text:
Line of Control

The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but serves as the de facto border. It was established as part of the Simla Agreement at the end of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Both nations agreed to rename the ceasefire line as the "Line of Control" and pledged to respect it without prejudice to their respective positions. Apart from minor details, the line is roughly the same as the original 1949 cease-fire line.

The part of the former princely state under Indian control is divided into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The Pakistani-controlled section is divided into Azad Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan. The northernmost point of the Line of Control is known as NJ9842, beyond which lies the Siachen Glacier, which became a bone of contention in 1984. To the south of the Line of Control, (Sangam, Chenab River, Akhnoor), lies the border between Pakistani Punjab and the Jammu province, which has an ambiguous status: India regards it as an "international boundary", and Pakistan calls it a "working border".

Another ceasefire line separates the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir from the Chinese-controlled area known as Aksai Chin. Lying further to the east, it is known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Background
After the partition of India, present-day India and Pakistan contested the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir – India because of the ruler's accession to the country, and Pakistan by virtue of the state's Muslim-majority population. The First Kashmir War in 1947 lasted more than a year until a ceasefire was arranged through UN mediation. Both sides agreed on a ceasefire line.

After another Kashmir War in 1965, and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 (which saw Bangladesh become independent), only minor modifications had been effected in the original ceasefire line. In the ensuing Simla Agreement in 1972, both countries agreed to convert the ceasefire line into a "Line of Control" (LoC) and observe it as a de facto border that armed action should not violate. The agreement declared that "neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations". The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) had the role of investigating ceasefire violations (CFVs), however their role decreased after 1971. In 2000, US President Bill Clinton referred to the Indian subcontinent and the Kashmir Line of Control, in particular, as one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Terrain
The LoC from Kargil to Gurez comprises mountain passes and valleys with small streams and rivers. The area up to around 14,000 ft is wooded while the peaks rise higher. Winter is snowy while summers are mild. From Gurez to Akhnoor, the area is mountainous and hilly respectively and is generally forested. There are tracks and minor roads connecting settlements. The mix of flora and elevation affects visibility and line of sight significantly.

Ceasefire violations
In 2018, two corps and a number of battalions of the Border Security Force manned the Indian side of the LoC. The Rawalpindi Corps manned the Pakistani side. Ceasefire violations (CFV's) are initiated and committed by both sides and show a symmetry. The response to a CFV at one location can lead to shooting at an entirely different area. Weapons used on the LoC include small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, recoilless rifles, mortars, automatic grenade launchers, rocket launchers and a number of other direct and indirect weaponry. Military personnel on both sides risk being shot by snipers in moving vehicles, through bunker peepholes and during meals.

The civilian population at the LoC, at some points ahead of the forward most post, has complicated the situation. Shelling and firing by both sides along the LoC has resulted in civilian deaths. Bunkers have been constructed for these civilian populations for protection during periods of CFV's. India and Pakistan usually report only casualties on their own sides of the LoC, with the media blaming the other side for the firing and each side claiming an adequate retaliation.

According to Happymon Jacob, the reasons for CFVs along the LoC include operational reasons (defence construction like observation facilities, the rule of the gun, lack of bilateral mechanisms for border management, personality traits and the emotional state of soldiers and commanders), politico-strategic reasons, proportional response (land grab, sniping triggered, "I am better than you", revenge firing), accidental CFVs (civilian related, lack of clarity where the line is) and other reasons (like testing the new boys, honour, prestige and humiliation, fun, gamesmanship). Jacob ranks operational reasons as the main cause for CFVs, followed by retributive and politico-strategic reasons.

Landmines and IEDs
Mines have been laid across the India–Pakistan border and the LoC in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 2001. The small stretch of land between the rows of fencing is mined with thousands of landmines. During the 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff thousands of acres of land along the LoC were mined. Both civilians and military personnel on both sides have died in mine and improvised explosive device (IED)-related blasts, and many more have been injured. Between January 2000 to April 2002, 138 military personnel were killed on the Indian side.

Posts and bunkers
Reinforced sandbagged and concrete posts and bunkers are among the first line of defence along the LoC. Armed soldiers man these positions with enough supplies for at least a week. The posts and bunkers allow soldiers to sleep, cook, and keep a watch on enemy positions round the clock. Some posts are located in remote locations. Animals are sometimes used to help transport loads, and at some posts animals are reared. The living quarters and the forward facing bunker are located at some distance apart. The locations of some posts do not follow any pre-ordained plan, rather they are in locations used during the First Kashmir War and the following cease-fire line, with minor adjustments made in 1972.

Indian LoC fencing
India constructed a 550 km barrier along the 740 km –776 km LoC by 2004. The fence generally remains about 150 yd on the Indian-controlled side. Its stated purpose is to exclude arms smuggling and infiltration by Pakistani-based separatist militants. The barrier, referred to as an Anti-Infiltration Obstacle System (AIOS), consists of double-row of fencing and concertina wire 8 - 12 ft in height, and is electrified and connected to a network of motion sensors, thermal imaging devices, lighting systems and alarms. They act as "fast alert signals" for the Indian troops, who can be alerted and ambush the infiltrators trying to sneak in.

The barrier's construction began in the 1990s but slowed in the early 2000s as hostilities between India and Pakistan increased. After a November 2003 ceasefire agreement, building resumed and was completed in late 2004. LoC fencing was completed in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region on 30 September 2004. According to Indian military sources, the fence has reduced the numbers of militants who routinely cross into the Indian side of the disputed region by 80%. In 2017, a proposal for an upgraded smart fence on the Indian side was accepted.

Border villages
A number of villages lie between the Indian fence and the zero line. Pakistan has not constructed a border fence, however a number of villages lie near the zero line. In the Tithwal area, 13 villages are in front of the Indian fence. The total number between the fence and zero line on the Indian side is estimated to be 60 villages and at least one million people are spread over the districts adjacent to the LoC from Rajouri to Bandipora.

Infiltration and military cross-LoC movement
According to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, 1,504 "terrorists" attempted to infiltrate India in 2002. Infiltration was one of India's main issues during the 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff. There has been a decrease in infiltration over the years. Only a select number of individuals are successful; in 2016, the Ministry reported 105 successful infiltrations. The Indian LoC fence has been constructed with a defensive mindset to counter infiltration. The reduction in infiltration also points to a reduction in support of such activities within Pakistan. During the 2019 Balakot airstrike, Indian planes crossed the LoC for the first time in 48 years.

Crossing points
Pakistan and India officially designated five crossing points following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake—Nauseri-Tithwal; Chakoti-Uri; Hajipur-Uri; Rawalakot-Poonch and Tattapani-Mendhar.

According to Azad Jammu and the Kashmir Cross LoC Travel and Trade Authority Act, 2016, the following crossing points are listed:

 * Rawalakot–Poonch
 * Chakothi–Uri
 * Chaliana–Tithwal
 * Tatta Pani–Mendher
 * Haji Peer–Silli Kot

Trade points include: Chakothi – Salamabad and Rawalakot (Titrinote) – Poonch (Chakkan-da-Bagh). The ordinance passed in 2011.

Between 2005 and 2017, and according to Travel and Trade Authority figures, Muzaffarabad, Indian Kashmiris crossing over into Pakistan was about 14,000, while about 22,000 have crossed over to the Indian side. Crossing legally for civilians is not easy. A number of documents are required and verified by both countries, including proof of family on the other side. Even a short-term, temporary crossing invites interrogation by government agencies. The Indian and Pakistani military use these crossing points for flag meetings and to exchange sweets during special occasions and festivals. On 21 October 2008, for the first time in 61 years, cross-LoC trade was conducted between the two sides. Trade across the LoC is barter trade. In ten years, trade worth nearly PKR 11,446 crore or inr 50000000000 has passed through the Chakothi – Salamabad crossing.

Chilliana – Teetwal
The Teetwal crossing is across the Neelum River between Muzaffarabad and Kupwara. It is usually open only during the summer months, and unlike the other two crossings is open only for the movement of people, not for trade. The Tithwal bridge, first built in 1931, has been rebuilt twice.

Chakothi – Salamabad
The Salamabad crossing point, or the Kamran Post, is on the road between Chakothi and Uri in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir along the LoC. It is a major route for cross LoC trade and travel. Banking facilities and a trade facilitation centre are being planned on the Indian side. The English name for the bridge in Uri translates as "bridge of peace. The Indian Army rebuilt it after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake when a mountain on the Pakistani side caved in. This route was opened for trade in 2008 after being closed for 61 years. The Srinagar–Muzaffarabad Bus crosses this bridge on the LoC.

Tetrinote – Chakan Da Bagh
A road connects Kotli and Tatrinote on the Pakistan side of the LoC to the Indian Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir through the Chakan Da Bagh crossing point. It is a major route for cross LoC trade and travel. Banking facilities and a trade facilitation centre are being planned on the Indian side for the benefit of traders.

Most of the flag meetings between Indian and Pakistani security forces are held here.

Tattapani – Mendhar
The fourth border crossing between Tattapani and Mendhar was opened on 14 November 2005.

Impact on civilians
The Line of Control divided the Kashmir into two and closed the Jhelum valley route, the only way in and out of the Kashmir Valley from Pakistani Punjab. This ongoing territorial division severed many villages and separated family members. Some families could see each other along the LoC in locations such as the Neelum River, but were unable to meet. In certain locations, women on the Pakistan side on the LoC have been instrumental in influencing infiltration and ceasefire violations; they have approached nearby Pakistani Army camps directly and insisted infiltration stop, which reduces India's cross LoC firing.

