was warned off by the organisers saying he would get booed off the stage. Meads saw that as more of a reason why he should attend and did so without receiving any boos.

After retirement
After retiring as a player in 1973, Meads became chairman of the King Country union, and spent time selecting and coaching the now-defunct North Island rugby team. In 1986 he was elected to the national selection panel, but was fired later in the year for acting as coach to the unauthorised New Zealand Cavaliers tour of apartheid South Africa, where the All Blacks were no longer allowed to tour. In 1992 he was elected to the New Zealand Rugby Union council and remained there for four years. In 1994 and 1995 he was All Blacks manager, which included the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He was uncompromising in this role, not afraid to let loose at his players when they played poorly.

Despite his retirement from rugby, Meads remained a familiar face to many New Zealanders. He was a frequent public speaker at events, donating money raised to buy a farm for people with intellectual disabilities. He also appeared on television advertising products ranging from tanalised fence posts to finance companies. He was seen by many as the public face of Provincial Finance, he described the company as "solid as, I'd say" in an advertisement, and was later criticised when it went bankrupt. He regretted doing the ad and was sorry so many people lost money when it failed. Despite this Meads was named the third most trusted New Zealander after Victoria Cross holder Willie Apiata and triple Olympic gold medallist Peter Snell in 2008.

In 2007 the Meads sold their 102 ha sheep farm so they could move into Te Kūiti.

In August 2016 it was announced that Meads had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, following several months of illness. He died on 20 August 2017, as a result of cancer. As a mark of respect many New Zealanders placed rugby balls outside the front doors of their homes.

Meads is buried in the Te Kuiti New Cemetery.

Honours and tributes
Meads is regarded by many as New Zealand's greatest ever rugby player, and was named Player of the Century at the NZRFU Awards dinner in 1999. He is a member of both the World Rugby Hall of Fame and the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, and was a member of the International Rugby Hall of Fame before its merger with the World Rugby Hall in 2014. The International Rugby Hall of Fame considers him to have been 'the most famous forward in world rugby throughout the 1960s'.

Meads was considered by many to be a tough, uncompromising, loyal and humble person. At 1.92m tall and weighing 100 kg, he was a similar size to many other players of the era. He had a large physical presence though, being very strong and having a high level of fitness. Meads credited this to growing up and working on a farm.

In the 1971 New Year Honours, Meads was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to rugby. He was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to rugby and the community, in the 2001 New Year Honours. In the 2009 Special Honours, following the restoration of titular honours by the New Zealand government, Meads accepted redesignation as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM). On 19 June 2017, during the then-ongoing British & Irish Lions tour, a statue of Meads was unveiled in the Te Kuiti town centre. Despite his ongoing battle with cancer, Meads attended and spoke at the unveiling.

One of the other trophies contested in New Zealand's domestic competition, the Heartland Championship, is named the Meads Cup in his honour. Rugby writer Lindsay Knight wrote that "As a sporting legend Meads is New Zealand's equivalent of Australia's Sir Donald Bradman or the United States of America's Babe Ruth."

title: Colin Meads


text:
Talk:Grafton, New South Wales

Untitled
What was wrong with my definition? (Red-neck little hick town on the north coast of New South Wales Australia. Avoid at all costs.) Seems pretty accurate to me, since I used to live there.

 * So is "red-neck little hick town" what "cathedral town" means?? Maudlingothic 05:57, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

 * People will confuse that with the definition of Adelaide, being a red-neck medium-sized hick town... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.123.84.51 (talk) 10:22, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

I used to live there as well. The widespread use of sunscreen seems to have done wonders for the local inhabitants, not a red neck to be seen last time I was there!Ticklemygrits 06:39, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

I still Live here...well not here ....."down river" .....the list of schools need extending Ben920 12:03, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Grafton, New South Wales. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100406065527/http://www.samuseum.australia.sa.com/tindaletribes/badjalang.htm to http://www.samuseum.australia.sa.com/tindaletribes/badjalang.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 23:23, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Notable People
Since not everyone on this list was actually born in Grafton, I have changed it to 'Notable Residents' and added a couple who thereby qualify. Bluedawe 03:20, 18 January 2018 (UTC)

For the mosque shooter stuff, see: Australian_Wikipedians'_notice_board WhisperToMe (talk) 02:36, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Grafton, New South Wales


text:
User talk:Evanlivingstone

Hello Evan, welcome to Wikipedia!

There are lots of resources around to help guide you. be sure to check out:

 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

Also check out
 * image use policy before uploading any images

If you need any help try
 * Help
 * Village pump
 * My talk page User_talk:Jimfbleak.

Don't be afraid of making the odd mistake, there are any number of others eagerly waiting for a chance to correct it!

Incidentally, I've deleted the Evan Livingstone article, since it's content is on your user page, jimfbleak 07:32 9 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Image:Evan.jpg soon to be deleted
Hi Evanlivingstone. You need to add source and licensing information to Image:Evan.jpg or it will be deleted very soon. Just state the photographer, and add a proper copyright tag. Thanks. ~MDD4696 02:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Elbert Howard

The article Elbert Howard has been proposed for deletion because it appears to have no references. Under Wikipedia policy, this biography of a living person will be deleted unless it has at least one reference to a reliable source that directly supports material in the article.

If you created the article, please don't be offended. Instead, consider improving the article. For help on inserting references, see Referencing for beginners, or ask at the help desk. Once you have provided at least one reliable source, you may remove the prod blp tag. Please do not remove the tag unless the article is sourced. If you cannot provide such a source within seven days, the article may be deleted, but you can when you are ready to add one. WWGB (talk) 09:15, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

File permission problem with File:Photo of Suni Paz.jpeg
Thanks for uploading File:Photo of Suni Paz.jpeg, which you've attributed to Suni Paz. I noticed that while you provided a valid copyright licensing tag, there is no proof that the creator of the file has agreed to release it under the given license.

If you are the copyright holder for this media entirely yourself but have previously published it elsewhere (especially online), please either
 * make a note permitting reuse under the CC-BY-SA or another acceptable free license (see this list) at the site of the original publication; or
 * Send an email from an address associated with the original publication to permissions-en@wikimedia.org, stating your ownership of the material and your intention to publish it under a free license. You can find a sample permission letter here. If you take this step, add OTRS pending to the file description page to prevent premature deletion.

If you did not create it entirely yourself, please ask the person who created the file to take one of the two steps listed above, or if the owner of the file has already given their permission to you via email, please forward that email to permissions-en@wikimedia.org.

If you believe the media meets the criteria at Non-free content, use a tag such as non-free fair use or one of the other tags listed at File copyright tags, and add a rationale justifying the file's use on the article or articles where it is included. See File copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have provided evidence that their copyright owners have agreed to license their works under the tags you supplied, too. You can find a list of files you have created in [ your upload log]. Files lacking evidence of permission may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described in section F11 of the criteria for speedy deletion. You may wish to read Wikipedia's image use policy. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. — Diannaa (talk) 00:21, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

File permission problem with File:Photo of Suni Paz.jpg
Thanks for uploading File:Photo of Suni Paz.jpg. I noticed that while you provided a valid copyright licensing tag, there is no proof that the creator of the file has agreed to release it under the given license.

