text:
Talk:Ralph Klein

Misc
With respect, I'm disappointed by this page. It focuses on recent (and random) Klein trivia rather than giving a coherent overview of his life and accomplishments. The missing information on his early life is especially disappointing. Is anyone planning on updating this page, or should I take it upon myself? --Random Anonymous Reader

This article could definitely do with some expansion of Klein's early policies, of his most controversial policies in Alberta (health care?) and his particular approach to representing Alberta within the context of Canadian federalism. An update is needed to include the announcement of his retirement date and the upcoming leadership review.

Perhaps some of that generous Alberta arts funding could go to a Ralph-Klein-o-pedia where the Ralph Klein point of view can be fully expanded on, to see just where it leads us. Someone from Alberta out there want to try it?

There seem to be a lot of interesting parallel with William Aberhart:

 * Both became famous as radio hosts
 * Both have a complete lock on the political system
 * Both have a near cult of personality
 * Both like to challenge the federal government (I could probably say that about every Alberta Premier tho')

...can anyone with more knowledge of Alberta political history think of any more? -- stewacide

Few things to suggest for future revisers of this page (as I'm too lazy to look this stuff up right now, but may at some point in the future):

-- Matty j 06:50, Feb 8, 2004 (UTC)
 * Based on this article it's unclear when Klein went through his alcohol treatment and how public it was. This seems important.
 * Whether or not anyone agrees with Klein's environmental views (I happen not to), I think it's unfair to classify them as "primitive".

Whoa, serious POV issues. Is there any point to working out compromise text, or is this just going to lead to a revert war? AlexKepler

 * What, specifically, concerns you about the article's POV? As a general Klein supporter, I didn't think it was bad either way, but I have my natural biases. Lord Bob 06:31, Nov 7, 2004 (UTC)

It may be worth adding some notes on the plagiarism scandal that hit Klein a while back. While it was a non-entity for many Albertans, it lowered his standing somewhat amongst people who treat education seriously, particularly as he was given a slap on the wrist (and the incident generally covered up) instead of expelled from school, as is sometimes the penalty in similar cases. Obviously, it is unlikely I could be neutral on this. --Yamla 23:41, 2004 Nov 26 (UTC)
 * I would be in favour of seeing that in, sure. It was a fairly-ish big deal at the time, as I recall. I'd take a stab at it, but I don't know many of the details (I haven't been living in Alberta for a few months now). Lord Bob 10:54, Nov 27, 2004 (UTC)

Landroo 08:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC) I found one statement a little off-centre. The reference about him "verbally abusing" some homeless people was a bit strong, I think. Although Klein apologized, and many of his anti-fans made a good deal of hay out of the incident, I'm not sure "verbal abuse" isn't too strong a term for suggesting they get a job, or something to that effect.

Religion?
Is Mr. Klein Religious. 207.6.241.252
 * Does it matter? GoodDay 16:52, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

I think the question be, what is his religion. Instead of is he religious. Most politicians have their religious denominations in their infoboxes. --Sicamous 21:56, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

 * I believe it is common knowledge that Mr. Klein worships at the Shrine of the Seven Sisters. Garth of the Forest 01:43, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Quoting legislature debates misleading?
Okay we have a statement that says Ralph Klein apologized for calling Kevin Taft a liar, this is a true statement but if you read the actual exchange it is Kevin Taft that is humiliated by the appology and this is not made clear in the statement in the Wikipedia article. I've removed this sentence since stuff like this happens all the time in the legislature and can be misleading as to what actually occurred. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ronwi (talk • contribs)

Taft was hardly intimidated by the exchange. I was there that day, and it was simply his attempt to avoid making a genuine apology. A point of order was raised and the Speaker pressed the issue, forcing Klein to apologize without adding an extra stab at Taft to the end. The misleading nature of the quote is that no mention is made of the fact that this is an extremely common occurrance in the Legislature, from both sides of the house. Here is an excerpt from Hansard for the day:

Mr. Klein: Wrong, wrong, wrong. You know, the Leader of the Official Opposition stands up and fibs not only to this Assembly but to the world.

The Speaker: Please. We’ve had discussions on the usage of certain words. I’m going to ask the Premier of the province of Alberta to withdraw the word "fib." [His tone and choice of words clearly shows he finds the Premier's language immature.]

Mr. Klein: Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I won’t use the word "fib." I’ll say that he doesn’t tell the whole truth all the time – most of the time.

The Speaker: We have a point of order on that point. I think it’s really important that we use proper decorum. Please proceed.

Mr. Klein: Mr. Speaker, my point is taken and made, but I do apologize for calling the hon. member a liar. Mr. Speaker, if this member or any person in this Assembly or any Albertan is sick or injured, they will be treated. They will be treated under the public system, and they will be treated immediately according to the triage procedures that are available in our health regions.

The full Hansard is available from the Legislative Assembly of Alberta's website. -- IntrigueBlue 06:04, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Legacy
Ok, being an albertan, i think there has to be a section about Ralph's legacy. i mean c'mon, he's the kind of rare politician that is virtually loved by the people, say what you will about his kyoto policies, but the man is a once in a life time legend, regardless of politics.
 * Speak for yourself, this albertan CANNOT WAIT until he finally leaves office. He's nearly made a mockery out of our lovely province! 24.65.10.222 02:12, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

 * That can be written up after he leaves office. --TheTruthiness 08:04, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

He is loved by the people? What part of Alberta are you in?
 * Most people in Alberta evidently like Klein, since he's been in office for more than a decade. Where are you from? Central Edmonton?