In popular culture
Documentaries covering the LoC and related events include A journey through River Vitasta, Raja Shabir Khan's Line of Control and HistoryTV18's Kargil: Valour & Victory. A number of Bollywood films on the 1999 Kargil conflict have involved depictions and scenes of the line of control including LOC: Kargil (2003), Lakshya (2004) and Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020). Other Bollywood films include Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), and streaming television shows such as Avrodh (2020).

title: Line of Control


text:
Karl Wallenda

Karl Wallenda (January 21, 1905 – March 22, 1978) was a German-American high wire artist. He was the founder of The Flying Wallendas, a daredevil circus troupe whose members performed dangerous stunts far above the ground, often without a safety net.

Personal life
Wallenda was born in 1905 in Magdeburg, Germany, the son of Kunigunde (Jameson) and Engelbert Wallenda. He began performing with his family at age six.

The Great Wallendas
The Great Wallendas were noted throughout Europe for their four-man pyramid and cycling on the high wire. The act moved to the United States in 1928, performing as freelancers. In 1947, they developed the unequaled three-tier 7-Man Pyramid. Karl Wallenda had the idea since 1938, but it took until 1946, when he and his brother Hermann developed it and had the right acrobats for it. The Great Wallendas, a 1978 made-for-TV movie starring Karl Wallenda, depicts the act's comeback after a fatal accident involving several family members during a performance. Wallenda was killed in a high wire accident just 38 days after it was first broadcast.

Daredevil stunts
On July 18, 1970, a 65-year-old Wallenda performed a high-wire walk, also known as a skywalk, across the Tallulah Gorge, a gorge formed by the Tallulah River in Georgia. An estimated 30,000 people watched Wallenda perform two headstands as he crossed the quarter-mile-wide gap.

In 1974, at 69 years old, he broke a world skywalk distance record of 1800 ft at Kings Island, a record that stood until July 4, 2008, when his great-grandson, Nik Wallenda, completed a 2000 ft at the same location.

Death
Despite being involved in several tragedies in his family's acts, Wallenda continued with his stunts. In 1978, at age 73, Wallenda attempted a walk between the two towers of the ten-story Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on a wire stretched 121 ft (37 metres) above the pavement. As a result of high winds and an improperly secured wire, he lost his balance and fell during the attempt. Wallenda was pronounced dead after his body arrived at the hospital. This was not viewed on most television stations, but a film crew from local station WAPA-TV in San Juan taped the fall with narration by anchorman Guillermo José Torres.

Family members

 * Nik Wallenda, Karl's great-grandson, continues the family tradition of performing stunts on highwire without a safety net, while at times wearing a safety harness.
 * Mario Wallenda, adopted son of Karl, fell along with Karl during an attempt to perform the 7-Person Pyramid on January30, 1962, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He died April12, 2015.
 * Karl Wallenda established the Wallenda Dynasty with his two daughters, Jenny and Carla.
 * Jenny's children, Tino, Delilah, and Tammy, formed their own troupes.
 * Carla helped train her children Rick, Rietta, Mario, and Valerie. Rick and Rietta still perform today. Valerie retired to raise her family and their brother Mario B. died in 1993.
 * The following great-grandchildren of Karl Wallenda perform today: Nik, Alida, Andrea, Aurelia, Alessandro "Alex", Lijana, and Lyric.

In popular culture

 * Salsa singer Marvin Santiago made constant references to Wallenda's death in a few of his songs, mostly as side comments.
 * Puerto Rican Reggaeton/Rap group Calle 13 make reference to Wallenda in their song Cabe-ce-o.
 * The death of Wallenda's sister-in-law Rietta Wallenda is referred to in season 3 of the AMC program Mad Men, in the episode "Love Among the Ruins".
 * In the 1979 film All That Jazz, the protagonist (Roy Scheider) paraphrases Wallenda during a conversation about life in show business: "To be on the wire is life; the rest is waiting."
 * The 1998 film Rounders references the quotation in a similar manner: "Like Papa Wallenda said, 'Life is on the wire, the rest is just waiting.'"
 * A more elegant version of this quote is attributed to Wallenda by sociologist Erving Goffman in his 1967 essay 'Where the Action is': "To be on the wire is life; the rest is waiting."
 * Athens, Georgia band Drive-By Truckers references the Wallendas in their song The Flying Wallendas on their 2010 album The Big To-Do.
 * Karl Wallenda is mentioned in Tom Robbins's book Villa Incognito as well as in Stephen King's books Gerald's Game and The Tommyknockers.
 * Folk/alternative singer/songwriter Bill Mallonee includes references to the Great Wallenda stepping out over Tallulah Gorge in his song "Balaam's Ass" from the 1995 audio album Blister Soul, by the Vigilantes of Love.
 * British guitarist and composer Mike Walker wrote 'Wallenda's last stand' for The Impossible Gentleman's self-titled album on Basho records.
 * Poet Raymond Carver wrote the eponymous "Poem for Karl Wallenda, Aerialist Supreme".
 * Motivational business journalist Harvey Mackay references Wallenda in his August 30, 2016 syndicated newspaper article entitled "Fear factor can create positives from the negatives". Mackay quotes Karl's widow commenting on her late husband's death as saying: "All Karl thought about for 3 straight months prior to the accident was falling. It seemed to me he put all his energy into not falling - not into walking the tightrope."
 * Karl Wallenda was mentioned in an episode of Last Man Standing as a part of one of the "Outdoor Man" blogs.
 * Fictional General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Andrey Il'ych Narmanov is compared to Karl Wallenda in Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears.
 * In 1972, Karl Wallenda appeared on flagship BBC children's magazine programme Blue Peter, walking a wire across the BBC studios. The segment was hosted by John Noakes. It also appeared in the end of year review show, Blue Peter, Review of the Year 1972.
 * In the 2012 drama film Wallenda, the movie focuses on Karl Wallenda during his youthful years and his beginning stages of joining the circus during the 1920s.

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

title: Karl Wallenda


text:
Susannah Constantine

Susannah Caroline Constantine (born 3 June 1962) is an English former TV fashion journalist, writer, style advisor, television presenter, author and clothes designer. Her second book, What Not to Wear, co-written with her fashion partner Trinny Woodall, won her a British Book Award and sold 670,000 copies.

Constantine was born into a wealthy family; her father was successful in property and shipping sectors. She was privately educated as a child and went on to date British royalty, David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, during the 1980s. Constantine has been involved in fashion for a long period, originally working in America for Giorgio Armani and then John Galliano in London. She met Trinny Woodall in 1994, with whom she proceeded to co-write a weekly fashion column, Ready to Wear. They founded Ready2shop.com, a dot-com fashion advice business, and wrote their first fashion advice book in 2000, Ready 2 Dress, both of which failed. From there they were commissioned to BBC Two to host the style series, What Not to Wear, from 2001 to 2005. She made regular appearances as a style advisor on The Oprah Winfrey Show and following her success on the shows, she went on to co-host Trinny & Susannah Undress... on ITV in 2006 and Undress the Nation in 2007.

She has co-written fashion advice books with Woodall, some of which have become best-sellers in the United Kingdom and United States. It is estimated that her various style advice books have sold 2.5 million copies in Britain and the United States. Constantine and Woodall have designed their own clothing range for Littlewoods which made its debut in 2007, followed by the release of their latest fashion advice book, The Body Shape Bible.

Early life
Constantine was born at Hammersmith, and raised at Knipton, a small village in Leicestershire. Her father, Joseph Constantine, was an Old Etonian who served as an officer in the Coldstream Guards. He was of a Yorkshire landed gentry family that traces itself back to the 1100s. Through her paternal grandmother, Marie Leonie Francoise (née van Haaren), she is descended from Dutch prince William the Silent.

Education
Constantine was educated at boarding schools including Queen's Gate School in South Kensington, London and St Mary's School in Wantage, Oxfordshire which was run by Anglican nuns. She was first sent to boarding school at the age of 11 years, and recalls her first night away from home: "I sobbed uncontrollably into my pillow."

In mid-2007, Constantine spoke about how she received a letter from St Mary's School, inviting her to come back to the school to talk about her career and success to current pupils. Constantine immediately declined the offer and wrote "No fucking way" on the letter she had received.

Early career
Constantine originally did a year of Montessori training after she had left school but she then moved onto other projects such as studying sculpture in Brussels. She later said of this time that she "lost [her] virginity, went a bit mad." Constantine had taught children for three years, and also worked as a shop girl for Harrods. She wrote a book about present giving, which prompted The Daily Telegraph to write an article implying she had never done a day's work in her life, something which deeply upset her. She has stated "I've always worked."

She worked as a shop girl in America for Giorgio Armani. She later came back to London working for designers Richard James, Patrick Cox, Alistair Blair and John Galliano which gained her an understanding of fashion. She then started working with the British Brain and Spine Foundation and consequently met the sports editor of The Daily Telegraph. Whilst doing a piece for GMTV, he asked Constantine to report the women's World Cup Final in cricket. She proceeded to write about cars and then fashion.

In 1994, she first met Trinny Woodall at a party hosted by David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley. The two women wrote Ready to Wear, a weekly style guide for The Daily Telegraph for seven years. The column promoted affordable high-street fashion and they used themselves to illustrate which clothing suited which figure. Constantine and Woodall became the co-founders of Ready2shop.com, but the business venture failed, and investors lost a reputed £10 million.

Constantine made her television debut when Granada Sky Broadcasting signed her and Woodall to present a daytime shopping show called Ready to Wear, and they released their first fashion advice book, Ready 2 Dress in 2000. The book was unsuccessful and resulted in the pulping of 13,000 copies. Soon after the start of their television career, they secured a frequent makeover slot on the show Richard & Judy. It ensured that they had further exposure in television and gained attention from Jane Root, controller of BBC Two, who signed them up after their book venture and their internet business had failed badly.