If you are the copyright holder for this media entirely yourself but have previously published it elsewhere (especially online), please either
 * make a note permitting reuse under the CC-BY-SA or another acceptable free license (see this list) at the site of the original publication; or
 * Send an email from an address associated with the original publication to permissions-en@wikimedia.org, stating your ownership of the material and your intention to publish it under a free license. You can find a sample permission letter here. If you take this step, add OTRS pending to the file description page to prevent premature deletion.

If you did not create it entirely yourself, please ask the person who created the file to take one of the two steps listed above, or if the owner of the file has already given their permission to you via email, please forward that email to permissions-en@wikimedia.org.

If you believe the media meets the criteria at Non-free content, use a tag such as non-free fair use or one of the other tags listed at File copyright tags, and add a rationale justifying the file's use on the article or articles where it is included. See File copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have provided evidence that their copyright owners have agreed to license their works under the tags you supplied, too. You can find a list of files you have created in [ your upload log]. Files lacking evidence of permission may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described in section F11 of the criteria for speedy deletion. You may wish to read Wikipedia's image use policy. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

This bot DID NOT nominate any file(s) for deletion; please refer to the page history of each individual file for details. Thanks, FastilyBot (talk) 01:00, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Evanlivingstone


text:
Nice Work

Nice Work is a 1988 novel by British author David Lodge. It is the final volume of Lodge's "Campus Trilogy", after Changing Places (1975) and Small World: An Academic Romance (1984). Nice Work won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1988 and was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

The larger socioeconomic background to the novel was the economic policies and education cuts during the Thatcher government. Lodge was inspired, in part, by his experiences of shadowing a friend who supervised an engineering firm.

The year following its publication, the book was adapted in a four-part TV series for the BBC.

Plot summary
Set in 1986, in the fictional city of Rummidge, the book describes the relationship between Robyn Penrose, a feminist university teacher specialising in the industrial novel and women's writing and Vic Wilcox, the manager of J. Pringle & Sons Casting & General Engineering ("Pringle's"). Robyn is a temporary lecturer at Rummidge, where her boss is Professor Philip Swallow. Swallow is head of the English Department but is also Dean of Rummidge's Arts Faculty. Robyn has the temporary lectureship at Rummidge because of the time demands of Swallow's new administrative responsibilities.

As part of the "Industry Year Shadow Scheme", the university is required to send one of its faculty into a local factory. Robyn is the chosen faculty member from Rummidge and the chosen factory is Pringle's, where Robyn is to shadow Vic Wilcox and observe the inner workings of a real-life foundry, which she has never seen.

The novel also traces the separate private lives of Robyn and Vic. In the Wilcox family are Vic, his father, his wife Marjorie and his children. Separately, Robyn goes through various stages of her long-standing relationship with her boyfriend, Charles, a fellow literary scholar. Later in the novel, to Robyn's discomfort, after she has completed her time at Pringle's, the shadow scheme reverses, with Vic shadowing her during her teaching at Rummidge. The philosophical conflict between the ideologies of industry and academe come to the fore. Later, away from Vic, Professor Morris Zapp, a friend of Swallow's from the fictional American university Euphoric State (based on UC Berkeley), and a character from the earlier two novels in the Campus Trilogy, pays a brief visit to Rummidge on his way to a conference. He learns about Robyn's work for the first time and is impressed. Zapp tries to arrange for Robyn to have a job interview at Euphoric State for an open faculty position, to run interference against his ex-wife, whom Euphoric State's faculty is trying to recruit for the post. The uncertainty in Robyn's professional status comes from whether she will be able to find a permanent post anywhere, in the context of national budget reductions to the universities.

The relationship between Robyn and Vic reveals their weaknesses. Robyn's academic position is precarious because of national budget cuts to education and the universities. Vic has to deal with industrial politics at Pringle's. The plot is a pastiche of the industrial novel genre, alluding to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. This gentle ribbing acts to undermine the postmodern and feminist position of Robyn, who accepts the hand of fate despite ridiculing its role as the sole restorative capable (in the minds of authors of industrial novels) of elevating the female to a serious social position. Robyn acquires insight into the pragmatic ethos whose encroachment on university culture she resents and about the physical reality of factories of which her only prior knowledge was literature. In his turn, Vic learns to appreciate the symbolic or semiotic dimension of his environment and discovers a romanticism within himself that he had previously despised in his everyday life.

Adaptation
In 1989, the BBC broadcast a four-part TV miniseries based on the novel, with a screenplay by Lodge. Directed by Christopher Menaul, the series featured Haydn Gwynne as Robyn Penrose and Warren Clarke as Vic Wilcox. The University of Birmingham served as the filming location of many of the scenes from this series. The series won the 1989 Royal Television Society award for best drama series.

title: Nice Work


text:
User:Vanished user 5zariu3jisj0j4irj

Five years is a very long time to be working on one project. I've learned a lot from writing articles for this place, I've met some interesting people, and it's been a privilege to work with many of you over the years. This said, I've been shifting my time towards other interests over the last year or so, and my new year's resolution was to start trying some new things, so I think it's time to finally move on from this place.

So long, and thanks for all the fish. Cheers, y'all.

title: User:Vanished user 5zariu3jisj0j4irj


text:
Nick Tate

Nicholas John Tate (born 18 June 1942) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as pilot Alan Carter in the 1970s science fiction series Space: 1999 and James Hamilton in the 1980s soap opera Sons and Daughters.

Additionally, Tate has had a successful voiceover career in movie trailers, in animation and in video games.

Life and career
Tate was born on 18 June 1942 in Sydney, New South Wales. His parents were the actors John Tate and Neva Carr Glyn. His maternal grandparents were also actors, originally from Ireland and Great Britain, who performed in vaudeville. His father, of Russian descent, also had a connection to the works of Space:1999 creator Gerry Anderson, being a secondary voice actor in Thunderbirds.

Tate's big break came with the Australian television series My Brother Jack, followed by a production of the musical The Canterbury Tales where he played "Nicholas the Gallant" for eighteen months on stage and on tour throughout the country. This was followed by the 1970 Australian television series Dynasty about a rich, powerful family, where he joined his father John Tate for the first time onscreen the two playing father and son roles.

Tate portrayed astronaut Alan Carter in the British science fiction series Space: 1999, which was broadcast from 1975 to 1977, though the series began production in late 1973. In 1976, he broke through in film with an AACTA award-winning role in the movie The Devil's Playground. He continued to work in film with supporting roles in a number of theatrical films, including The Year My Voice Broke, Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom, Return from the River Kwai, Evil Angels, and Steven Spielberg's Hook. From 1985 to 1986, he portrayed James Hamilton in the Australian soap opera Sons and Daughters. Tate has also made guest appearances on numerous American TV shows, such as The X-Files, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Star Trek: The Next Generation (in the 1990 episode "Final Mission"), Murder, She Wrote, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (in the 1998 episode "Honor Among Thieves"), Farscape and in the Lost episode "Tabula Rasa".

On stage, Tate appeared in the TRIP (Tony Rudlin Ingrid Pitt Productions) stage production of Duty Free (later known as Don't Bother To Dress), by Emmerdale writer Neville Siggs, which ran from 1976 to 1977 at the Bristol Hippodrome. In 2006 he played the leading role of Captain Edward J. Smith in the Australian premiere of the musical Titanic.