 * Did you mean most people in Calgary, and/or rural (southern) Alberta who actually vote? Anyone taking on the challenge of writing up a "Legacy" section for Ralph has their work cut out for them. He was a very colourful, and very controversial character. Your shot at "central Edmonton" is perhaps unwarranted - while Klein's government peaked in the only polls that matter at somewhere just over 60%, most of that support came from rural Alberta and Calgary based on less than 40 percent of the popular vote due to our flawed electoral process. Do I need to use a blunt instrument to demonstrate how flawed our system is? How can just over 60% of the vote translate into 90% of the seats in a true democracy? Is it surprising, then, that those people who were most likely to truly know what was going on (from the inside - I refer to provincial government employees) were most heavily concentrated in "central Edmonton" and, co-incidentally, least likely to vote for Ralph & Co.? Coincidence? Hmmmm....

The other thing to consider - Ralph's political longevity and apparent (surface?) popularity was due, in my opinion, to the "perfect storm" created by: 1) people dissatisfied with the federal Liberal policies such as the NEP confusing this sentiment with the provincial Liberal Party; 2) Canada's (and, by association, Alberta's) "first-past-the-post" system tends to "over-reward" majority governments and "under-represent" dissenting viewpoints; 3) Albertans, have, historically, since 1935, tended to vote like lemmings, present company excepted; 4a) Ralph was very in tune with "the common man" and very astute at playing to that commonality to his political advantage; 4b) He knew exactly when to apologize to make it "all okay again" with the red-neck vote after yet another major screw-up that would have resulted in the electorate, were he in office in any other part of the country, quickly and unapologetically turfing he and his party from office at the first opportunity; 5) Albertans' general apathy when it comes to the democratic process - if you actually run the numbers the Klein government's peak "62 per cent majority" was actually won with less than 40% of the eligible vote; and, perhaps most importantly; 6) Canada's "democratic deficit", which is often pointed out by federal Conservative supporters from Alberta to be an "Ottawa phenonemon", more specifically, an "eastern Liberal" phenomenon, is actually, contrary to "common knowledge", most acute right here in Alberta. Alberta's legislature sits fewer days than any other provincial legislature in the country and therefore gives opposition parties fewer opportunities to hold the government's "feet to the fire" than any other jurisdiction in Canada. And, we also share one thing (at least) in common with Quebec - our riding boundaries are purposefully skewed to favour the "rural vote" which in Alberta leads to an over-representation of "Conservatives" in the legislative assembly while in Quebec it results in an over-representation of separatists (PQ) in the National Assembly. Garth of the Forest 01:26, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

 * Writing up a Legacy section on anyone is tricky. Legacy pieces are almost always filled with PoV's. PoV's are frowned upon at Wikipedia. GoodDay 16:55, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Old Premier/New Premier
When the PC Party chooses its new Leader, that person will not become premier immediately. Therefore, wait until Klein actually leaves office (as Premier), before posting the departure date in the Infobox. Furthermore, until his successor takes office ,put 'Designate' (ie Premier-Designate), next to Klein successor's name in Infobox. GoodDay 17:26, 25 November 2006 (UTC) :Klein dosen't leave office, until December 15th, 2006. Date is backed by External Link to CBC news. GoodDay 01:32, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Who was "Gray"?
"Remarried twice, Gray died in 2004"

This is the only mention in the article of someone named Gray. Who was this person? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.144.38.149 (talk) 06:40, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

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Education
Alumni is for graduation. Did he ever graduate from AU, as it was only a couple of courses he was taking at the time of the plagiarism problem. And why no mention of that...

title: Talk:Ralph Klein


text:
Kenelm Digby

Sir Kenelm Digby (11 July 1603 – 11 June 1665) was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, astrologer and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual and Blackloist. For his versatility, he is described in John Pointer's Oxoniensis Academia (1749) as the "Magazine of all Arts and Sciences, or (as one stiles him) the Ornament of this Nation".

Early life and education
Digby was born at Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire, England. He was of gentry stock, but his family's adherence to Roman Catholicism coloured his career. His father, Sir Everard, was executed in 1606 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot. Kenelm was sufficiently in favour with James I to be proposed as a member of Edmund Bolton's projected Royal Academy (with George Chapman, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, John Selden and Sir Henry Wotton). His mother was Mary, daughter of William Mushlo. His uncle, John Digby, was the first Earl of Bristol.

He went to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, in 1618, where he was taught by Thomas Allen, but left without taking a degree. In time Allen bequeathed to Digby his library, and the latter donated it to the Bodleian.

He spent three years on the Continent between 1620 and 1623, where Marie de Medici fell madly in love with him (as he later recounted). In 1623, in Madrid, Digby was appointed to the household of Prince Charles, who had just arrived there. Returning to England the same year, he was knighted by James I and appointed gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles. He was granted a Cambridge Master of Arts on the King's visit to the university in 1624.

Career
Around 1625, he married Venetia Stanley, whose wooing he cryptically described in his memoirs. He had also become a member of the Privy Council of Charles I of England. As his Roman Catholicism hindered appointment to government office, he converted to Anglicanism.

Digby became a privateer in 1627. Sailing his flagship, the Eagle (later renamed Arabella), he arrived off Gibraltar on 18 January and captured several Spanish and Flemish vessels. From 15 February to 27 March he remained at anchor off Algiers due to illness of his men, and extracted a promise from authorities of better treatment of the English ships: he persuaded the city governors to free 50 English slaves. He seized a Dutch vessel near Majorca, and after other adventures gained a victory over the French and Venetian ships in the harbour of Iskanderun on 11 June. His successes, however, brought upon the English merchants the risk of reprisals, and he was urged to depart. He returned to become a naval administrator and later Governor of Trinity House.

His wife Venetia, a noted beauty, died suddenly in 1633, prompting a famous deathbed portrait by Van Dyck and a eulogy by Ben Jonson. (Digby was later Jonson's literary executor. Jonson's poem about Venetia is now partially lost, because of the loss of the centre sheet of a leaf of papers which held the only copy.) Digby, stricken with grief and the object of enough suspicion for the Crown to order an autopsy (rare at the time) on Venetia's body, secluded himself in Gresham College and attempted to forget his personal woes through scientific experimentation and a return to Catholicism. At Gresham College he held an unofficial post, receiving no payment from the college. Digby, alongside Hungarian chemist Johannes Banfi Hunyades, constructed a laboratory under the lodgings of Gresham Professor of Divinity where the two conducted botanical experiments.