2001–03
Constantine began co-hosting What Not to Wear with Trinny Woodall in 2001, in which they criticised participants' appearances and fashion style. Constantine and Woodall hosted What Not to Wear until 2005 and became renowned for their behaviour with the participants, direct advice, and frequently referring to breasts as tits. A notorious moment arose when Constantine spontaneously pulled a female candidate's underwear down during filming as her knicker line was visible. Critics of What Not to Wear argued that the duo were too patronising to their subjects, a claim which they strongly disagree with. Constantine insists that their subjects "see we have a genuine love of women. We love women and they can see that. Women just know." She also stated "Ultimately, what we're doing is giving people confidence. We're probably the only people who have an opinion, who care how ordinary people dress. No one at Vogue magazine gives a shit. They work with the designers, it's more creative and artistic – they are creating something beautiful. But they don't care about how their readers end up looking – whereas we do!" The show made Constantine and Woodall household names and they are now known together as Trinny and Susannah. One reporter has simply referred to Constantine as "the one with 'big tits'."

Constantine has the belief that "anyone can achieve style. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from." She also says that she finds dressing other women easy, but finds it difficult when dressing herself. Constantine and Woodall share the belief that dressing to flatter body shape is vital, stating "For us, it’s all about shape, and how that is going to cure a bodily defect. We’re like clothing doctors."

During her time co-hosting What Not to Wear, she and Woodall won a Royal Television Society Award in 2002 for being the best factual presenters. In 2002, Constantine advised Jeremy Clarkson on a celebrity version of What Not to Wear. After Clarkson appeared on the show, Nasir Khan stated "I'd rather eat my own hair than shop with these two [Constantine and Woodall] again". The show was nominated for the Features Award at the BAFTAS in both 2002 and 2003. On the show Big Impression, impressionist Ronni Ancona took to spoofing Constantine's presenting techniques on What Not to Wear.

For charity, in 2002 during the BBC's Children in Need programme, both Constantine and Woodall performed their own version of Madonna's hit single "Vogue". They became the faces of Nescafé in 2003 and featured in television advertisements promoting the brand of coffee. As part of their contract, Constantine and Woodall gave a Nescafé competition winner a £10,000 makeover.

2004–05
Following its ratings success, What Not to Wear was promoted from BBC Two to BBC One in 2004. The format was changed slightly, to a 60-minute show with two makeovers instead of a 30-minute show with only one makeover and also saw Constantine spending a day as one of her subjects. What Not to Wear was also aired in countries such as Spain and Portugal as well as in the American continent.

Constantine appeared on Children in Need in 2004, which included a special segment in which she gave the fictional EastEnders characters Little Mo and Mo Harris a makeover in the style of What Not to Wear, commenting on them with her usual "no nonsense" approach. In 2005, Constantine voiced a robot version of herself in the science fiction series, Doctor Who.

The Oprah Winfrey Show has also seen Constantine and Woodall appearing twice as makeover and style experts. They also did an "Oprah bra and swimsuit intervention". Reflecting on differences in women's style and willingness to submit to makeovers between the UK and America, she stated that although there is not much difference, "The Americans are slightly less adventurous," and that "American women are more open to change and slightly more receptive victims."

2006–present
In 2006, Constantine and Woodall moved from the BBC to ITV to start a new show, Trinny & Susannah Undress..., on 3 October. The second series of Trinny & Susannah Undress... was transmitted in June 2007, and it maintained the format of series one which saw Constantine and Woodall advising couples who were finding problems within their marriage. Constantine stated in an interview that filming the show was very emotionally draining, and as a result, she often went home crying. The programme did not come without its critics who questioned the depth at which Constantine and Woodall could deal with serious issues raised during the programme. On 16 October 2006, they both appeared on NBC's The Today Show and performed makeovers on three women especially for the show.

The new series on ITV saw a change in format. In one episode exploring the theme of age, Constantine was transformed into a seventy-year-old with the use of prosthetics and makeup. She stated that it took her four days to get over the sight of herself aged so drastically, and compared the feeling to having an "electric shock". Broadcasting was scheduled for 7 November 2007 and the programme is newly entitled Trinny & Susannah Undress The Nation. On 5 November and 28 December 2007 Constantine and Woodall appeared on Good Morning America and performed makeovers on three women for the show and gave style advice according to the women's shapes. They also reported on the fashion at the 80th Academy Awards especially for the show in 2008. Constantine and Woodall have dressed over 5,000 women as of 2007.

In 2015, Constantine took part in the fifteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. She was the first campmate to be eliminated from the show.

On 21 August 2018, it was announced that Constantine would be a contestant on the sixteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing. Her professional dance partner was Anton du Beke. She and du Beke were the first couple to be eliminated from the competition after scoring the lowest scoring Samba and Foxtrot in the show's history, both which scored just 12 points from the judges.

Online
In 2010, Constantine and Woodall starred in an online mockumentary series called "Trinny and Susannah: What They Did Next".

An announcement was made that Constantine and Woodall would be touring New Zealand and Australia where they made a series of public appearances at shopping malls owned by the Westfield Group to perform live styling sessions for the company's customers. Their appearances often attracted thousands of spectators. Before the tour, Constantine said "We don't know how New Zealanders dress but we are looking forward to getting over there and finding out."

Littlewoods
With Woodall, Constantine became the face of the home shopping company, Littlewoods Direct, after orders rose by thirty per cent when Littlewoods sponsored their ITV programme Trinny & Susannah Undress. The pair produced a twelve-page fashion advice section within the Littlewoods catalogue and made a booklet called The Golden Rules, which was distributed to all Littlewoods customers with fashion advice to suit a range of body shapes. They have also produced online style guidelines for Littlewoods.

The first series of Littlewoods television advertisements featured Constantine and Woodall as themselves dressed as two agents trying to rob a Littlewoods designer warehouse, which was followed by Christmas adverts in 2007. The £12 million advertising campaign is one of largest ever for a home shopping and internet-based company. When the campaign began, Littlewoods' sales rose by 18 per cent, with brand awareness and customers visiting the website rising as well.

On 20 September 2007, Constantine and Woodall launched their own Littlewoods women's clothing range which consists of trousers, coats and tops which like their underwear range, are designed to make certain areas appear slimmer. A series of eight dresses, cashmere knitwear, faux fur and sequinned shrugs also feature in the range.

Books
Constantine has co-written several style advice books with her fashion partner Trinny Woodall, which have sold over an estimated 2½ million copies worldwide. The fashion advice books have been number one bestsellers in Britain and the United States, appearing on both the Sunday Times bestseller list and The New York Times best-seller list, and have been translated throughout the world.

Their most successful book to date, What Not to Wear, was published in 2002 which displayed chapters such as "Big Tits", "No Tits" and "Big Bum" with fashion advice for each category. It became an instant best-seller with total sales reaching 670,000 copies. Before the prime book selling season, their book had sold 250,000 copies in Britain. The book was at one point selling 45,000 copies each week and sold 300,000 copies in just fifteen weeks, eventually making sales worth £8.7 million. Other success with the book includes winning a British Book Award in 2003 for the TV & Film Book of the Year. Despite the book becoming an instant hit, Constantine and Woodall were only given an advance of £10,000. It was then reported that Constantine and Woodall secured a £1 million book deal to write more of their fashion books.

The pair's latest book, The Body Shape Bible, was published on 18 September 2007. In the book, women can interpret which body shape they are, and can then be given adequate fashion advice on their own individual shape. A few pages in the book are also devoted to illustrating some of Constantine and Woodall's own fashion disasters.

In 2017 she published her first novel, After the Snow.

Podcast
In January 2020, Constantine launched My Wardrobe Malfunction, a "revealing podcast about our relationship with the items we wear". Guests were invited to share their 'comfort blanket', 'burial suit' and 'wardrobe malfunction'. The first season featured interviews with eight high-profile guests: Michelle Visage, Tan France, Elizabeth Hurley, Nile Rodgers, Trinny Woodall, Joe Sugg, Kristin Scott Thomas and Stacey Dooley. It continued throughout the year and, by December 2020, there had been five seasons and 40 episodes in total. Season six began on 4 February 2021 with Jane Seymour as the first guest.

Personal life
When she was young, Constantine would rely on her father for fashion advice and has commented that any style that she has, she learned from him. He was a talented artist and was offered worldwide art exhibitions, although he was too modest to accept. His death came suddenly and was a milestone for Constantine.

Constantine became a fixture in 1980s British gossip columns and newspapers as the result of her relationship with Princess Margaret's son, David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, which lasted for eight years. Constantine admitted that her relationship with Linley undeniably opened doors for her, but after they broke up, she was keen to put the episode behind her and become well known in her own right. She dated Imran Khan, then a cricketer and playboy, later Prime Minister of Pakistan, in 1992. She also visited Pakistan in the time of the short-lived relationship. Constantine married Danish entrepreneur and businessman Sten Bertelsen, who launched Death cigarettes, with whom she has three children; Joe, Esme and CeCe. Constantine and her family bought a 120 acre property in Sussex.

Constantine has spoken of the constant pressure to look good in public but affirms "We're as much in the business of dressing ourselves – but more importantly helping other women to do that." Constantine has admitted to a fear of growing older: "I just don't want to get old. Old women are invisible, and I don't want to be invisible," she has said.

In 2002, while on a visit to the Cannes Film Festival, Constantine and Woodall were the victims of gem thieves. The thieves broke into the villa on the French Riviera where they were staying, rendered Constantine and Woodall unconscious with chloroform, and then stole money and jewellery.