Tate is also known for his voiceover work in theatrical trailers for such films as Jurassic Park and Mission: Impossible,, clip-on bumpers for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment from 2005–2006 as well as work in commercials, including Guinness beer spots airing beginning in 2006. Tate and four other well-known voice artists (Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Mark Elliot, and Al Chalk) parodied their individual voiceover styles en route to an awards show in a 1997 short film, 5 Men and a Limo.

In 2000, he provided the voice for the Australian tycoon Ozzie Mandrill in the game Escape from Monkey Island.

Tate resides in both Australia and the US.

Film

 * The Skin of Our Teeth (TV Movie 1959)
 * A Man for All Seasons (1966) – Master at Arms (uncredited)
 * Submarine X-1 (1968) – Leading Seaman X-1
 * The Oblong Box (1969) – Young Man in Tavern (uncredited)
 * Battle of Britain (1969) – RAF Pilot (uncredited)
 * The Devil's Playground (1976) – Brother Victor
 * The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977) – 1st Australian
 * Summerfield (1977) – Simon Robinson
 * The Day After Tomorrow, Into Infinity (TV Movie 1976) – Captain Harry Masters
 * Undercover Lover (1979) – Jensen Fury
 * The Empty Beach (1985) – Brian Henneberry
 * Ivanhoe (TV Movie 1986) – Sir Cedric (voice)
 * The Year My Voice Broke (1987) – Sergeant Pierce
 * Cry Freedom (1987) – Richie
 * Evil Angels (1988) – Charlwood
 * Return from the River Kwai (1989) – Lt. Commander Hunt
 * Steel and Lace (1991) – Duncan
 * Hook (1991) – Noodler
 * The Public Eye (1992) – Henry Haddock Jr.
 * Bed of Roses (1996) – Bayard
 * The Junction Boys (TV Movie 2002) – Smokey Harper
 * The Vanished (Short 2005) – Roy
 * The Gene Generation (2007) – Doctor
 * Killer Elite (2011) – Commander B
 * Qian Xuesen (2012) – Kimball
 * The Great Gatsby (2013) – Taxi Driver
 * Lupin III (2014) – Thomas Dawson
 * The Snow Queen 2: An Icy Adventure (2015) – Guard (voice)
 * Firestorm (TV Movie 2018/II) – NASA Chief (voice)
 * The Eagle Obsession (In Production) – Self

Television

 * My Brother Jack (Miniseries 1965) – Davey
 * Dynasty (1970–71) – Peter Mason
 * Homicide (1972–73) – Joseph Taylor / John Mason / Barry West
 * Behind the Legend (1974) – Captain Sanderson
 * NBC Special Treat (1975) – Capt. Harry Masters
 * Space: 1999 (1975–77) – Alan Carter
 * Danger UXB (1979) – Lt. Chris Craik
 * Play for Today (1980) – Steve Jackson
 * The Gentle Touch (1981) – Johnny Delvaux
 * A Country Practice (1982) – Graham Porter
 * Patrol Boat (1983) – Major Winn
 * The Gold and the Glory (1984) – Joe Lucas
 * Butterfly Island (1985)
 * Sons and Daughters (1985–86) – James Hamilton
 * Star Trek: The Next Generation (1990) – Dirgo
 * Silent Cries (1993)
 * Red Planet (Miniseries short 1994) – Colony Leader
 * The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (1996) – Darcy / Hunter #2 / Pirate #2 / Pirate #3 (voices)
 * Cow & Chicken (1997) – English Guy 52 / Egg Buyer (voices)
 * Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998) – Liam Bilby
 * The X-Files (1999) – Dr. Eugene Openshaw
 * The Lost World (Miniseries 2001) – Dr. William Gull
 * Farscape (2003) – R. Wilson Munroe
 * Lost (2004) – Ray Mullen
 * The Devil's Playground: Filmmaking by Faith (Video short 2008) – Himself – Actor – Brother Victor
 * East of Everything (2009) – Gerry Watkins
 * The Pacific (Miniseries 2010) – Tom Smee
 * Rake (2016) – Julian Tallow
 * The Blacklist (2017) – Arthur Kilgannon
 * The Strange Chores (2019) – Helsing (voice)

Video games

 * Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (Video Game 1996) – Prince Xizor (PC version) / IG-88 (PC version) (voices)
 * Escape from Monkey Island (Video Game 2000) – Ozzie Mandrill (voice)
 * Flushed Away (Video Game 2006) – Fat Barry (voice)
 * Mad Max (Video Game 2015) – The Mystic (voice)
 * Psychonauts 2 (Video Game 2021) – Compton Boole / Dr. Potts (voices)

Stage

 * The Canterbury Tales – "Nicholas the Gallant" (18 month Australian tour)
 * Duty Free (later known as Don't Bother To Dress) (1976–77) at the Bristol Hippodrome.
 * Titanic (2006) – Captain Edward J. Smith (Australian premiere)

title: Nick Tate


text:
Tadpole

A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found in adult amphibians such as a lateral line, gills and swimming tails. As they undergo metamorphosis, they start to develop functional lungs for breathing air, and the diet of tadpoles changes drastically.

A few amphibians, such as some members of the frog family Brevicipitidae, undergo direct development – i.e., they do not undergo a free-living larval stage as tadpoles –  instead emerging from eggs as fully formed "froglet" miniatures of the adult morphology. Some other species hatch into tadpoles underneath the skin of the female adult or are kept in a pouch until after metamorphosis. Having no hard skeletons, it might be expected that tadpole fossils would not exist. However, traces of biofilms have been preserved and fossil tadpoles have been found dating back to the Miocene.

Tadpoles are eaten as human food in some parts of the world and are mentioned in various folk tales from around the world.

Etymology
The name tadpole is from Middle English taddepol, made up of the elements tadde, 'toad', and pol, 'head' (modern English poll). Similarly, pollywog / polliwog is from Middle English polwygle, made up of the same pol, 'head', and wiglen, 'to wiggle'.

General description
The life cycle of all amphibians involves a larval stage that is intermediate between embryo and adult. In most cases this larval stage is a limbless free-living organism that has a tail and is referred to as a tadpole, although in a few cases (e.g., in the Breviceps and Probreviceps genera of frogs) direct development occurs in which the larval stage is confined within the egg. Tadpoles of frogs are mostly herbivorous, while tadpoles of salamanders and caecilians are carnivorous.

Anura
Tadpoles of frogs and toads are usually globular, with a laterally compressed tail with which they swim by lateral undulation. When first hatched, anuran tadpoles have external gills that are eventually covered by skin, forming an opercular chamber with internal gills vented by spiracles. Depending on the species, there can be two spiracles on both sides of the body, a single spiracle on the underside near the vent, or a single spiracle on the left side of the body. Newly hatched tadpoles are also equipped with a cement gland which allows them to attach to objects. The tadpoles have a cartilaginous skeleton and a notochord which eventually develops into a proper spinal cord. Anuran tadpoles are usually herbivorous, feeding on soft decaying plant matter. The gut of most tadpoles is long and spiral-shaped to efficiently digest organic matter and can be seen through the bellies of many species. Though many tadpoles will feed on dead animals if available to them, only a few species of frog have strictly carnivorous tadpoles, an example being the frogs of the family Ceratophryidae, their cannibalistic tadpoles having wide gaping mouths with which they devour other organisms, including other tadpoles. Another example is the tadpoles of the New Mexico spadefoot toad (Spea multiplicata) which will develop a carnivorous diet along with a broader head, larger jaw muscles, and a shorter gut if food is scarce, allowing them to consume fairy shrimp and their smaller herbivorous siblings. A few genera such as Pipidae and Microhylidae have species whose tadpoles are filter feeders that swim through the water column feeding on plankton. Megophrys tadpoles feed at the water surface using unusual funnel-shaped mouths.