At that period, public servants were often rewarded with patents of monopoly; Digby received the regional monopoly of sealing wax in Wales and the Welsh Borders. This was a guaranteed income; more speculative were the monopolies of trade with the Gulf of Guinea and with Canada. These were doubtless more difficult to police.

Marriage and children
Digby married Venetia Stanley in 1625. They had six sons:
 * Kenelm Jr. (1625–1648), killed at the Battle of St Neots, 10 July 1648.
 * John (1627–?), only son to survive Digby. He married and had two daughters.
 * Everard (1629–1629), died in infancy.
 * unnamed twins (1632), miscarriage.
 * George (c. 1633–1648), died of illness in school.

In addition, there was a daughter, Margery. Born c. 1625, who married Edward Dudley of Clopton and had at least one child. She is never mentioned by Digby in his writings. She may have been the daughter of Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset and Venetia Stanley prior to her marriage to Sir Kenelm. The Earl of Dorset settled an annuity on her. There is some controversy and confusion about whether or not Venetia had affairs with both the third and fourth Earls of Dorset and, consequently, which Earl was the father of Margery.

Catholicism and Civil War
Digby became a Catholic once more in 1635. He went into voluntary exile in Paris, where he spent most of his time until 1660. There he met both Marin Mersenne and Thomas Hobbes.

Returning to support Charles I in his struggle to establish episcopacy in Scotland (the Bishops' Wars), he found himself increasingly unpopular with the growing Puritan party. In the time between 1639 and 1640, he supported Charles I's expedition against the Presbyterian Scots. He left England for France again in 1641. Following an incident in which he killed a French nobleman, Mont le Ros, in a duel, he returned to England via Flanders in 1642, and was jailed by the House of Commons. He was eventually released at the intervention of Anne of Austria, and went back again to France. He remained there during the remainder of the period of the English Civil War. Parliament declared his property in England forfeit.

Queen Henrietta Maria had fled England in 1644, and he became her Chancellor. He was then engaged in unsuccessful attempts to solicit support for the English monarchy from Pope Innocent X. His son, also called Kenelm, was killed at the Battle of St Neots, 1648. Following the establishment of the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, who believed in freedom of conscience, Digby was received by the government as a sort of unofficial representative of English Roman Catholics, and was sent in 1655 on a mission to the Papacy to try to reach an understanding. This again proved unsuccessful.

At the Restoration, Digby found himself in favour with the new regime due to his ties with Henrietta Maria, the Queen Mother. However, he was often in trouble with Charles II, and was once even banished from Court. Nonetheless, he was generally highly regarded until his death, a month before his 62nd birthday, from "the stone", likely caused by kidney stones. He was buried in his wife's tomb (which was damaged in the great fire of 1666), in Christ Church, Newgate Street, London.

Character and works
Digby published a work of apologetics in 1638, A Conference with a Lady about choice of a Religion. In it he argued that the Catholic Church, possessing alone the qualifications of universality, unity of doctrine and uninterrupted apostolic succession, is the only true church, and that the intrusion of error into it is impossible.

Digby was regarded as an eccentric by contemporaries, partly because of his effusive personality, and partly because of his interests in scientific matters. Henry Stubbe called him "the very Pliny of our age for lying". He lived in a time when scientific enquiry had not settled down in any disciplined way. He spent enormous time and effort in the pursuits of astrology, and alchemy which he studied in the 1630s with Van Dyck.

Notable among his pursuits was the concept of the powder of sympathy. This was a kind of sympathetic magic; one manufactured a powder using appropriate astrological techniques, and daubed it, not on the injured part, but on whatever had caused the injury. His book on this mythical salve went through 29 editions. Synchronising the effects of the powder, which allegedly caused a noticeable effect on the patient when applied, was actually suggested in 1687 as a means of solving the longitude problem.

In 1644 he published together two major philosophical treatises, The Nature of Bodies and On the Immortality of Reasonable Souls. The latter was translated into Latin in 1661 by John Leyburn. These Two Treatises were his major natural-philosophical works, and showed a combination of Aristotelianism and atomism.

He was in touch with the leading intellectuals of the time, and was highly regarded by them; he was a founding member of the Royal Society and a member of its governing council from 1662 to 1663. His correspondence with Fermat contains the only extant mathematical proof by Fermat, a demonstration, using his method of descent, that the area of a Pythagorean triangle cannot be a square. His Discourse Concerning the Vegetation of Plants (1661) proved controversial among the Royal Society's members. It was published in French in 1667. Digby is credited with being the first person to note the importance of "vital air", or oxygen, to the sustenance of plants. He also came up with a crude theory of photosynthesis.

Digby is known for the publication of a cookbook, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. Opened, but it was actually published by a close servant, from his notes, in 1669, several years after his death. It is currently considered an excellent source of period recipes, particularly for beverages such as mead. He tried out many of his recipes on his wife, Venetia, one of which was capons fed on the flesh of vipers.

Digby is also considered the father of the modern wine bottle. During the 1630s, Digby owned a glassworks and manufactured glass onions, which were globular in shape with a high, tapered neck, a collar, and a punt. His manufacturing technique involved a coal furnace, made hotter than usual by the inclusion of a wind tunnel, and a higher ratio of sand to potash and lime than was customary. Digby's technique produced wine bottles which were stronger and more stable than most of their day, and which due to their translucent green or brown color protected the contents from light. During his exile and prison term, others claimed his technique as their own, but in 1662 Parliament recognised his claim to the invention as valid.

In fiction
Digby and his wife are the subjects of the 2014 literary novel Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre.

He is mentioned in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter. In the chapter titled "The Leech", the narrator describes the antagonist, Chillingworth, as having an impressive knowledge of medicine, remarking that Chillingworth claims to have been a colleague of Digby "and other famous men" in the study of natural philosophy. Digby's "scientific attainments" are called "hardly less than supernatural".