Carol Vorderman was involved in a feud with Constantine and Woodall in 2003. Vorderman commented harshly about the double-act, referring to them as 'Tranny and the Horse', based on their appearance, after they had called her an "overdone Eighties nightmare" and named Vorderman in their list of the 20 worst-dressed celebrities.

Views
In August 2014, Constantine was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

In August 2020, she said she hates cyclists so much that if she saw her own husband out on the road in Lycra, she would run him over. Speaking on the My Wardrobe Malfunction podcast, Constantine said “Oh I hate cycling, I won’t cycle. No, I fucking hate cyclists. My husband is a cyclist and if I see him on the road on his bicycle, I’m going to run him over... And the day when I know I’m about to die, I’m going to get in my car, aged 90, and I’m going to drive into cyclists wearing Lycra, kill the lot of them and go and die in Guam.”

title: Susannah Constantine


text:
Talk:Foot binding

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 2 February 2021 and 11 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Adamyau12, Beanta.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 21:22, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 1 September 2020 and 22 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kristen998. Peer reviewers: Brittanyli, Phoenix 1620, SisiShen.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 21:37, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Misleading and possibly biased claim about feminist discourse of foot binding not supported by citation given
I read the Ebrey article, and it really doesn't seem to support the claim that feminists argued that foot binding should be viewed in a positive light. Although Ebrey makes the claim that such works exist, from what I can tell, none of the sources she cites argue for viewing foot binding as a way for women to exhibit "mastery over their bodies". In addition, her article focuses on western perceptions prior to the 20th century, and the sentence about this supposed new feminist view of foot binding is thrown in as an afterthought in the conclusion. It seems like this is simply the case of an author attempting to conclude her article and briefly summarizing contemporary feminist revisionism in a way that, in its brevity, leads to misinterpretation.

Although the authors she cites do indeed advocate for a new lens of viewing foot binding, they hardly present it as a "feminist" practice, but rather advocate for viewing the issue with more nuance than simply as an act done for the sexual pleasure of men. All of the authors she cites also call attention to the pain inflicted by the practice, as well as to the fact that women who had their feet bound were relegated to social roles subservient to and dependent on men as a result of the practice. So, although drawing attention to the attempts to revise how foot-binding was viewed from a western perspective in the late 20th century is warranted, I simply don't think it's valid to claim that "Some feminists ... [argued] that it gave women a sense of mastery over their bodies, and pride in their beauty." Unless somebody is able to produce a source of a feminist author actually arguing this point, I don't think it makes sense to leave the section as is. Nodrokov (talk) 02:07, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

 * I found this article from 2018 (therefore not the feminists mentioned) that says "Control over one's body is a fundamental tenet of feminism; and foot-binders, who can assent to treatment, may be happy when they control they bodies." I think it is a wrong-headed argument since few children can make meaningful assent to their "treatment", nevertheless it is an indication that it is a position still held by some.  Note that some women being proud of their bound feet is a general observation, not really specifically a feminist one -, and the article does not say that that it is an act done simply for the sexual pleasure of men (it's just one of a number of possibilities).  Note also that saying that pain was inflicted and women being subservient does not contradict the idea of some women being proud of their bound feet. I do agree, however, we need the original sources made by those feminists in the article so that we can more accurately reflect their positions. If you have access to the Dorothy Ko's article, perhaps there are sources there as to who said what. Hzh (talk) 12:23, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

 * That's certainly an interesting article you found and does seem to support the claim that at least some published feminist authors view footbinding in a positive light. However, I still maintain that this is by far a minority position and that it should not be presented as representative of feminist discourse as a whole. I was able to get access to the Dorothy Ko article, and it's actually quite shocking how little it has to do with the notion that Western feminists view footbinding as a positive practice. The only Western feminist she directly responds to in the article is Mary Daly, who quite firmly views the practice as patriarchal and victimizing towards women, and Ko's article is not really a rebuttal of Daly's argument but rather a constructive analysis which compares Daly's points to works by Eastern authors and women who underwent the foot-binding process. Ko is indeed critical of Daly's work, and argues that her analysis relies too heavily on Western ideas, but to make the claim that Daly views footbinding as positive (or that Ko's article was a response to authors viewing footbinding as positive) is simply incorrect. I think it's most likely that the original author of this section was confused by the highly academic tone of Ko's article which presumes familiarity with Daly's work, and came away with the misconception that Daly was a footbinding advocate to which Ko was responding.--Nodrokov (talk) 22:51, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
 * If you think that there is any misrepresentation of views in the article, feel free to make any adjustment you consider appropriate. You can expand on any individual's position on the issue, or delete any statement that you think is wrong. I don't have access to Ko's critique, so I can't assess the validity of the statement attributed to her. Hzh (talk) 21:34, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Baseless statistic in the introduction
An internet mentioned today that the following statistic in the introduction is unfounded: "It has been estimated that by the 19th century, 40–50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, rising to almost 100% in upper-class Chinese women." Indeed, the source (an NPR article) claims it based only on a book about foot fetishism. Do there exist references that confirm the statistic? Moreover, the source claims that "[s]ome estimate that as many as 2 billion Chinese women broke and bound their feet to attain this agonizing ideal of physical perfection" without giving any reference or at least a time period over which this value has been aggregated. It may be better to ignore the source for this Wikipedia article.Leonry (talk) 10:59, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * After some research on the author and the book, it seems that this is a general reference for foot and shoe fetishism. The author comes from the shoe industry, I didn't find any academic sound work. The claim may be altered to "William A. Rossi estimates that by the 19th century, 40–50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, rising to almost 100% in upper-class Chinese women." with the reference to the NPR article as a source if the original source (i.e. the book) cannot be used.Leonry (talk) 11:29, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

 * I understand where you are coming from now. Estimate of 50%, with an error of +/-50%, so the real figure lies between 0% to 100%. 2A00:23C5:C13C:9F01:282B:B9FA:2092:6AA6 (talk) 21:50, 26 May 2022 (UTC)
 * You can indeed make it clearer as to who said it, but it is sourced, so it should not be removed without good reason. We are not using the 2 billion claim (it is just a claim by some), so that is irrelevant. Hzh (talk) 11:35, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * A note also that the percentage estimates given are not unusual, in fact among women surveyed in many parts of China, the number of women who had their feet bound at some stage were 100% in the late 19th and early 20th century - . Hzh (talk) 12:39, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Where? 2A00:23C5:C13C:9F01:282B:B9FA:2092:6AA6 (talk) 21:45, 26 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Oh, OK. I guess I got triggered by the allegation of sinophobia that the internet claimed, so I made a fool of myself. I will stick to my topics better. Leonry (talk) 12:47, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

 * What a load of rubbish. These figures were made up. No one actually did a count. The real proportion was less than 5%, and probably less than 1%. Given 90% and more of the Chinese lived in poverty, their daughters were not foot-bound. 2A00:23C5:C13C:9F01:282B:B9FA:2092:6AA6 (talk) 21:19, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Should the statistic that 10 percent of women with bound feet died of gangrene be better sourced?
This statistic comes from a book which, from looking at the google preview, makes reference in turn to another source. Unfortunately the preview doesn't allow me to view the original source. Wouldn't it be better practice to reference the original source rather than a third party book, especially with such a bold and important statistic as this? If so, could anyone who owns this book add the proper reference to this statistic. Forgive me if this is a nonissue, I'm not overly familliar with the customs on wikipedia Camholl (talk) 21:39, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * no, that's a valid concern, and a good call. What's the name of the original book? I'll see if I can track down a copy.--Ineffablebookkeeper (talk) ({{ping}} me!) 23:00, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * The book is called Ordinary Violence: Everyday Assaults against Women Worldwide, by Mary White Stewart. ISBN 978-1-4408-2937-6. In the article, it can be found under reference nuber 83 Camholl (talk) 12:23, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I've found a copy on archive.org. The citation for this 10% number is reference 29 in the book, H. Gates' "Bound Feet: How Sexy Were They?", in History of the Family 13, no. 1 (2008), page 62.
 * I don't have a university account, so I can't access the full text, but I can request a copy from the author. I'll see where that takes me.--Ineffablebookkeeper (talk) ({{ping}} me!) 14:06, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Wow, all this over a single reference! Thank you for your effort in keeping wikipedia a reliable and trustworthy source of information!
 * Keep me updated if you get to the bottom of this. Camholl (talk) 20:29, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
 * will do! And thank you :) --Ineffablebookkeeper (talk) ({{ping}} me!) 22:48, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: HIST 4048 Women and Gender in Modern China
— Assignment last updated by Allendq (talk) 17:31, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Harbin shoemaker was not necessarily the last "littleshoes" factory to close
This Harbin shoemaker kept her factory open not for profit but because she was committed to "keeping every last of these elderly ladies well-shod, so they can still get around as they will". Basically it was a contribution to her local community. When she got to retire her production line in Harbin, there were still lots of elderly women with bound feet outside Manchuria, but factories there were closing off nonetheless as it became less and less profitable. I've not yet found a reliable source as to if Harbin Zhiqiang was really the last one. It'd be sad if true. Even today there's inflicted elderly ladies who's only in their 70's, if you think about it.