As a frog tadpole matures it gradually develops its limbs, with the back legs growing first and the front legs second. The tail is absorbed into the body using apoptosis. Lungs develop around the time as the legs start growing, and tadpoles at this stage will often swim to the surface and gulp air. During the final stages of metamorphosis, the tadpole's mouth changes from a small, enclosed mouth at the front of the head to a large mouth the same width as the head. The intestines shorten as they transition from a herbivorous diet to the carnivorous diet of adult frogs.

Tadpoles vary greatly in size, both during their development and between species. For example, in a single family, Megophryidae, length of late-stage tadpoles varies between 3.3 cm and 10.6 cm. The tadpoles of the paradoxical frog (Pseudis paradoxa) can reach up to 27 cm, the longest of any frog, before shrinking to a mere snout-to-vent length of 3.4–7.6 cm (1.3–3.0 in).

While most anuran tadpoles inhabit wetlands, ponds, vernal pools, and other small bodies of water with slow moving water, a few species are adapted to different environments. Some frogs have terrestrial tadpoles, such as the family Ranixalidae, whose tadpoles are found in wet crevices near streams. The tadpoles of Micrixalus herrei are adapted to a fossorial lifestyle, with a muscular body and tail, eyes covered by a layer of skin, and reduced pigment. Several frogs have stream dwelling tadpoles equipped with a strong oral sucker that allows them to hold onto rocks in fast flowing water, two examples being the Indian purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) and the tailed frogs (Ascaphus) of Western North America. Although there are no marine tadpoles, the tadpoles of the crab-eating frog can cope with brackish water.

Some anurans will provide parental care towards their tadpoles. Frogs of the genus Afrixalus will lay their eggs on leaves above water, folding the leaves around the eggs for protection. Female Pipa frogs will embed the eggs into their backs where they get covered by a thin layer of skin. The eggs will hatch underneath her skin and grow, eventually leaving as either large tadpoles (such as in Pipa parva) or as fully formed froglets (Pipa pipa). Female marsupial frogs (Hemiphractidae) will carry eggs on her back for various amounts of time, with it going as far as letting the tadpoles develop into tiny froglets in a pouch. Male African bullfrogs (Pyxicephalus adspersus) will keep watch over their tadpoles, attacking anything that might be a potential threat, even though he may eat some of the tadpoles himself.

Males of the Emei mustache toads (Leptobrachium boringii) will construct nests along riverbanks where they breed with females and keep watch over the eggs, losing as much as 7.3% of their body mass in the time they spend protecting the nest. Male midwife toads (Alytes) will carry eggs between their legs to protect them from predators, eventually releasing them into a body of water when they are ready to hatch. Poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) will carry their tadpoles to various locations, usually phytotelma, where they remain until metamorphosis. Some female dart frogs such as the strawberry poison dart frog (Oophaga pumilio) will regularly lay unfertilized eggs for the developing tadpoles to feed on.

Fossil record
Despite their soft-bodied nature and lack of mineralised hard parts, fossil tadpoles (around 10 cm in length) have been recovered from Upper Miocene strata. They are preserved by virtue of biofilms, with more robust structures (the jaw and bones) preserved as a carbon film. In Miocene fossils from Libros, Spain, the brain case is preserved in calcium carbonate, and the nerve cord in calcium phosphate. Other parts of the tadpoles' bodies exist as organic remains and bacterial biofilms, with sedimentary detritus present in the gut. Tadpole remains with telltale external gills are also known from several labyrinthodont groups.

Human use
Tadpoles are used in a variety of cuisines. Tadpoles of the megophryid frog Oreolalax rhodostigmatus are particularly large, more than 10 cm in length, and are collected for human consumption in China. In India, the tadpoles of the Clinotarsus curtipes are collected for food, and in Peru Telmatobius mayoloi tadpoles are collected for both food and medicine.

Mythology and history
According to Sir George Scott, in the origin myths of the Wa people in China and Myanmar, the first Wa originated from two female ancestors Ya Htawm and Ya Htai, who spent their early phase as tadpoles ("rairoh") in a lake in the Wa country known as Nawng Hkaeo.

In the Ancient Egyptian numerals, a hieroglyphic representing a tadpole was used to denote the value of 100,000.

title: Tadpole


text:
Alien hand syndrome

Alien hand syndrome (AHS) or Dr. Strangelove syndrome is a category of conditions in which a person experiences their limbs acting seemingly on their own, without conscious control over the actions. There are a variety of clinical conditions that fall under this category, which most commonly affects the left hand. There are many similar terms for the various forms of the condition, but they are often used inappropriately. The affected person may sometimes reach for objects and manipulate them without wanting to do so, even to the point of having to use the controllable hand to restrain the alien hand. Under normal circumstances however, given that intent and action can be assumed to be deeply mutually entangled, the occurrence of alien hand syndrome can be usefully conceptualized as a phenomenon reflecting a functional "disentanglement" between thought and action.

Alien hand syndrome is best documented in cases where a person has had the two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated, a procedure sometimes used to relieve the symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy and epileptic psychosis, e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy. It also occurs in some cases after brain surgery, stroke, infection, tumor, aneurysm, migraine and specific degenerative brain conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, corticobasal degeneration and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Other areas of the brain that are associated with alien hand syndrome are the frontal, occipital, and parietal lobes.

Signs and symptoms
"Alien behavior" can be distinguished from reflexive behavior in that the former is flexibly purposive while the latter is obligatory. Sometimes the affected person will not be aware of what the alien hand is doing until it is brought to his or her attention, or until the hand does something that draws their attention to its behavior. There is a clear distinction between the behaviors of the two hands in which the affected hand is viewed as "wayward" and sometimes "disobedient" and generally out of the realm of their own voluntary control, while the unaffected hand is under normal volitional control. At times, particularly in patients who have sustained damage to the corpus callosum that connects the two cerebral hemispheres, the hands appear to be acting in opposition to each other.

A related syndrome described by the French neurologist François Lhermitte involves the release through disinhibition of a tendency to compulsively utilize objects that present themselves in the surrounding environment around the patient. The behavior of the patient is, in a sense, obligatorily linked to the "affordances" (using terminology introduced by the American ecological psychologist, James J. Gibson) presented by objects that are located within the immediate peri-personal environment.

This condition is known as utilization behavior. It is most often associated with extensive bilateral frontal lobe damage and might actually be thought of as "bilateral" alien hand syndrome in which the patient is compulsively directed by external environmental contingencies (such as the presence of a hairbrush on the table in front of them elicits the act of brushing the hair) and has no capacity to "hold back" and inhibit pre-potent motor programs that are obligatorily linked to the presence of specific external objects in the peri-personal space of the patient. When the frontal lobe damage is bilateral and generally more extensive, the patient completely loses the ability to act in a self-directed manner and becomes totally dependent upon the surrounding environmental indicators to guide their behavior in a general social context, a condition referred to as "environmental dependency syndrome".