Digby also appears in Umberto Eco's novel The Island of the Day Before as "Mr. d'Igby". He explains the principle of his sympathetic powder (unguentum armarium) to the main character.

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

title: Kenelm Digby


text:
Saint George and the Dragon

In a legend, Saint Georgea soldier venerated in Christianitydefeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a human tribute once a year. This was acceptable to the villagers until a princess was chosen as the next offering. The saint thereupon rescues the princess and kills the dragon. The narrative was first set in Cappadocia in the earliest sources of the 11th and 12th centuries, but transferred to Libya in the 13th-century Golden Legend.

The narrative has pre-Christian origins (Jason and Medea, Perseus and Andromeda, Typhon, etc.), and is recorded in various saints' lives prior to its attribution to St. George specifically. It was particularly attributed to Saint Theodore Tiro in the 9th and 10th centuries, and was first transferred to Saint George in the 11th century. The oldest known record of Saint George slaying a dragon is found in a Georgian text of the 11th century.

The legend and iconography spread rapidly through the Byzantine cultural sphere in the 12th century. It reached Western Christian tradition still in the 12th century, via the crusades. The knights of the First Crusade believed that St. George, along with his fellow soldier-saints Demetrius, Maurice, Theodore and Mercurius had fought alongside them at Antioch and Jerusalem. The legend was popularised in Western tradition in the 13th century based on its Latin versions in the Speculum Historiale and the Golden Legend. At first limited to the courtly setting of Chivalric romance, the legend was popularised in the 13th century and became a favourite literary and pictorial subject in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and it has become an integral part of the Christian traditions relating to Saint George in both Eastern and Western tradition.

Pre-Christian predecessors
The iconography of military saints Theodore, George and Demetrius as horsemen is a direct continuation of the Roman-era "Thracian horseman" type iconography. The iconography of the dragon appears to grow out of the serpent entwining the "tree of life" on one hand, and with the draco standard used by late Roman cavalry on the other. Horsemen spearing serpents and boars are widely represented in Roman-era stelae commemorating cavalry soldiers. A carving from Krupac, Serbia, depicts Apollo and Asclepius as Thracian horsemen, shown besides the serpent entwined around the tree. Another stele shows the Dioscuri as Thracian horsemen on either side of the serpent-entwined tree, killing a boar with their spears.

The development of the hagiographical narrative of the dragon-fight parallels the development of iconography. It draws from pre-Christian dragon myths. The Coptic version of the Saint George legend, edited by E. A. Wallis Budge in 1888, and estimated by Budge to be based on a source of the 5th or 6th century, names "governor Dadianus", the persecutor of Saint George as "the dragon of the abyss", a greek myth with similar elements of the legend is the battle between Bellerophon and the Chimera. Budge makes explicit the parallel to pre-Christian myth:

I doubt much of the whole story of Saint George is anything more than one of the many versions of the old-world story of the conflict between Light and Darkness, or Ra and Apepi, and Marduk and Tiamat, woven upon a few slender threads of historical fact. Tiamat, the scaly, winged, foul dragon, and Apepi the powerful enemy of the glorious Sungod, were both destroyed and made to perish in the fire which he sent against them and their fiends: and Dadianus, also called the 'dragon', with his friends the sixty-nine governors, was also destroyed by fire called down from heaven by the prayer of Saint George. In anticipation of the Saint George iconography, first noted in the 1870s, a Coptic stone fenestrella shows a mounted hawk-headed figure fighting a crocodile, interpreted by the Louvre as Horus killing a metamorphosed Setekh.

Christianised iconography
Depictions of "Christ militant" trampling a serpent is found in Christian art of the late 5th century. Iconography of the horseman with spear overcoming evil becomes current in the early medieval period. Iconographic representations of St Theodore as dragon-slayer are dated to as early as the 7th century, certainly by the early 10th century (the oldest certain depiction of Theodore killing a dragon is at Aghtamar, dated c. 920). Theodore is reported as having destroyed a dragon near Euchaita in a legend not younger than the late 9th century. Early depictions of a horseman killing a dragon are unlikely to represent St. George, who in the 10th century was depicted as killing a human figure, not a dragon. The earliest image of St Theodore as a horseman (named in Latin) is from Vinica, North Macedonia and, if genuine, dates to the 6th or 7th century. Here, Theodore is not slaying a dragon, but holding a draco standard. One of the Vinica icons also has the oldest representation of Saint George with a dragon: George stands besides a cynocephalous St. Christopher, both saints treading on snakes with human heads, and aiming at their heads with spears. Maguire (1996) has connected the shift from unnamed equestrian heroes used in household magic to the more regulated iconography of named saints to the closer regulation of sacred imagery following the iconoclasm of the 730s.

In the West, a Carolingian-era depiction of a Roman horseman trampling and piercing a dragon between two soldier saints with lances and shields was put on the foot of a crux gemmata,  formerly in the Treasury of the Basilica of Saint Servatius in Maastricht (lost since the 18th c.). The representation survives in a 17th-century drawing, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.

The "Christianisation" of the Thracian horseman iconography can be traced to the Cappadocian cave churches of Göreme, where frescoes of the 10th century show military saints on horseback confronting serpents with one, two or three heads. One of the earliest examples is from the church known as Mavrucan 3, generally dated to the 10th century, which portrays two "sacred riders" confronting two serpents twined around a tree, in a striking parallel to the Dioskuroi stela, except that the riders are now attacking the snake in the "tree of life" instead of a boar. In this example, at least, there appear to be two snakes with separate heads, but other examples of 10th-century Cappadocia show polycephalous snakes. A poorly preserved wall-painting at the ("Snake Church") that depicts the two saints Theodore and George attacking a dragon has been tentatively dated to the 10th century, or alternatively even to the mid-9th.