I'm removing this sentence for now because her mission completion marked only the disappearance of this abhorrent tradition in Manchuria, and bears a sense of false optimism that would potentially make one ignore other elderly ladies' unmet needs, if there's still any. Arachnikhan (talk) 20:59, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

 * You should not remove the sentence until you cam provide an alternative source. Hzh (talk) 21:49, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the instruction. The ref was a popular book that only mentioned Harbin shoemaker anecdotally to ease into the main theme. I probably should have marked it with a flag like [dubious] first? Although my reason for deleting mainly was it was placed at the very end of "decline" section presumably as a closure, but it was actually anachronistic with the previous sentence.
 * This preceding sentence sounds pretty questionable too. The sources quoted here are two blog posts that refers to the same photographer's recent(2015) published photos & interviews of "the very last victims of foot binding after nine years of searching and travelling across China". It doesn't appear the editor who added it intended to promote anything here, but I don't think this description can be taken literally.
 * On a side note, is "Heavenly Foot Society" a legit translation used by people back then? There's a separate article under this exact name but was translated from Swedish. I'm thinking if there wasn't a well-established English term already maybe we should use "Natural Foot Society"? .. "heavenly foot" sounds suspiciously like what contemporary dudes would want the most given the history development.. oooor, maybe if unless "heaven" underwent similar change like "gay" did and people really did call it that back then.. in which case Heaven Eden Tengri pardon my degeneracy Arachnikhan (talk) 13:25, 2 January 2024 (UTC)
 * The book is written by an academic and a social historian, and she likely knows more than you do. So far you haven't offered anything apart from personal opinion, and Wikipedia article has no place for personal opinion. The Guardian or Slate article are not blogs, they simply gave something from a recently published book. "Heavenly" is a direct translation of "tian", more recent publication prefers "natural", which is more explanatory. Either is fine, I have no objection to anyone changing it. Hzh (talk) 14:10, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Foot binding


text:
Trinny Woodall

Sarah-Jane Duncanson "Trinny" Woodall (born 8 February 1964) is a British beauty entrepreneur, businesswoman, and the founder and CEO of direct-to-consumer beauty brand, Trinny London, which launched in 2017 and currently employs over 220 people.

Woodall initially rose to fame as a fashion and makeover expert, television presenter and author. She was part of a makeover duo with Susannah Constantine, with whom she teamed up to write a weekly fashion column for The Daily Telegraph. They were then commissioned by the BBC to host What Not to Wear in 2001, which was followed by several other television projects, books and clothing ranges.

Early life
Woodall is the youngest of six children, including three half-siblings from her father's first marriage. Her father was a banker, while her maternal grandfather was Sir John Duncanson, controller of the British steel industry in the last two years of the war, who went on to become managing director of the British Iron and Steel Federation (BISF) in August 1945 and then managing director of Lithgows in 1949.

When Woodall was five years old, she was sent home from school after cutting off another pupil's plait. A family friend, Ronald Searle, who created the St Trinian cartoons that inspired the later films, likened her to a mischievous St Trinian girl, and the name Trinny stuck from then onwards. Woodall was educated at boarding schools from the age of six, which included Queen's Gate School in Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London. She also attended Baston School for Girls. She has described one of the boarding schools as "cruel" and "sadistic". She has connected a fear of being naked with the time she was made to stand totally unclothed in front of the other pupils as a punishment for having a water fight. Woodall also attended boarding schools in France and Germany between the ages of twelve and fifteen. During her school years, she felt overshadowed by her older sister who was the "star of the school", which prompted pupils to use Woodall to get to her sister.

Early career
Woodall and Susannah Constantine first collaborated in 1996 on Ready to Wear, a weekly style guide for The Daily Telegraph which ran for seven years. The style guide highlighted affordable high-street fashion, with the pair using themselves to demonstrate clothing that suited different figures. Woodall assumed the role of stylist and made the duo's business decisions.

Television
Woodall and Constantine became household names as co-hosts and fashion advisors for five series of the BBC television series What Not to Wear. They combined their fashion knowledge and their infamous straight-talking advice to improve the dress sense of the candidates selected for the show.

In 2002, Woodall and Constantine won a Royal Television Society Award for their work on What Not to Wear, in the category of best factual presenter. The show itself was nominated for the Features Award at the BAFTAS in both 2002 and 2003.

With What Not to Wear proving popular on BBC America, they frequently contributed as makeover and fashion experts on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

After What Not to Wear, Woodall and Constantine transferred from the BBC to ITV, and Constantine began their new television show, Trinny & Susannah Undress..., in 2006.

Woodall has also made regular appearances giving fashion and beauty advice on shows such as This Morning, The Today Show and The Marilyn Denis Show.

Books
Woodall and Constantine have co-written numerous fashion advice books, which have sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Their books have been translated throughout the world and have placed them number one on both The Sunday Times best-seller list and The New York Times best-seller list.

Personal life
Woodall married entrepreneur and former drummer Jonathan Elichaoff in 1999. They had a daughter about 2003. They divorced in 2009 after two years of separation. The divorce financial settlement eventually led to a complex and novel legal case in 2016. Elichaoff became bankrupt before the divorce was finalised and the trustee in bankruptcy sought to void the settlement, after Elichaoff took his own life in 2014, and make Woodall responsible for the bankruptcy debts of about £300,000. The case proceeded to hearings in the High Court, where the claim was rejected and later leave to appeal was denied, as orders over a divorce settlement can only be made during their joint lives.

title: Trinny Woodall


text:
Kobayashi Maru

The Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the Star Trek franchise designed to test the character of Starfleet Academy cadets by placing them in a no-win scenario. The Kobayashi Maru test was first depicted in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and it has since been referred to and depicted in numerous other Star Trek media.

The nominal goal of the exercise is to rescue the civilian fuel ship Kobayashi Maru, which is damaged and stranded in neutral territory between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. The cadet being evaluated must decide whether to attempt to rescue the Kobayashi Maru—endangering their ship and crew—or leave the Kobayashi Maru to certain destruction. If the cadet chooses to attempt a rescue, an insurmountable enemy force attacks their vessel. By reprogramming the test, James T. Kirk became the only cadet to overcome the Kobayashi Maru simulation.

The phrase "Kobayashi Maru" has entered the popular lexicon as a reference to a no-win scenario. The term is also sometimes used to invoke Kirk's decision to "change the conditions of the test."

Depiction
The test is introduced in the opening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with Lieutenant Saavik commanding her crew on a bridge simulator. They receive a distress call from the Kobayashi Maru and enter the Klingon Neutral Zone to rescue it. The crew loses contact with the civilian ship and three Klingon vessels attack. With the bridge crew dead and the ship badly damaged, Saavik orders the crew to abandon ship and the simulation ends. When Saavik says the test is unfair because there is no way to win, Admiral James T. Kirk replies that a starship captain might face an actual "no-win scenario". Later in the film, Kirk reveals that he beat the Kobayashi Maru as a cadet on his third attempt by reprogramming the simulation to make it possible to rescue the ship, and that he does not actually believe in the idea of a no-win scenario.

The 2009 film Star Trek shows an alternate timeline's version of Cadet Kirk defeating the Kobayashi Maru test; in contrast to the original timeline where Kirk was commended for his unorthodox approach, this version of Kirk receives an academic reprimand for violating the spirit of the test.

The test is also depicted in the Star Trek: Prodigy episode "Kobayashi". Dal, who is struggling as the starship Protostar 's captain and does not understand the purpose of the Kobayashi Maru, repeats the simulation many times. Every attempt ends in failure, adding to his despondence. A holographic version of Spock advises Dal that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," and Dal finally solves the problem while realizing that he needs to listen to his crew more often.

The Kobayashi Maru is referred to in other live-action and animated content, and characters also use the phrase "Kobayashi Maru" to describe no-win or desperate situations generally. The fourth-season premiere of Star Trek: Discovery is titled "Kobayashi Maru" (2021) and depicts the main characters confronting several challenging situations. Licensed media provide additional depictions of and references to the test, and two Star Trek novels carry the test's name in their title: The Kobayashi Maru (1989) by Julia Ecklar and Kobayashi Maru (2008) by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels.

The simulation is performed in the novel Stone and Anvil (2003), a part of the Star Trek: New Frontier series by Peter David. In this version, Klingons are replaced by Romulans (the series takes place after the events of the sixth film) and the simulation is conducted on the holodeck. Captain Mackenzie Calhoun tries to save the Kobayashi Maru, but when he notices that the enemy ships are using it as cover, he orders it fired upon, resulting in two of the three enemy ships being driven towards each other and exploding. Having saved his crew, Calhoun orders them to escape.

Concept and production
Star Trek II screenwriter Jack B. Sowards developed the Kobayashi Maru, naming it after his former neighbors. Kirk's rejection of "the no-win scenario" in the film is one of several characterizations that reflected Sowards' own mindset at the time. Anticipating that news would leak of Spock's death at the film's end, Sowards had Spock and other known Enterprise bridge officers feign their deaths as part of the opening Kobayashi Maru simulation; Kirk's quip afterward to Spock—"Aren't you dead?"—was Sowards' way of playing on that knowledge with the audience.

The "all-star crew" of Spock, Uhura, Sulu, and McCoy on the bridge simulator in Star Trek II motivated Star Trek: Prodigy 's producers to attempt to create a "perfect" bridge crew for a holodeck in their show. The writers could not reach consensus, and their lineup was limited by the availability of appropriate audio. Aaron Waltke, who wrote the episode, believed strongly that the characters should be voiced by the original actors, which meant finding either archived audio or recording new dialogue. Waltke did most of the research to find appropriate audio, which involved reading 90 scripts and watching 40 episodes from across the franchise; he called it "one of the hardest writing experiences I've ever had." The protagonist Dal's (voiced by Brett Gray) holographic bridge crew ultimately consisted of Spock, Uhura, Scotty, and Odo, and they were "voiced" by mixing archival television and film dialogue of the characters as depicted by Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and René Auberjonois, respectively. Beverly Crusher was added when the writers realized someone needed to interact more directly with Dal, and Gates McFadden recorded new dialogue for the character.