In order to deal with the alien hand, some patients engage in personification of the affected hand. Usually these names are negative in nature, from mild such as "cheeky" to malicious "monster from the moon". For example, Rachelle Doody and Jankovic described a patient who named her alien hand "baby Joseph". When the hand engaged in playful, troublesome activities such as pinching her nipples (akin to biting while nursing), she would experience amusement and would instruct baby Joseph to "stop being naughty". Furthermore, Bogen suggested that certain personality characteristics, such as a flamboyant personality, contribute to frequent personification of the affected hand.

Neuroimaging and pathological research shows that the frontal lobe (in the frontal variant) and corpus callosum (in the callosal variant) are the most common anatomical lesions responsible for the alien hand syndrome. These areas are closely linked in terms of motor planning and its final pathways.

The callosal variant includes advanced willed motor acts by the non-dominant hand, where patients frequently exhibit "intermanual conflict" in which one hand acts at cross-purposes with the other "good hand". For example, one patient was observed putting a cigarette into her mouth with her intact, "controlled" hand (her right, dominant hand), following which her left hand rose, grasped the cigarette, pulled it out of her mouth, and toss it away before it could be lit by the right hand. The patient then surmised that "I guess 'he' doesn't want me to smoke that cigarette." Another patient was observed to be buttoning up her blouse with her controlled dominant hand while the alien non-dominant hand, at the same time, was unbuttoning her blouse. The frontal variant most often affects the dominant hand, but can affect either hand depending on the lateralization of the damage to medial frontal cortex, and includes grasp reflex, impulsive groping toward objects or/and tonic grasping (in other words, difficulty in releasing grip).

In most cases, classic alien-hand signs derive from damage to the medial frontal cortex, accompanying damage to the corpus callosum. In these patients, the main cause of damage is unilateral or bilateral infarction of cortex in the territory supplied by the anterior cerebral artery or associated arteries. Oxygenated blood is supplied by the anterior cerebral artery to most medial portions of the frontal lobes and to the anterior two-thirds of the corpus callosum, and infarction may consequently result in damage to multiple adjacent locations in the brain in the supplied territory. As the medial frontal lobe damage is often linked to lesions of the corpus callosum, frontal variant cases may also present with callosal form signs. Cases of damage restricted to the callosum however, tend not to show frontal alien-hand signs.

Cause
The common emerging factor in alien hand syndrome is that the primary motor cortex controlling hand movement is isolated from premotor cortex influences but remains generally intact in its ability to execute movements of the hand.

A 2009 fMRI study looking at the temporal sequence of activation of components of a cortical network associated with voluntary movement in normal individuals demonstrated "an anterior-to-posterior temporal gradient of activity from supplemental motor area through premotor and motor cortices to the posterior parietal cortex". Therefore, with normal voluntary movement, the emergent sense of agency appears to be associated with an orderly sequence of activation that develops initially in the anteromedial frontal cortex in the vicinity of the supplementary motor complex on the medial surface of the frontal aspect of the hemisphere (including the supplementary motor area) prior to activation of the primary motor cortex in the pre-central gyrus on the lateral aspect of the hemisphere, when the hand movement is being generated. Activation of the primary motor cortex, presumed to be directly involved in the execution of the action via projections into the corticospinal component of the pyramidal tracts, is then followed by activation of the posterior parietal cortex, possibly related to the receipt of recurrent or re-afferent somatosensory feedback generated from the periphery by the movement which would normally interact with the efference copy transmitted from primary motor cortex to permit the movement to be recognized as self-generated rather than imposed by an external force. That is, the efference copy allows the recurrent afferent somatosensory flow from the periphery associated with the self-generated movement to be recognized as re-afference as distinct from ex-afference. Failure of this mechanism may lead to a failure to distinguish between self-generated and externally generated movement of the limb. This anomalous situation in which re-afference from a self-generated movement is mistakenly registered as ex-afference due to a failure to generate and successfully transmit an efference copy to sensory cortex, could readily lead to the interpretation that what is in actuality a self-generated movement has been produced by an external force as a result of the failure to develop a sense of agency in association with emergence of the self-generated movement (see below for a more detailed discussion).

A 2007 fMRI study examining the difference in functional brain activation patterns associated with alien as compared to non-alien "volitional" movement in a patient with alien hand syndrome found that alien movement involved anomalous isolated activation of the primary motor cortex in the damaged hemisphere contralateral to the alien hand, while non-alien movement involved the normal process of activation described in the preceding paragraph in which primary motor cortex in the intact hemisphere activates in concert with frontal premotor cortex and posterior parietal cortex presumably involved in a normal cortical network generating premotor influences on the primary motor cortex along with immediate post-motor re-afferent activation of the posterior parietal cortex.

Combining these two fMRI studies, one could hypothesize that the alien behavior that is unaccompanied by a sense of agency emerges due to autonomous activity in the primary motor cortex acting independently of premotor cortex pre-activating influences that would normally be associated with the emergence of a sense of agency linked to the execution of the action.

As noted above, these ideas can also be linked to the concept of efference copy and re-afference, where efference copy is a signal postulated to be directed from premotor cortex (activated normally in the process associated with emergence of an internally generated movement) over to somatosensory cortex of the parietal region, in advance of the arrival of the "re-afferent" input generated from the moving limb, that is, the afferent return from the moving limb associated with the self-generated movement produced. It is generally thought that a movement is recognized as internally generated when the efference copy signal effectively "cancels out" the re-afference. The afferent return from the limb is effectively correlated with the efference copy signal so that the re-afference can be recognized as such and distinguished from "ex-afference", which would be afferent return from the limb produced by an externally imposed force. When the efference copy is no longer normally generated, then the afferent return from the limb associated with the self-generated movement is mis-perceived as externally produced "ex-afference" since it is no longer correlated with or canceled out by the efference copy. As a result, the development of the sense that a movement is not internally generated even though it actually is (i.e. the failure of the sense of agency to emerge in conjunction with the movement), could indicate a failure of the generation of the efference copy signal associated with the normal premotor process through which the movement is prepared for execution.

Since there is no disturbance of the sense of ownership of the limb in this situation, and there is no apparent physical explanation for how the owned limb could be moving in a purposive manner without an associated sense of agency, a cognitive dissonance is created which may be resolved through the assumption that the goal-directed limb movement is being directed by an "alien" unidentifiable external force with the capacity for directing goal-directed actions of one's own limb.

Disconnection
It is theorized that alien hand syndrome results when disconnection occurs between different parts of the brain that are engaged in different aspects of the control of bodily movement. As a result, different regions of the brain are able to command bodily movements, but cannot generate a conscious feeling of self-control over these movements. As a result, the sense of agency that is normally associated with voluntary movement is impaired or lost. There is a dissociation between the process associated with the actual execution of the physical movements of the limb and the process that produces an internal sense of voluntary control over the movements, with this latter process thus normally creating the internal conscious sensation that the movements are being internally initiated, controlled and produced by an active self.