A similar example, but showing three equestrian saints, Demetrius, Theodore and George, is from the "Zoodochos Pigi" chapel in central Macedonia in Greece, in the prefecture of Kilkis, near the modern village of Kolchida, dated to the 9th or 10th century.

A 12th-century depiction of the mounted dragon-slayer, presumably depicting Theodore, not George, is found in four muqarna panels in the nave of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo.

Transfer to Saint George
The dragon motif was transferred to the George legend from that of his fellow soldier saint, Saint Theodore Tiro.

The transfer of the dragon iconography from Theodore, or Theodore and George as "Dioskuroi" to George on his own, first becomes tangible in the early 11th century. The oldest certain images of St. George combatting the serpent are still found in Cappadocia.

Golden Legend
In the well-known version from Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea (The Golden Legend, 1260s), the narrative episode of Saint George and the Dragon took place somewhere he called "Silene", in Libya.

Silene in Libya was plagued by a venom-spewing dragon dwelling in a nearby pond, poisoning the countryside. To prevent it from affecting the city itself, the people offered it two sheep daily, then a man and a sheep, and finally their children and youths, chosen by lottery. One time the lot fell on the king's daughter. The king offered all his gold and silver to have his daughter spared, but the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.

Saint George arrived at the spot. The princess tried to send him away, but he vowed to remain. The dragon emerged from the pond while they were conversing. Saint George made the Sign of the Cross and charged it on horseback, seriously wounding it with his lance. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle (zona), and he put it around the dragon's neck. Wherever she walked, the dragon followed the girl like a "meek beast" on a leash.

The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the population. Saint George offered to kill the dragon if they consented to become Christians and be baptized. Fifteen thousand men including the king of Silene converted to Christianity. George then killed the dragon, beheading it with his sword, and the body was carted out of the city on four ox-carts. The king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George on the site where the dragon died and a spring flowed from its altar with water that cured all disease. Only the Latin version involves the saint striking the dragon with the spear, before killing it with the sword.

The Golden Legend narrative is the main source of the story of Saint George and the Dragon as received in Western Europe, and is therefore relevant for Saint George as patron saint of England. The princess remains unnamed in the Golden Legend version, and the name "Sabra" is supplied by Elizabethan era writer Richard Johnson in his Seven Champions of Christendom (1596). In the work, she is recast as a princess of Egypt. This work takes great liberties with the material, and makes St. George marry Sabra and have English children, one of whom becomes Guy of Warwick. Alternative names given to the princess in Italian sources still of the 13th century are Cleolinda and Aia. Johnson also supplied the name of Saint George's sword: "Ascalon". The story of St. George, as the Red Cross Knight and the patron saint of England, slaying the dragon, which represents sin, and Princess Una as George's true love and an allegory representing the Protestant church as the one true faith, was told in altered fashion in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.

Eastern
The saint is depicted in the style of a Roman cavalryman in the tradition of the "Thracian Heros". There are two main iconographic types, the "concise" form showing only George and the dragon, and the "detailed" form also including the princess and the city walls or towers of Lacia (Lasia) with spectators witnessing the miracle. The "concise" type originates in Cappadocia, in the 10th to 11th century (transferred from the same iconography associated with Saint Theodore of Tiro in the 9th to 10th century). The earliest certain example of the "detailed" form may be a fresco from Pavnisi (dated c. 1160), although the examples from Adishi, Bochorma and Ikvi may be slightly earlier.

 * Georgian

Western
The motif of Saint George as a knight on horseback slaying the dragon first appears in western art in the second half of the 13th century. The tradition of the saint's arms being shown as the red-on-white St. George's Cross develops in the 14th century.

Renaissance

 * Donatello, Saint George, c. 1417. Bargello, Florence, Italy.
 * Paolo Uccello, Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1470. National Gallery, London.
 * Giovanni Bellini, Saint George Fighting the Dragon, c. 1471. Pesaro altarpiece.
 * Lieven van Lathem, Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1471)
 * Bernt Notke, Saint George and the Dragon, Storkyrkan in Stockholm, c. 1484–1489.
 * Andrea della Robbia, terracotta, c. 1490
 * Albrecht Dürer, woodcut, 1501/4
 * Raphael (Raffaello Santi), Saint George, 1504. Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris, France.
 * Raphael (Raffaello Santi), Saint George and the Dragon, 1504–1506. Oil on wood. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States.
 * Albrecht Altdorfer, Forest Landscape with St. George Fighting the Dragon, 1510
 * Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Saint George and the Dragon, 1555.

Early modern and modern art
Paintings
 * Peter Paul Rubens, Saint George and the Dragon, 1620.
 * Salvator Rosa, San Giorgio e il Drago
 * Mattia Preti, St George triumphant over the dragon, 1678, at St. George's Basilica, Malta in Victoria, Gozo.
 * Edward Burne-Jones, St. George and the Dragon, 1866.
 * Gustave Moreau, St. George and the Dragon, c. 1870. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London.
 * Briton Rivière, St. George and the Dragon, c. 1914.
 * Uroš Predić, St George Killing the Dragon, 1930.
 * Giorgio de Chirico, St. George Killing the Dragon, 1940.

Sculptures
 * The sculptures which form part of the clock of Liberty's store in Regent Street, London (19th century).
 * Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, Saint George and the Dragon, bronze, State Library of Victoria, 1889
 * Salvador Dalí, Saint George and the Dragon, Open Air Museum in Cosenza, 1947
 * Edward Seago, Saint George and the Dragon, silver, automobile mascot used for the British monarch's cars, 1952.
 * Zurab Tsereteli, sculpture in front of the at, Moscow, 1995
 * Zurab Tsereteli, St. George Statue, Tbilisi, 2005
 * Marcus Canning and Christian de Vietri, Ascalon, abstract sculpture in front of St George's Cathedral, Perth, 2011

Mosaic
 * Edward Poynter, Saint George for England, 1869. Central Lobby in the Palace of Westminster.
 * Sergey Chekhonin, Sergey Vasilyevich Gerasimov, Central maiolica panel about the battle of St. George the Victorious with the Serpent 1911–1913, Moscow, Russia.
 * Anatoly Alexandrovich Ostrogradsky, A small image of St. George, with the plot of the fresco of the Church of St. George in Staraya Ladoga in a stylized icon case on the façade, above the main porches, the maiolica was made in 1911–1913, Moscow, Russia.