Critical response and impact
Entertainment Weekly said the Kobayashi Maru test is one of the top ten elements of Star Trek with which non-fans are likely to be familiar; writing for Tor, Keith DeCandido said "everyone knows that the Kobayashi Maru refers to a no-win scenario". Craig S. Semon said that if the 2009 Star Trek film were popular with both general audiences and serious Star Trek fans, then director J. J. Abrams will have outperformed Kirk on the Kobayashi Maru. io9 called Prodigy 's Kobayashi Maru and its impact on Dal "surprisingly touching".

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Star Trek fan Randy Pausch received an autographed picture of Kirk whose inscription from William Shatner echoed Kirk's dialogue in Star Trek II: "I don't believe in the no-win scenario."

The term has been applied to real-world scenarios with no perceived positive outcome or that requires outside-the-box thinking, such as climate change, constitutional law, education, and the casting of the Ancient One character in Doctor Strange. Commentators have used Kirk's unorthodox answer to the Kobayashi Maru test as an example of the need to redefine the premises upon which an organization operates—changing the rules rather than playing within them. Computer security educators have used the Kobayashi Maru to teach students to think like an adversary, and that by stepping outside the rules of the game one can redefine the game. Ideas and products focusing on immersive learning have also been compared to the realistic, immersive nature of the Kobayashi Maru test.

title: Kobayashi Maru


text:
Congress of the Philippines

The Congress of the Philippines (Kongreso ng Pilipinas) is the legislature of the national government of the Philippines. It is bicameral, composed of an upper body, the Senate, and a lower body, the House of Representatives, although colloquially, the term "Congress" commonly refers to just the latter. The Senate meets at the GSIS Building in Pasay, while the House of Representatives meets at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, which also hosts joint sessions.

The Senate is composed of 24 senators half of which are elected every three years. Each senator, therefore, serves a total of six years. The senators are elected at-large and do not represent any geographical district.

In the current 19th Congress, there are 316 seats in the House of Representatives. The Constitution states that the House "shall be composed of not more than 250 members, unless otherwise fixed by law", and that at least 20% of it shall be sectoral representatives. There are two types of congressmen: the district and party-list representatives. At the time of the ratification of the constitution, there were 200 districts, leaving 50 seats for party-list representatives.

The district congressmen represent a particular congressional district of the country. All provinces in the country are composed of at least one congressional district. Several cities also have their own congressional districts, with some having two or more representatives. From 200 districts in 1987, the number of districts have increased to 253. Every new Congress has seen an increase in the number of districts.

The party-list congressmen represent the minority sectors of the population. This enables these minority groups to be represented in the Congress, when they would otherwise not be represented properly through district representation. Party-list representatives represent labor unions, rights groups, and other organizations. With the increase of districts also means that the seats for party-list representatives increase as well, as the 1:4 ratio has to be respected.

The Constitution provides that Congress shall convene for its regular session every year beginning on the 4th Monday of July. A regular session can last until thirty days before the opening of its next regular session in the succeeding year. The president may, however, call special sessions which are usually held between regular legislative sessions to handle emergencies or urgent matters.

Spanish era
During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, municipal governments, or Cabildos were established. One such example was the Cabildo in Manila, established in 1571.

While the Philippines was under colonial rule as part of the Spanish East Indies, the colony had no representation in the Spanish Cortes. Only in 1809, when the colony was made an integral part of Spain, did it gain representation in the Cortes. While colonies such as the Philippines were selecting their delegates, substitutes were named so that the Cortes could convene. The substitutes, and first delegates for the Philippines were Pedro Pérez de Tagle and José Manuel Couto. Neither had any connection to the colony.

By July 1810, Governor General Manuel González de Aguilar received the instruction to hold an election. As only the Manila Municipal Council qualified to elect a representative, it was tasked to select a delegate. Three of its representatives, the governor-general and the Archbishop of Manila selected Ventura de los Reyes as Manila's delegate to the Cortes. De los Reyes arrived in Cadiz in December 1811.

However, with Napoleon I's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, his brother Joseph Bonaparte was removed from the Spanish throne, and the Cádiz Constitution was replaced by the Cortes on May 24, 1816, with a more conservative constitution that removed Philippine representation on the Cortes, among other things. Restoration of Philippine representation to the Cortes was one of the grievances by the Ilustrados, the educated class during the late 19th century.

The Revolutionary era
The Illustrados' campaign transformed into the Philippine Revolution that aimed to overthrow Spanish rule. Proclaiming independence on June 12, 1898, President Emilio Aguinaldo then ordered the convening of a revolutionary congress at Malolos. The Malolos Congress, among other things, approved the Malolos Constitution. With the approval of the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish ceded the Philippines to the United States. The revolutionaries, attempting to prevent American conquest, launched the Philippine–American War, but were defeated when Aguinaldo was captured in 1901.

The American era
When the Philippines was under American colonial rule, the legislative body was the Philippine Commission which existed from 1900 to 1907. The President of the United States appointed the members of the Philippine Commission. Furthermore, two Filipinos served as Resident Commissioners to the House of Representatives of the United States from 1907 to 1935, then only one from 1935 to 1946. The Resident Commissioners had a voice in the House, but did not have voting rights.

The Philippine Bill of 1902 mandated the creation of a bicameral or a two-chamber Philippine Legislature with the Philippine Commission as the Upper House and the Philippine Assembly as the Lower House. This bicameral legislature was inaugurated in 1907. Through the leadership of then-Speaker Sergio Osmeña and then-Majority Floor Leader Manuel L. Quezon, the Rules of the 59th United States Congress were substantially adopted as the Rules of the Philippine Legislature.

In 1916, the Jones Law changed the legislative system. The Philippine Commission was abolished, and a new bicameral Philippine Legislature consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was established.

The Commonwealth and Second Republic era
The legislative system was changed again in 1935. The 1935 Constitution, aside from instituting the Commonwealth which gave the Filipinos more role in government, established a unicameral National Assembly. But in 1940, through an amendment to the 1935 Constitution, a bicameral Congress of the Philippines consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was created. Those elected in 1941 would not serve until 1945, as World War II erupted. The invading Japanese set up the Second Philippine Republic and convened its own National Assembly. With the Japanese defeat in 1945, the Commonwealth and its Congress was restored. The same setup continued until the Americans granted independence on July 4, 1946.

The Independence era
Upon the inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946, Republic Act No. 6 was enacted providing that on the date of the proclamation of the Republic of the Philippines, the existing Congress would be known as the First Congress of the Republic. Successive Congresses were elected until President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 23, 1972. Marcos then ruled by decree.

As early as 1970, Marcos had convened a constitutional convention to revise the 1935 Constitution; in 1973, the Constitution was approved. It abolished the bicameral Congress and created a unicameral National Assembly, which would ultimately be known as the Batasang Pambansa in a semi-presidential system of government. The Batasang Pambansa first convened in 1978, and elected a prime minister.

Marcos was overthrown after the 1986 People Power Revolution; President Corazon Aquino then ruled by decree. Later that year she appointed a constitutional commission that drafted a new constitution. The Constitution was approved in a plebiscite the next year; it restored the presidential system of government together with a bicameral Congress of the Philippines. The restored Congress first convened in 1987.

Seat
The two houses of Congress meet at different places in Metro Manila, the seat of government: the Senate meets at the GSIS Building, the main office of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in Pasay, while the House of Representatives sits at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City. The two are around 25 km apart.

The Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan served as a meeting place of unicameral congress of the First Philippine Republic.

After the Americans defeated the First Republic, the US-instituted Philippine Legislature convened at the Ayuntamiento in Intramuros, Manila from 1907 until 1926, when it transferred to the Legislative Building just outside Intramuros. In the Legislative Building, the Senate occupied the upper floors while the House of Representatives used the lower floors.

With the Legislative Building destroyed during the Battle of Manila of 1945, the Commonwealth Congress convened at the Old Japanese Schoolhouse in Sampaloc. Congress met at the school auditorium, with the Senate convening on evenings and the House of Representatives meeting every morning. The Senate subsequently moved to the Manila City Hall, with the House staying in the schoolhouse. The two chambers of Congress returned to the reconstructed Legislative Building, now the Congress Building in 1950. In 1973, when President Marcos ruled by decree, Congress was padlocked. Marcos built a new seat of a unicameral parliament in Quezon City, which would eventually be the Batasang Pambansa Complex. The parliament that will eventually be named as the Batasang Pambansa (National Legislature), first met at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in 1978.

With the overthrow of Marcos after the People Power Revolution, the bicameral Congress was restored. The House of Representatives inherited the Batasang Pambansa Complex, while the Senate returned to the Congress Building. In May 1997, the Senate moved to the newly constructed building owned by the GSIS on land reclaimed from Manila Bay in Pasay; the Congress Building was eventually transformed into the National Museum of Fine Arts. The Senate will eventually move into a new building that they would own in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig.

Powers

The powers of the Congress of the Philippines may be classified as:

 * General Legislative
 * It consists of the enactment of laws intended as a rule of conduct to govern the relation between individuals (i.e., civil laws, commercial laws, etc.) or between individuals and the state (i.e., criminal law, political law, etc.)

 * Implied Powers
 * It is essential to the effective exercise of other powers expressly granted to the assembly.

 * Inherent Powers
 * These are the powers which although not expressly given are nevertheless exercised by the Congress as they are necessary for its existence such as:
 * to determine the rules of proceedings;
 * to compel attendance of absent members to obtain quorum to do business;
 * to keep journal of its proceedings; etc.