Recent studies have examined the neural correlates of emergence of the sense of agency under normal circumstances. This appears to involve consistent congruence between what is being produced through efferent outflow to the musculature of the body, and what is being sensed as the presumed product in the periphery of this efferent command signal. In alien hand syndrome, the neural mechanisms involved in establishing that this congruence has occurred may be impaired. This may involve an abnormality in the brain mechanism that differentiates between "re-afference" (the return of kinesthetic sensation from the self-generated "active" limb movement) and "ex-afference" (kinesthetic sensation generated from an externally produced 'passive' limb movement in which an active self does not participate). This brain mechanism is proposed to involve the production of a parallel "efference copy" signal that is sent directly to the somatic sensory regions and is transformed into a "corollary discharge", an expected afferent signal from the periphery that would result from the performance driven by the issued efferent signal. The correlation of the corollary discharge signal with the actual afferent signal returned from the periphery can then be used to determine if, in fact, the intended action occurred as expected. When the sensed result of the action is congruent with the predicted result, then the action can be labelled as self-generated and associated with an emergent sense of agency.

If, however, the neural mechanisms involved in establishing this sensorimotor linkage associated with self-generated action are faulty, it would be expected that the sense of agency with action would not develop as discussed in the previous section.

Loss of inhibitions
One theory posed to explain these phenomena proposes that the brain has separable neural "premotor" or "agency" systems for managing the process of transforming intentions into overt action. An anteromedial frontal premotor system is engaged in the process of directing exploratory actions based on "internal" drive by releasing or reducing inhibitory control over such actions.

A 2011 paper reporting on neuronal unit recording in the medial frontal cortex in human subjects showed a clear pre-activation of neurons identified in this area up to several hundred milliseconds prior to the onset of an overt self-generated finger movement and the authors were able to develop a computational model whereby volition emerges once a change in internally generated firing rate of neuronal assemblies in this part of the brain crossed a threshold. Damage to this anteromedial premotor system produces disinhibition and release of such exploratory and object acquisition actions which then occur autonomously. A posterolateral temporo-parieto-occipital premotor system has a similar inhibitory control over actions that withdraw from environmental stimuli as well as the ability to excite actions that are contingent upon and driven by external stimulation, as distinct from internal drive. These two intrahemispheric systems, each of which activates an opposing cortical "tropism", interact through mutual inhibition that maintains a dynamic balance between approaching toward (in other words, with "intent-to-capture" in which contact with and grasping onto the attended object is sought) versus withdrawing from (that is, with "intent-to-escape" in which distancing from the attended object is sought) environmental stimuli in the behavior of the contralateral limbs. Together, these two intrahemispheric agency systems form an integrated trans-hemispheric agency system.

When the anteromedial frontal "escape" system is damaged, involuntary but purposive movements of an exploratory reach-and-grasp nature – what Denny-Brown referred to as a positive cortical tropism – are released in the contralateral limb. This is referred to as a positive cortical tropism because eliciting sensory stimuli, such as would result from tactile contact on the volar aspect of the fingers and palm of the hand, are linked to the activation of movement that increases or enhances the eliciting stimulation through a positive feedback connection (see discussion above in section entitled "Parietal and Occipital Lobes").

When the posterolateral parieto-occipital "approach" system is damaged, involuntary purposive movements of a release-and-retract nature, such as levitation and instinctive avoidance – what Denny-Brown referred to as a negative cortical tropism – are released in the contralateral limb. This is referred to as a negative cortical tropism because eliciting sensory stimuli, such as would result from tactile contact on the volar aspect of the fingers and palm of the hand, are linked to the activation of movement that reduces or eliminates the eliciting stimulation through a negative feedback connection (see discussion above in section entitled "Parietal and Occipital Lobes").

Each intrahemispheric agency system has the potential capability of acting autonomously in its control over the contralateral limb although unitary integrative control of the two hands is maintained through interhemispheric communication between these systems via the projections traversing the corpus callosum at the cortical level and other interhemispheric commissures linking the two hemispheres at the subcortical level.

Disconnection of hemispheres due to injury
One major difference between the two hemispheres is the direct connection between the agency system of the dominant hemisphere and the encoding system based primarily in the dominant hemisphere that links action to its production and through to its interpretation with language and language-encoded thought. It is proposed that while relational action in the form of embodied inter-subjective behavior precedes linguistic capacity during infant development, a process ensues through the course of development through which linguistic constructs are linked to action elements in order to produce a language-based encoding of action-oriented knowledge.

When there is a major disconnection between the two hemispheres resulting from callosal injury, the language-linked dominant hemisphere agent which maintains its primary control over the dominant limb loses, to some degree, its direct and linked control over the separate "agent" based in the nondominant hemisphere, and the nondominant limb, which had been previously responsive and "obedient" to the dominant conscious agent. The possibility of purposeful action occurring outside of the realm of influence of the conscious dominant agent can occur and the basic assumption that both hands are controlled through and subject to the dominant agent is proven incorrect. The sense of agency that would normally arise from movement of the nondominant limb now no longer develops, or, at least, is no longer accessible to consciousness. A new explanatory narrative for understanding the situation in which the now inaccessible nondominant hemisphere based agent is capable of activating the nondominant limb is necessitated.

Under such circumstances, the two separated agents can control simultaneous actions in the two limbs that are directed at opposing purposes although the dominant hand remains linked to the dominant consciously accessible language-linked agent and is viewed as continuing to be under "conscious control" and obedient to conscious will and intent as accessible through thought, while the nondominant hand, directed by an essentially non-verbal agent whose intent can only be inferred by the dominant agent after the fact, is no longer "tied in" and subject to the dominant agent and is thus identified by the conscious language-based dominant agent as having a separate and inaccessible alien agency and associated existence. This theory would explain the emergence of alien behavior in the nondominant limb and intermanual conflict between the two limbs in the presence of damage to the corpus callosum.

The distinct anteromedial, frontal, and posterolateral temporo-parieto-occipital variants of the alien hand syndrome would be explained by selective injury to either the frontal or the posterior components of the agency systems within a particular hemisphere, with the relevant and specific form of alien behavior developing in the limb contralateral to the damaged hemisphere.

Corpus callosum
Damage to the corpus callosum can give rise to "purposeful" actions in the person's non-dominant hand (an individual who is left-hemisphere-dominant will experience the left hand becoming alien, and the right hand will turn alien in the person with right-hemisphere dominance).

In "the callosal variant", the patient's hand counteracts voluntary actions performed by the other, "good" hand. Two phenomena that are often found in patients with callosal alien hand are agonistic dyspraxia and diagonistic dyspraxia.

Agonistic dyspraxia involves compulsive automatic execution of motor commands by one hand when the patient is asked to perform movements with the other hand. For example, when a patient with callosal damage was instructed to pull a chair forward, the affected hand would decisively and impulsively push the chair backwards. Agonistic dyspraxia can thus be viewed as an involuntary competitive interaction between the two hands directed toward completion of a desired act in which the affected hand competes with the unaffected hand to complete a purposive act originally intended to be performed by the unaffected hand.

Diagonistic dyspraxia, on the other hand, involves a conflict between the desired act in which the unaffected hand has been engaged and the interfering action of the affected hand which works to oppose the purpose of the desired act intended to be performed by the unaffected hand. For instance, when Akelaitis's patients underwent surgery to the corpus callosum to reduce epileptic seizures, one patient's left alien hand would frequently interfere with the right hand. For instance, while trying to turn over to the next page with the right hand, his left hand would try to close the book.