Engravings
 * Benedetto Pistrucci, engraving for coin dies, 1817.
 * On kopecks issued by the Central Bank of Russia.

Prints
 * On banknotes issued by the Bank of England:
 * £1 note, 1917 until 1933, on obverse, with portrait of George V; 1928 until 1960, on reverse, duplicated.
 * £5 note, 1957 until 1967, on obverse, with portrait of Britannia.
 * £20 note, 1970 until 1993, on obverse, with portrait of Elizabeth II.

Literary adaptations
Edmund Spenser expands on the Saint George and the Dragon story in Book I of the Fairy Queen, initially referring to the hero as the Redcross Knight. William Shakespeare refers to Saint George and the Dragon in Richard III ( Advance our standards, set upon our foes Our ancient world of courage fair St. George Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons act V, sc. 3), Henry V ( The game's afoot: follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' act III, sc. 1), and also in King Lear (act I).

A 17th-century broadside ballad paid homage to the feat of George's dragon slaying. Titled "St. George and the Dragon", the ballad considers the importance of Saint George in relation to other heroes of epic and Romance, ultimately concluding that all other heroes and figures of epic or romance pale in comparison to the feats of George.

The Banner of St George by Edward Elgar is a ballad for chorus and orchestra, words by Shapcott Wensley (1879). The 1898 Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame includes a chapter entitled "The Reluctant Dragon", in which an elderly Saint George and a benign dragon stage a mock battle to satisfy the townsfolk and get the dragon introduced into society. Later made into a film by Walt Disney Productions, and set to music by John Rutter as a children's operetta.

In 1935 Stanley Holloway recorded a humorous retelling of the tale as St. George and the Dragon written by Weston and Lee. In the 1950s, Stan Freberg and Daws Butler wrote and performed St. George and the Dragon-Net (a spoof of the tale and of Dragnet) for Freberg's radio show. The story's recording became the first comedy album to sell over a million copies.

Margaret Hodges retold the legend in a 1984 children's book (Saint George and the Dragon) with Caldecott Medal-winning illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman.

The Forever Knights that serve as a recurring antagonist faction in the Ben 10 are revealed in the third series Ben 10: Ultimate Alien to have been founded by Sir George from the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, with the tale directly referenced by name. The dragon that George fought is depicted as a shapeshifting extradimensional demon named Dagon, worshipped by a cult called the Flame Keepers’ Circle that goes to war against the Forever Knights. Series main antagonist Vilgax takes advantage of his true form’s coincidental resemblance to Dagon’s true appearance to manipulate the Flame Keepers’ Circle into helping him find the heart of Dagon, which George had cut out and sealed with the Ascalon, depicted here as a sword of alien origin created by Azmuth prior to inventing the Omnitrix.

Samantha Shannon describes her 2019 novel The Priory of the Orange Tree as a "feminist retelling" of Saint George and the Dragon.

Coats of arms
Reggio Calabria used Saint George and the dragon in its coat of arms since at least 1757, derived from earlier (15th-century) iconography used on the city seal. Saint George and the dragon has been depicted in the coat of arms of Moscow since the late 18th century, and in the coat of arms of Georgia since 1991 (based on a coat of arms introduced in 1801 for Georgia within the Russian Empire).

 * Provincial coats of arms
 * Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine (1999)
 * Moscow Oblast, Russia (2005)

 * Municipal coats of arms
 * Australia: Hurstville
 * Austria: Pitten, Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, Sankt Georgen an der Leys, Sankt Georgen an der Stiefing, Sankt Georgen im Attergau, Sankt Georgen ob Murau.
 * Croatia: Kaštel Sućurac, Vis.
 * Czech Republic: Brušperk.
 * Denmark: Holstebro.
 * France: Aydoilles, Couilly-Pont-aux-Dames, Ligsdorf, Maulan, Mussidan, Saint-Georges (Moselle), Saint-Georges-Armont, Saint-Georges-d'Espéranche, Saint-Georges-d'Oléron, Saint-Georges-d'Orques, Saint-Georges-de-Reintembault, Saint-Georges-du-Bois, Saint-Georges-du-Vièvre, Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche, Saint-Georges-sur-Loire, Saint-Jurs, Saorge, Sospel, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges.
 * Germany: Bürgel, Hattingen, Mansfeld, Rittersbach, St. Georgen im Schwarzwald, Schwarzenberg.
 * Hungary: Bácsszentgyörgy, Balatonszentgyörgy, Borsodszentgyörgy, Dunaszentgyörgy, Homokszentgyörgy, Pécsvárad, Szentgyörgyvár, Szentgyörgyvölgy, Tatárszentgyörgy.
 * Italy: Reggio Calabria
 * Lithuania: Marijampolė, Prienai, Varniai.
 * Netherlands: Ridderkerk, Terborg.
 * Poland: Brzeg Dolny, Dzierżoniów, Milicz, Ostróda.
 * Romania: Suceava, Sfântu Gheorghe.
 * Russia: Moscow
 * Serbia: Srpski Krstur.
 * Slovakia: Svätý Jur.
 * Slovenia: Šenčur, Šentjur
 * Spain: Alcalá de los Gazules, Golosalvo, Puentedura.
 * Switzerland: Castiel, Kaltbrunn, Ruschein, Saint-George, Schlans, Stein am Rhein, Waltensburg/Vuorz.
 * Ukraine: Holoby, Liuboml, Nizhyn, Taikury, Volodymyr, Vyshneve, Zbarazh.