 * Specific Legislative
 * It has reference to powers which the Constitution expressly and specifically directs to perform or execute.
 * Powers enjoyed by the Congress classifiable under this category are:
 * Power to appropriate;
 * Power to act as a constituent assembly (for drafting an amendment to the constitution upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members);
 * Power to impeach (the House of Representatives initiates all cases of impeachment, and successful cases are referred to the Senate for trial; officials convicted by the Senate are removed from office);
 * Power to confirm treaties (only the Senate is authorized to use this power);
 * Power to declare the existence of war (The Senate and the House of Representatives must convene in joint session to do this);
 * Power to concur amnesty;
 * Power to act as a board of canvassers for presidential/vice-presidential votes (by creating a joint congressional committee to do the canvassing);
 * Budgetary power;
 * Power to implement taxes.

 * Executive
 * Powers of the Congress that are executive in nature are:
 * Appointment of its officers;
 * Affirming treaties;
 * Confirming presidential appointees through the Commission on Appointments;
 * Removal power; etc.

 * Supervisory
 * The Congress of the Philippines exercises considerable control and supervision over the administrative branch - e.g.:
 * To decide the creation of a department/agency/office;
 * To define powers and duties of officers;
 * To appropriate funds for governmental operations;
 * To prescribe rules and procedure to be followed; etc.

 * Electoral
 * Considered as electoral power of the Congress of the Philippines are the Congress' power to:
 * Elect its presiding officer/s and other officers of the House;
 * Act as board of canvassers for the canvass of presidential/vice-presidential votes; and
 * Elect the President in case of any electoral tie to the said post.

 * Judicial
 * Constitutionally, each house has judicial powers:
 * To punish its Members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its Members, suspend or expel a Member
 * To concur and approve amnesty declared by the President of the Philippines;
 * To initiate, prosecute and thereafter decide cases of impeachment; and
 * To decide electoral protests of its members through the respective Electoral Tribunal.

 * Miscellaneous
 * The other powers of Congress mandated by the Constitution are as follows:
 * To authorize the Commission on Audit to audit fund and property;
 * To authorize the President of the Philippines to fix tariff rates, quotas, and dues;
 * To authorize the President of the Philippines to formulate rules and regulations in times of emergency;
 * To reapportion legislative districts based on established constitutional standards;
 * To implement laws on autonomy;
 * To establish a national language commission;
 * To implement free public secondary education;
 * To allow small scale utilization of natural resources;
 * To specify the limits of forest lands and national parks;
 * To determine the ownership and extent of ancestral domain; and
 * To establish independent economic and planning agency.

Lawmaking

 * Preparation of the bill
 * The Member or the Bill Drafting Division of the Reference and Research Bureau prepares and drafts the bill upon the Member's request.

 * First reading
 * The bill is filed with the Bills and Index Service and the same is numbered and reproduced.
 * Three days after its filing, the same is included in the Order of Business for First Reading.
 * On First Reading, the Secretary General reads the title and number of the bill. The Speaker refers the bill to the appropriate Committee/s.
 * Committee consideration / action
 * The Committee where the bill was referred to evaluates it to determine the necessity of conducting public hearings.
 * If the Committee finds it necessary to conduct public hearings, it schedules the time thereof, issues public notices and invites resource persons from the public and private sectors, the academe, and experts on the proposed legislation.
 * If the Committee determines that public hearing is not needed, it schedules the bill for Committee discussion/s.
 * Based on the result of the public hearings or Committee discussions, the Committee may introduce amendments, consolidate bills on the same subject matter, or propose a substitute bill. It then prepares the corresponding committee report.
 * The Committee approves the Committee Report and formally transmits the same to the Plenary Affairs Bureau.
 * Second reading
 * The Committee Report is registered and numbered by the Bills and Index Service. It is included in the Order of Business and referred to the Committee on Rules.
 * The Committee on Rules schedules the bill for consideration on Second Reading.
 * On Second Reading, the Secretary General reads the number, title and text of the bill and the following takes place:
 * Period of Sponsorship and Debate
 * Period of Amendments
 * Voting, which may be by
 * viva voce
 * count by tellers
 * division of the House
 * nominal voting
 * Third reading
 * The amendments, if any, are engrossed and printed copies of the bill are reproduced for Third Reading.
 * The engrossed bill is included in the Calendar of Bills for Third Reading and copies of the same are distributed to all the Members three days before its Third Reading.
 * On Third Reading, the Secretary General reads only the number and title of the bill.
 * A roll call or nominal voting is called and a Member, if he desires, is given three minutes to explain his vote. No amendment on the bill is allowed at this stage.
 * The bill is approved by an affirmative vote of a majority of the Members present.
 * If the bill is disapproved, the same is transmitted to the Archives.
 * Transmittal of the approved bill to the Senate
 * The approved bill is transmitted to the Senate for its concurrence.
 * Senate action on approved bill of the House
 * The bill undergoes the same legislative process in the Senate.
 * Conference committee
 * A Conference Committee is constituted and is composed of Members from each House of Congress to settle, reconcile or thresh out differences or disagreements on any provision of the bill.
 * The conferees are not limited to reconciling the differences in the bill but may introduce new provisions germane to the subject matter or may report out an entirely new bill on the subject.
 * The Conference Committee prepares a report to be signed by all the conferees and the chairman.
 * The Conference Committee Report is submitted for consideration/approval of both Houses. No amendment is allowed.
 * Transmittal of the bill to the President
 * Copies of the bill, signed by the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and certified by both the Secretary of the Senate and the Secretary General of the House, are transmitted to the President.
 * Presidential action on the bill
 * If the bill is approved by the President, it is assigned an RA number and transmitted to the House where it originated.
 * Action on approved bill
 * The bill is reproduced and copies are sent to the Official Gazette Office for publication and distribution to the implementing agencies. It is then included in the annual compilation of Acts and Resolutions.
 * Action on vetoed bill
 * The message is included in the Order of Business. If the Congress decides to override the veto, the House and the Senate shall proceed separately to reconsider the bill or the vetoed items of the bill. If the bill or its vetoed items is passed by a vote of two-thirds of the Members of each House, such bill or items shall become a law.

Composition
In the diagrams below, Congress is divided into blocs, with the colors referring to the political party of the person leading that bloc. The blocs are determined by the votes of the members in speakership or Senate presidential elections.

The Senate is composed of the winners of the 2019 and 2022 Senate elections. The House of Representatives is composed of the winners of the 2022 House of Representatives elections. In both chambers, the majority bloc is composed of members generally supportive of the incumbent presidency of Bongbong Marcos, while the minority blocs are those opposed. In the House of Representatives, there is an independent minority bloc, and 4 vacant seats.

In both chambers, membership in committees is determined by the size of the bloc; only members of the majority and minority blocs are given committee memberships. In the Philippines, political parties are liquid, and it is not uncommon for party-mates to find themselves in different blocs.

Leadership
Each chamber is headed by a presiding officer, both elected from their respective membership; in the Senate, it is the Senate President, while in the House of Representatives, it is the Speaker. The Senate also has a Senate president pro tempore, and the House of Representatives has deputy speakers. Each chamber has its own floor leaders.

Voting requirements
The vote requirements in the Congress of the Philippines are as follows: In most cases, such as the approval of bills, only a majority of members present is needed; on some cases such as the election of presiding officers, a majority of all members, including vacant seats, is needed.

Sessions
A new session of Congress starts after every House of Representatives election. Under the 1935 Constitution as amended in 1940, mid-term elections for the Senate caused its membership to be changed mid-session. From 1945 to 1972, there were two Commonwealth congresses and seven congresses of the Republic, with the 2nd Commonwealth Congress becoming the 1st Congress of the Republic. Under the 1973 Constitution, the Batasang Pambansa was the legislature, with it having two elections. Under the 1987 constitution, each Senate election was synchronized with the House elections, with the first congress under that constitution being counted as the "8th Congress", picking up from the last congress of the 1935 Constitution.

Senate
In the Philippines, the most common way to illustrate the result in a Senate election is via a tally of candidates in descending order of votes. The twelve candidates with the highest number of votes are elected.

House of Representatives
A voter has two votes in the House of Representatives: one vote for a representative elected in the voter's congressional district (first-past-the-post), and one vote for a party in the party-list system (closed list), the so-called party-list representatives; party-list representatives shall comprise not more than 20% of the House of Representatives.

To determine the winning parties in the party-list election, a party must surpass the 2% election threshold of the national vote; usually, the party with the largest number of votes wins the maximum three seats, the rest two seats. If the number of seats of the parties that surpassed the 2% threshold is less than 20% of the total seats, the parties that won less than 2% of the vote gets one seat each until the 20% requirement is met.

title: Congress of the Philippines


text:
Mustique

Mustique is a private island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is part of the Grenadines, a chain of islands in the West Indies. The island is located within Grenadines Parish, and the closest island is the uninhabited Petite Mustique, located 1 mi to the south. Ferry service is provided to the island from St. Vincent on the M/V Endeavour.

The island covers 1400 acre and has several coral reefs. The land fauna includes tortoises, herons, iguanas and many other species. Its year-round population of about 500 mostly live in the villages of Lovell, Britannia Bay and Dovers. The population rises to 1,200 in peak season.

The island is owned by the Mustique Company, a private limited company which is in turn owned by the island's home owners. The island has around 120 private villas, many of which are let through the Mustique Company. The company also owns a hotel and cafe on the island.

Early history
The islands were originally inhabited by people who probably arrived from South America around 2500 BC, subsequently by the Arawaks from 250 BC to 1000 AD, and later by the Caribs, whose simple tools can still be found.