In another case of callosal alien hand, the patient did not have intermanual conflict between the hands but rather from a symptom characterized by involuntary mirror movements of the affected hand. When the patient was asked to perform movements with one hand, the other hand would involuntarily perform a mirror image movement which continued even when the involuntary movement was brought to the attention of the patient, and the patient was asked to restrain the mirrored movement. The patient had a ruptured aneurysm near the anterior cerebral artery, which resulted in the right hand being mirrored by the left hand. The patient described the left hand as frequently interfering and taking over anything the patient tried to do with the right hand. For instance, when trying to grasp a glass of water with the right hand with a right side approach, the left hand would involuntary reach out and grasp hold of the glass through a left side approach.

More recently, Geschwind et al. described the case of a woman with severe coronary heart disease. One week after undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, she noticed that her left hand started to "live a life of its own". It would unbutton her gown, try to choke her while asleep and would automatically fight with the right hand to answer the phone. She had to physically restrain the affected hand with the right hand to prevent injury, a behavior which has been termed "self-restriction". The left hand also showed signs of severe ideomotor apraxia. It was able to mimic actions but only with the help of mirror movements executed by the right hand (enabling synkinesis). Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Geschwind et al. found damage to the posterior half of the callosal body, sparing the anterior half and the splenium extending slightly into the white matter underlying the right cingulate cortex.

Park et al. also described two cases of infarction as the origin of alien hand symptoms. Both individuals had had infarction of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA). One individual, a 72-year-old male, had difficulty controlling his hands, as they often moved involuntarily, despite his trying to stabilize them. Furthermore, he often could not let go of objects after grasping them with his palms. The other individual, a 47-year-old female with an ACA in a different location of the artery, complained that her left hand would move on its own and she could not control its movements. Her left hand could also sense when her right hand was holding an object and would involuntarily, forcibly take the object out of her right hand.

Frontal lobe
Unilateral injury to the medial aspect of the brain's frontal lobe can trigger reaching, grasping and other purposeful movements in the contralateral hand. With anteromedial frontal lobe injuries, these movements are often exploratory reaching movements in which external objects are frequently grasped and utilized functionally, without the simultaneous perception on the part of the patient that they are "in control" of these movements. Once an object has been acquired and is maintained in the grasp of this "frontal variant" form of alien hand, the patient often has difficulty with voluntarily releasing the object from grasp and can sometimes be seen to be peeling the fingers of the hand back off the grasped object using the opposite controlled hand to enable the release of the grasped object (also referred to as tonic grasping or the "instinctive grasp reaction" ). Some (for example, the neurologist Derek Denny-Brown) have referred to this behavior as "magnetic apraxia"

Goldberg and Bloom described a woman with a large cerebral infarction of the medial surface of the left frontal lobe in the territory of the left anterior cerebral artery which left her with the frontal variant of the alien hand involving the right hand. There were no signs of callosal disconnection nor was there evidence of any callosal damage. The patient displayed frequent grasp reflexes; her right hand would reach out and grab objects without releasing them. In regards to tonic grasping, the more the patient tried to let go of the object, the more the grip of the object tightened. With focused effort the patient was able to let go of the object, but if distracted, the behaviour would re-commence. The patient could also forcibly release the grasped object by peeling her fingers away from contact with the object using the intact left hand. Additionally, the hand would scratch at the patient's leg to the extent that an orthotic device was required to prevent injury. Another patient reported not only tonic grasping towards objects nearby, but the alien hand would take hold of the patient's penis and engage in public masturbation.

Parietal and occipital lobes
A distinct "posterior variant" form of alien hand syndrome is associated with damage to the posterolateral parietal lobe and/or occipital lobe of the brain. The movements in this situation tend to be more likely to withdraw the palmar surface of the hand away from sustained environmental contact rather than reaching out to grasp onto objects to produce palmar tactile stimulation, as is most often seen in the frontal form of the condition. In the frontal variant, tactile contact on the ventral surface of the palm and fingers facilitates finger flexion and grasp of the object through a positive feedback loop (i.e. the stimulus generates movement that reinforces, strengthens and sustains the triggering stimulation).

In contrast, in the posterior variant, tactile contact on the ventral surface of the palm and fingers is actively avoided through facilitation of extension of the fingers and withdrawal of the palm in a negative feedback loop (i.e. the stimulus, and even anticipation of stimulation of the palmar surface of the hand, generates movement of the palm and fingers that reduces and effectively counteracts and eliminates the triggering stimulation, or, in the case of anticipated palmar contact, decreases the likelihood of such contact). Alien movements in the posterior variant of the syndrome also tend to be less coordinated and show a coarse ataxic motion during active movement that is generally not observed in the frontal form of the condition. This is generally thought to be due to an optic form of ataxia since it is facilitated by the visual presence of an object with visual attention directed toward the object. The apparent instability could be due to an unstable interaction between the tactile avoidance tendency biasing toward withdrawal from the object, and the visually based acquisition bias tendency pushing toward an approach to the object.

The alien limb in the posterior variant of the syndrome may be seen to "levitate" upward into the air withdrawing away from contact surfaces through the activation of anti-gravity musculature. Alien hand movement in the posterior variant may show a typical posture, sometimes referred to as a "parietal hand" or the "instinctive avoidance reaction" (a term introduced by neurologist Derek Denny-Brown as an inverse form of the "magnetic apraxia" seen in the frontal variant, as noted above), in which the digits move into a highly extended position with active extension of the interphalangeal joints of the digits and hyper-extension of the metacarpophalangeal joints, and the palmar surface of the hand is actively pulled back away from approaching objects or up and away from supporting surfaces. The "alien" movements, however, remain purposeful and goal-directed, a point which clearly differentiates these movements from other disorganized non-purposeful forms of involuntary limb movement (e.g. athetosis, chorea, or myoclonus).

Similarities between frontal and posterior variants
In both the frontal and the posterior variants of the alien hand syndrome, the patient's reactions to the limb's apparent capability to perform goal-directed actions independent of conscious volition is similar. In both of these variants of alien hand syndrome, the alien hand emerges in the hand contralateral to the damaged hemisphere.

Treatment
There is no cure for the alien hand syndrome. However, the symptoms can be reduced and managed to some degree by keeping the alien hand occupied and involved in a task, for example by giving it an object to hold in its grasp. Specific learned tasks can restore voluntary control of the hand to a significant degree. One patient with the "frontal" form of alien hand who would reach out to grasp onto different objects (e.g., door handles) as he was walking was given a cane to hold in the alien hand while walking, even though he really did not need a cane for its usual purpose. With the cane firmly in the grasp of the alien hand, it would generally not release the grasp and drop the cane in order to reach out to grasp onto a different object. Other techniques proven to be effective include; wedging the hand between the legs or slapping it; warm water application and visual or tactile contact. Additionally, Wu et al. found that an irritating alarm activated by biofeedback reduced the time the alien hand held an object.