Military insignia

 * Regimental flags of the Hellenic Army (1864)
 * Badge of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (1968)
 * Flag of the Russian Orthodox Army (2014)

title: Saint George and the Dragon


text:
James Thomas Knowles (1831–1908)

Sir James Thomas Knowles (13 October 1831 – 13 February 1908) was an English architect and editor. He was intimate with the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the founder of the Metaphysical Society to encourage rapprochement between religion and science.

Life
James Knowles was born in London, the son of the architect James Thomas Knowles (1806–1884), and himself trained in architecture at University College and in Italy. Among the buildings he designed were three churches in Clapham, South London, Mark Masons' Hall, London (later the Thatched House Club), Lord Tennyson's house at Aldworth, the Leicester Square garden (as restored at the expense of Albert Grant), Albert Mansions, Victoria Street in Westminster, and an 1882 enlargement of the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital at Margate in Kent.

However, he also developed a literary career. In 1860 he published The Story of King Arthur. In 1866 he was introduced to Alfred Lord Tennyson and later agreed to design his new house with the condition that there was not any fee. This resulted in a close friendship, Knowles assisting Tennyson with business matters, and among other things helping to design scenery for the play The Cup, when Henry Irving produced it in 1880.

Knowles corresponded with a number of the most interesting men of the day, and in 1869, with Tennyson's cooperation, he initiated the Metaphysical Society, the object of which was to attempt some intellectual rapprochement between religion and science by inviting major representatives of faith and unfaith to meet and exchange opinions. Members included Tennyson, Gladstone, W. K. Clifford, W. G. Ward, John Morley, Cardinal Manning, Archbishop Thomson, T. H. Huxley, Arthur Balfour, Leslie Stephen, and Sir William Gull. The society included many men who became contributors to magazines edited by Knowles.

In 1870 he succeeded Dean Alford as editor of the Contemporary Review, but quit it in 1877 owing to the objection of the proprietors to the inclusion of articles (by W. K. Clifford notably) attacking Theism, and he initiated the Nineteenth Century (to the title of which, in 1901, were added the words And After). Both periodicals became influential while he was editor of them, and were the new sort of monthly review which replaced the popularity of the quarterlies. For example, it helped halt the Channel Tunnel project, by publishing a protest signed by many distinguished men in 1882. In 1904 he received a knighthood. He was a considerable collector of works of art.

Knowles was married twice, first in 1860 to Jane Borradaile, then in 1865 to Isabel Hewlett. He died in Brighton and was buried at the Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery.

title: James Thomas Knowles (1831–1908)


text:
George and the Dragon

George and the Dragon may refer to:

 * George and the Dragon (Efteling), a wooden roller coaster
 * George and the Dragon (TV series), a British television sitcom broadcast between 1966 and 1968
 * Saint George and the Dragon, a medieval legend
 * George and the Dragon (2004 film), a film released in 2004 starring James Purefoy

title: George and the Dragon


text:
Internet in China

China has been on the Internet intermittently since May 1989 and on a permanent basis since 20 April 1994, although with heavily censored access. In 2008, China became the country with the largest population on the Internet and,, has remained so. 1.09 billion (77.5% of the country's total population) use internet in China.

China's first foray into the global cyberspace was an email (not TCP/IP based and thus technically not internet) sent on 20 September 1987 to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, reading, "Across the Great Wall, towards the rest of the world". This later became a well-known phrase in China and, was displayed on the desktop login screen for QQ mail.

History

From 1995 to 2004, internet use in China was almost entirely in urban areas. By 2003, less than 0.2% of rural people had used the internet. In 2004, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began the Connecting Every Village Project which promoted the use of telecommunications and internet in rural China. Beginning in late 2009, the program began building rural telecenters each of which had at least one telephone, computer, and internet connectivity. Approximately 90,000 rural telecenters were built by 2011. By 2011, 89% of administrative villages had internet access.

China replaced the U.S. in its global leadership in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth in 2011. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (China: 29% versus US:13% of the global total).

China began implementing a National Broadband Strategy in 2013. The program aimed to increase the speed, quality, and adoption of broadband and 4G networks. As of 2018, 96% of administrative villages had fiber optic networks and 95% had 4G networks.

Wireless, especially internet access through a mobile phone, has developed rapidly. The affordability of mobile phones and internet data in China has resulted in the number of mobile internet users in China surpassing the number of computer internet users. 500 million were accessing the internet via cell phones in 2013. The number of dial-up users peaked in 2004 and since then has decreased sharply. Generally statistics on the number of mobile internet users in China show a significant slump in the growth rate between 2008 and 2010, with a small peak in the next two years.

In 2015, the State Council promoted the Internet Plus initiative, a five-year plan to integrate traditional manufacturing and service industries with big data, cloud computing, and Internet of things technology. The State Council provided support for Internet Plus through policy support in area including cross-border e-commerce and rural e-commerce. Various regulatory bodies promoted Internet Plus within their sectors.

In April 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) proposed that "satellite internet" should be a part of new national infrastructure. By the next month, Shanghai, Beijing, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Shenzhen had each proposed regional action plans to support the new satellite internet constellation project with a goal to provide domestic China satellite internet to rural areas. Beginning in 2019, US (SpaceX Starlink) and UK (OneWeb, 2020) private companies had begun fielding large internet satellite constellations with global coverage; however China does not intend to license non-Chinese technical solutions for satellite broadband within the jurisdiction of Chinese law.

Structure
An important characteristic of the Chinese internet is that online access routes are owned by the Chinese government, and private enterprises and individuals can only rent bandwidth from the state. The first four major national networks, namely CSTNET, ChinaNet, CERNET and CHINAGBN, are the "backbone" of the mainland Chinese internet. Later dominant telecom providers also started to provide internet services. China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile control operate the internet exchange points through which incoming traffic must pass.

In January 2015, China added seven new access points to the world's internet backbone, adding to the three points that connect through Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

As of at least 2023, the internet in China is characterized by uneven development, with the adoption rate and availability of the internet varying by region and population groups.