The history of European settlement of the island of Mustique, and of the Grenadines in general, dates back to the Fifteenth century, when Spanish navigators first sighted this more-or-less linear group of small rocky islands and named them "Los Pájaros" or "the birds", because they resembled a small flock scattered across the sea. During the seventeenth century the islands were renamed the Grenadines by pirates, who used the sheltered bays to hide their ships and loot. The indigenous people were soon outnumbered by European planters in the 1740s, who found they could grow sugar there in abundance, using enslaved African labour. Because Europe's only sources of sugar at that time were limited quantities from the Canaries and Cyprus, the West Indies became economically significant. The Grenadines passed from France to the British in 1763; farmers Alexander Campbell and John Aitcheson bought the island of Mustique that year. The British built three forts. Cotton and sugar continued to be grown until 1834. The name Mustique comes from the French moustique, "mosquito". The sugar industry lasted until the 19th century, when the cultivation of European-grown sugar beet dramatically reduced the demand for tropical sugar. Mustique's seven plantations were abandoned and eventually swallowed up by scrub, leaving remnants, such as the sugar mill at "Endeavour" and its "Cotton House". The Plantation House was built in the 18th century.

The island was mostly abandoned in the 1800s but in 1835 (after the abolition of slavery), two plantations were reopened after ownership of the island passed to the Hazell family. They grew crops and raised sheep and goats on two plantations; they maintained a school for the island locals. In 1865 the two were merged into one estate by the family.

Later history
Mustique was purchased from the Hazell family in 1958 for £45,000 by Colin Tennant, who became the 3rd Baron Glenconner in 1983. He initially planned to start farming, "sea island cotton, beef and mutton" but then decided to develop the island into an exclusive hideaway, after forming The Mustique Company in 1968. By that time, cotton production was failing.

A report details the state of the island in 1958: "Apart from the villagers’ smallholdings, Mustique was a desolate island covered in jungle, scrub and cactus. It had no natural water, no roads, no jetty for landing a boat and millions of mosquitoes. There was one dilapidated building used for picking over the cotton, and the remaining villagers lived in corrugated tin shacks which desperately needed upgrading."

Significant improvements would be made over the subsequent years. According to a 2018 report, "since the 1960s, Mustique has been an exclusive sanctuary for royalty, rock stars, celebrities and heads of industry to relax in anonymity".

In 1960, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, accepted as a wedding present Colin Tennant's gift of a 10 acre plot of land, where she built a villa called Les Jolies Eaux. She spent time on the island during her honeymoon. In the early 1970s, the princess often visited the island in the company of Roddy Llewellyn. Mustique, she said, "is the only place I can relax". Before her death, the princess gave the property to her son David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley to avoid later payment of inheritance tax. He sold it in 1999 for a reported £2.4 million and Les Jolies Eaux was made available for rent.

In 1964, a new settlement was built, Lovell Village. The original inhabitants of the island were each given a plot of land and a new home in this location. Most of the island locals, who work in Mustique, (roughly 500 people) live in Lovell and for years were served by a church, school, restaurant, a medical clinic, a store and a police station. A May 2019 report indicates that other businesses are now located in the Lovell area: "a seafood market ... a food market, two stores The Purple House and The Pink House ... and a general store that advertised liquor, wine and cigars". Serving locals and some tourists, the View Restaurant and Bar is located in Lovell.

When The Mustique Company was formed in 1968, its new manager Hugo Money-Coutts obtained import and other tax free status in return for an annual fee. Building and sales of the villas started soon afterwards.

The airport began operation in 1969. In that year, several new villas were built, and the Cotton House opened as a hotel. In the following years, roads were built (although golf carts and ATVs are the only powered mode of transport), electricity and communications became reliable, a desalination plant was built to provide potable water, and a medical clinic was opened. The costs of running the island school and medical facility are supported by an educational and medical trust. One report states that "since 1968, more than $100 million has been invested in Mustique".

In 1971, the SS Antilles, referred to locally as the Antilles packboat, struck a reef not far off of the island and sank.

New ownership and development
In 1976, due to financial problems, Tennant sold a controlling interest (60%) in The Mustique Company to a consortium led by Hans Neumann, a Venezuelan industrialist of Czech origin who had survived the Holocaust by hiding in plain sight in Berlin. Neumann took over control of the island and, in 1979, appointed Brian Alexander to take over its management. Alexander did not retire until August 2008. During Alexander's tenure, homes were built for workers on the island.

Tennant remained the owner of a plot on the island until moving to St. Lucia in 1992. However, by 1987, Tennant had sold his remaining shares of The Mustique Company to Hans Neumann. After 2007, major improvements were made on the island including a desalination plant, solar panels to provide electricity and the recycling of certain types of trash.

In 1988 Hans Neumann set up the ownership structure as it is today and Mustique Island was transformed into a private limited company with the 104 homeowners as minority shareholders. Until 2003, Hans Neumann followed by his daughter Ariana Neumann retained a seat on the board and a block of 30% of the shares, which continued to provide stability over the years as it prevented dramatic policy shifts or substantial deviations from the development plan.

As of 2019, The Mustique Company is managed by Roger Pritchard, who replaced Brian Alexander. He leads a staff of 450 who oversee every aspect of island life, management of the villas and security. The security and fire services are provided by a team of officers led by a former Scotland Yard chief. Every visitor must be registered with the security force.

The Mustique Charitable Foundation has been funding programmes for the island locals, such as scholarships, arranging for surgeons to visit the island and literacy programmes since 2018. The Mustique Charitable Trusts funds projects such as Disaster Management Education, refurbishment of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Saint Vincent, school meal programmes, some literacy projects and after-school programmes, diabetes and hypertension screening, a hospice and tree planting.

Amenities and activities
Mustique Island has many notable features. One of which is Basil's Bar in Britannia Bay. The Bar remains situated right on the water overlooking a striking-blue bay that provides mooring for yachts.

The business was owned by Basil Charles for over twenty years; he was previously the barman at Tennant's Cotton House Hotel. In 2017, however he had sold the operation to The Mustique Company. After a renovation, the bar reopened in 2018. One report states that "the makeover of Basil’s Bar sought to pay homage to its heritage (a legendary island institution), while updating it in a chic, sophisticated and playful way. New features include the open kitchen and hide-away corners for private moments". A jump-up is held every Wednesday night (as of 2019) at this restaurant/bar and on Sundays, it hosts Sunset Jazz evenings, both with live music. The Mustique Blues Festival in late January and early February is held at Basil's Bar.

There are no golf courses on the island but the official website describes the activities available, in addition to tennis and picnicking: "...scuba diving and sailing, to tennis club and exploring the island on horseback. Try the extreme sports of kite-surfing or deep sea diving and fishing, or take a more gentle approach, with a snorkel in the many hidden coves around the island followed by a nurturing spa treatment. Children are indulged with a host of fun activities, with water sports galore, drive in cinemas for golf buggies, tennis, pony camp, beach picnics and treasure hunts, kite flying competitions and children’s menus everywhere."

The primary beach is Macaroni on the Atlantic side; large waves make it more suitable for surfing than for swimming. Lagoon Beach on the west side is calmer "but too shallow and seaweedy for swimming" according to one review. Gelliceaux, a sheltered bay, is preferable for swimming. Villas for rent (from $8,000 for one bedroom to $150,000 per week for 6+ bedrooms) include the royals' Les Jolies Eaux, the Indonesian-style Mandalay (built for David Bowie), Pangolin, a seven-bedroom Balinese home, Toucan Hill with its Moroccan theme and a "travertine-like palace". Boats can be chartered at Endeavor Bay.

The Mustique Medical Clinic is open daily and there is an island pharmacy. In case of serious medical issues, evacuation can be arranged to Martinique or Miami.

Residents and guests
The island was historically home to fishermen. From the 1960s, its visitors began to include a group whose influence created its current cachet: Lord Glenconner, Oliver Messel, Princess Margaret, Tommy Hilfiger and Mick Jagger. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, made private visits to Mustique in 1966, 1977 and 1985. William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales, holiday in Mustique often.

David Bowie once owned an Indonesian-inspired multi-pavilion villa on the island, which he called Britannia Bay. However, he stopped visiting it, saying that "the house was so tranquil and peaceful that he found it hard to get any work done." In 1994, Bowie sold the property for $5 million to business tycoon and poet Felix Dennis. After Dennis died in June 2014, the villa was renamed as the Mandalay Estate, and sold to entrepreneur Simon Dolan. In 1996, while on holiday at Mustique, Noel Gallagher wrote and demoed many of the songs that would later be released on the Oasis album Be Here Now (1997).

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds spent Christmas 2019 on Mustique with the Bismarck family. Other people who have holidayed on Mustique over the years include Liam Gallagher, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Peter Lynch, Denzel Washington, Pierre Lagrange, Tom Ford, John Travolta and Bryan Adams.

title: Mustique


text:
Talk:Pope Sylvester III

Untitled
Is this fellow an antipope? - Montréalais 05:47, 31 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Antipope says he is. --Menchi 05:56, Jul 31, 2003 (UTC)

Is this person the same as Silvester III in the list of antipopes? WIP Netherlands

The chronology on the right says he died on February 10, 1045, but that is the date of his deposition, which he survived. He must have been alive in 1062 according to the article. How do we remove the death date?

Never mind, I changed it.--Syd Henderson 05:46, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Succession
How can Silvester III both be preceded and succeeded by Pope Benedict IX? Bakanov 17:29, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Benedict was temporarily deposed and Sylvester elected in his absence, then Benedict returned and deposed Sylvester.--Syd Henderson 05:46, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Picture
No picture available? Russellin teekannu (talk) 12:40, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pope Sylvester III