In the presence of unilateral damage to a single cerebral hemisphere, there is generally a gradual reduction in the frequency of alien behaviors observed over time and a gradual restoration of voluntary control over the affected hand. Actually, when AHS originates from focal injury of acute onset, recovery usually occurs within a year. One theory is that neuroplasticity in the bihemispheric and subcortical brain systems involved in voluntary movement production can serve to re-establish the connection between the executive production process and the internal self-generation and registration process. Exactly how this may occur is not well understood, but a process of gradual recovery from alien hand syndrome when the damage is confined to a single cerebral hemisphere has been reported. In some instances, patients may resort to constraining the wayward, undesirable and sometimes embarrassing actions of the impaired hand by voluntarily grasping onto the forearm of the impaired hand using the intact hand. This observed behavior has been termed "self-restriction" or "self-grasping".

In another approach, the patient is trained to perform a specific task, such as moving the alien hand to contact a specific object or a highly salient environmental target, which is a movement that the patient can learn to generate voluntarily through focused training in order to effectively override the alien behavior. It is possible that some of this training produces a re-organization of premotor systems within the damaged hemisphere, or, alternatively, that ipsilateral control of the limb from the intact hemisphere may be expanded.

Another method involves simultaneously "muffling" the action of the alien hand and limiting the sensory feedback coming back to the hand from environmental contact by placing it in a restrictive "cloak" such as a specialized soft foam hand orthosis or, alternatively, an everyday oven mitt. Other patients have reported using an orthotic device to restrict perseverative grasping or restraining the alien hand by securing it to the bed pole. Of course, this can limit the degree to which the hand can participate in addressing functional goals for the patient and may be considered to be an unjustifiable restraint.

Theoretically, this approach could slow down the process through which voluntary control of the hand is restored if the neuroplasticity that underlies recovery involves the recurrent exercise of voluntary will to control the actions of the hand in a functional context and the associated experiential reinforcement through successful willful suppression of the alien behavior.

History
The first known case described in the medical literature appeared in a detailed case report published in German in 1908 by the preeminent German neuro-psychiatrist, Kurt Goldstein. In this paper, Goldstein described a right-handed woman who had had a stroke affecting her left side from which she had partially recovered by the time she was seen. However, her left arm seemed as though it belonged to another person and performed actions that appeared to occur independent of her will.

The patient complained of a feeling of "strangeness" in relationship to the goal-directed movements of the left hand and insisted that "someone else" was moving the left hand, and that she was not moving it herself. When the left hand grasped an object, she could not voluntarily release it. The senses of touch and proprioception of the left side were impaired. The left hand would make spontaneous movements, such as wiping the face or rubbing the eyes, but these were relatively infrequent. With significant effort, she was able to move her left arm in response to spoken command, but conscious movements were slower or less precise than similar involuntary motions.

Goldstein developed a "doctrine of motor apraxia" in which he discussed the generation of voluntary action and proposed a brain structure for temporal and spatial cognition, will and other higher cognitive processes. Goldstein maintained that a structure conceptually organizing both the body and external space was necessary for object perception as well as for voluntary action on external objects.

In his classic papers reviewing the wide variety of disconnection syndromes associated with focal brain pathology, Norman Geschwind commented that Kurt Goldstein "was perhaps the first to stress the non-unity of the personality in patients with callosal section, and its possible psychiatric effects".

In popular culture

 * In Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, the eponymous character, played by Peter Sellers, apparently has alien hand syndrome, as he cannot stop himself from doing the Nazi salute. "Dr. Strangelove syndrome" was suggested as the official name for AHS. This was not approved, though it is sometimes used as an alternative name.
 * In the medical drama TV series House episode "Both Sides Now", a patient has alien hand syndrome.
 * An episode of Dark Matters: Twisted But True – a documentary TV series on Discovery Science – described alien hand syndrome and traced its history.
 * The 2017 Indian Tamil dark comedy film Peechankai is about a person with AHS.
 * In Season 2 of the TV series Scream Queens, Dr. Brock Holt appears to have alien hand syndrome.
 * In the Brazilian soap opera A Dona do Pedaço (2019), the character Eusébio, played by Marco Nanini, began to suffer from a "supernatural phenomenon" similar to AHS.

title: Alien hand syndrome


text:
Pyromancy

Pyromancy (Ancient Greek ἐμπυρία (empyria), divination by fire) is the art of divination by means of fire or flames.

The word pyromancy is adapted from the Greek word pyromanteia, from pyr (πῦρ, fire) and manteia (μαντεία, divination by means of). Its first known use was in the 1300s, and it evolved into the Late Latin word piromantia and Old French word piromance.

History of pyromancy
Due to the importance of fire in society in prehistory and its continued importance within civilizations, it is quite likely that pyromancy was one of the earlier forms of divination, arising independently in many civilizations around the world.

In much of Western culture, fire was often associated with a god, or was revered as a god itself. Fire was associated with a living being (because it ate, breathed, grew, decayed, and died) in both Western and non-Western religions. Fire was so basic to the human experience that it has persisted in the minds of humanity as an element close to nature.

Fire rituals in Mesopotamia and Eurasia were thought to originate with ancient Zoroastrian rituals around the use of fire in temples and on altars. Ancient Zoroastrians believed fire to have been “the most holy spirit” from which all life was born, and fire was used as a central icon in many Zoroastrian rituals.

In the Old Testament, fire was often associated with divine intervention; with the burning bush guiding the decision of Moses, and the pillar of fire guiding the Israelites in the wilderness. Even the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah was accomplished through divine retribution.

Greek legends of the origins of fire speaks to the importance of fire to separate humans from animals. To many ancient Greeks, fire was a godly element that was bestowed by higher forces, having been given to humans by the Titan Prometheus. It is said that in Greek society, virgins at the Temple of Athena in Athens regularly practiced pyromancy. It is also likely that the followers of Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire and the forge, practiced pyromancy.

In Renaissance magic, pyromancy was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts", along with necromancy, geomancy, aeromancy, hydromancy, chiromancy (palmistry), and scapulimancy.

Fire rituals in East Asia most often revolved around animal bones. In ancient China, Japan, and Tibet, bones from animal scapula (the shoulder bone) would be thrown into fires, and the cracks would be interpreted to divine the future. In Japan, specifically, turtle shells would also be used as a ritualistic divination technique. In Tibet, such divination was used to understand natural phenomena that was otherwise inexplicable to villagers. Lamps that use animal fat were often burned by ancient Tibetan peoples, and the smoke and flames thereof were interpreted as the guidance of natural forces.

Types of pyromancy
The most basic form of pyromancy is that in which the diviner observes flames, from a sacrificial fire, a candle, or another source of flame, and interprets the shapes that he or she sees within them. However, there are several variations of pyromancy, some of which are as follows:

 * Alomancy: divination by salt, one type of which involves casting salt into a fire
 * Botanomancy: divination by burning plants
 * Capnomancy: divination by smoke; light, thin smoke that rose straight up was a good omen; otherwise, a bad one.
 * Causinomancy: divination by burning (non-specific as to the object burned)
 * Daphnomancy (also called empyromancy): divination by burning laurel leaves
 * Osteomancy: divination using bones, one type of which involves heating to produce cracks
 * Plastromancy: divination using turtle plastrons; in China, this was done by heating pits carved into them.
 * Scapulimancy: divination by scapulae; in Asia and North America, this was done through pyromancy.
 * Sideromancy: divination by burning straw with an iron.

title: Pyromancy