Userbase
According to a survey by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China had 1.09 billion Internet users by the end of December 2023, a 1.9% increase over the year before and a penetration rate of 77.5%. The proportions of users accessing the Internet via mobile phones, desktop computers, laptop computers. TVs and tablet computers were 99.9%, 33.9%, 30.3%, 22.5% and 26.6%, respectively. 51.2% of internet users were male, while the remaining 48.8% were female.

English-language media in China often use the word netizen to refer to Chinese internet users in particular.

As of at least 2024, China has the largest number of internet users of any country. Consistent with the trends of other large and relatively linguistically isolated countries, Chinese internet users tend to focus their internet use on content that that is domestically relevant.

Regulation
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is the primary agency for data regulation. It coordinates enforcement among relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the State Administration for Market Regulation. The Ministry of Public Security has the primary responsibility for preventing cyberattacks.

Regulatory priorities
In 2009, China amended its Criminal Law to create a low threshold for the prosecution of malicious cybercrimes and illegal data sales.

Generally, China advocates for internet sovereignty and tends to prioritize cybersecurity more than personal data protection. Chinese policymakers became increasingly concerned about the risk of cyberattacks following the 2010s global surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden, which demonstrated extensive United States intelligence activities in China. As part of its response, the Communist Party in 2014 formed the Cybersecurity and Information Leading Group.

The 2017 Cyber Security Law was also part of China's response to increased risks of foreign surveillance and foreign data collection following the United States surveillance disclosures. Among other provisions, the law has significant data localization requirements. It is a major pillar of the Chinese data regulatory environment.

Before the 2020-2021 Xi Jinping administration reform spree, the regulatory environment for internet companies was relatively lax because the government sought to encourage the development of the big data economy. The regulatory environment for tech companies subsequently became stricter and in 2021, two national data laws and a host of regulatory guidelines were promulgated, broadening the scope of government enforcement and increasing the penalties for personal data violations.

The 2021 Data Security Law classifies data into different categories and establishes corresponding levels of protection. It imposes significant data localization requirements, in a response to the extraterritorial reach of the United States CLOUD Act or similar foreign laws.

The 2021 Personal Information Protection Law is China's first comprehensive law on personal data rights and is modeled after the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

In summer 2021, MIIT began a six-month long regulatory campaign to address a variety of consumer protection and unfair competition issues, including interoperability concerns, in the consumer internet sector. It held meetings with executives from major Chinese tech companies and instructed them that their companies could no longer block external links to competitors.

In 2022, the CAC issued measures and guidelines on security assessments for cross-border data transfers as part of an effort to institutionalize data transfer review mechanisms.

Content
According to Kaiser Kuo, the internet in China is largely used for entertainment purposes, being referred to as the "entertainment superhighway". However, it also serves as the first public forum for Chinese citizens to freely exchange their ideas. Most users go online to read news, to search for information, and to check their email. They also go to BBS or web forums, find music or videos, or download files.

Messaging
As of at least 2023, the most used internet services in China are instant messaging and mobile messaging apps. In 2020, 99% of internet users in China used instant messaging, while 99.8% used mobile messaging apps.

As of 2019, 93.5% of Chinese internet users have used WeChat.

Content providers
Chinese-language infotainment web portals such as Tencent, Sina.com, Sohu, and 163.com are popular. For example, Sina claimed it has about 94.8 million registered users and more than 10 million active ones engaged in their fee-based services. Other Internet service providers such as the human resource service provider 51job and the electronic commerce web sites such as Alibaba.com are less popular but more successful on their specialty. Their success led some of them to make IPOs.

All websites that operate in China with their own domain name must have an ICP license from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Because the PRC government blocks many foreign websites, many homegrown copycats of foreign websites have appeared.

Search engines
Baidu is the leading search engine in China, while most web portals also provide search opportunities like Bing, Sogou.

Online communities
Although the Chinese write fewer emails, they enjoy other online communication tools. Users form their communities based on different interests. Bulletin boards on portals or elsewhere, chat rooms, instant messaging groups, blogs are very active, while photo-sharing and social networking sites are growing rapidly. Some Wikis such as the Sogou Baike and Baidu Baike are "flourishing".

Microblogs (weibo) have since 2009 become one of the most widely used internet services in China.

Social media
China is one of the most restricted countries in the world in terms of internet, but these constraints have directly contributed to the staggering success of local Chinese social media sites. The Chinese government makes it impossible for foreign companies to enter the Chinese social media network. Without access to the majority of social media platforms used elsewhere in the world, the Chinese have created their own networks but with more users – which is why every global company pays attention to these sites. Some Chinese famous social medias are Sina Weibo, QQ, Qzone, Renren, Zorpia, and Douban. And in recent years, the use of WeChat has become more and more popular among people in China.

Online shopping
The rapidly increasing number of Internet users in China has also generated a large online shopping base in the country. A large number of Chinese internet users have even been branded as having an "online shopping addiction" as a result of the growth of the industry. According to Sina.com, Chinese consumers with Internet access spend an average of RMB10,000 online annually.

Online Mapping Services
China has endeavored to offer a number of online mapping services and allows the dissemination of geographic information within the country. Tencent Maps (腾讯地图), Baidu Maps (百度地圖) and Tianditu (天地圖) are typical examples. Online mapping services can be understood as online cartography backed up by a geographic information system (GIS). GIS was originally a tool for cartographers, geographers and other types of specialists to store, manage, present and analyze spatial data. In bringing GIS online, the Web has made these tools available to a much wider audience. Furthermore, with the advent of broadband, utilizing GIS has become much faster and easier. Increasingly, non-specialist members of the public can access, look up and make use of geographic information for their own purposes. Tianditu is China's first online mapping service. Literally World Map, Tianditu was launched in late October 2010. The Chinese government has repeatedly claimed that this service is to offer comprehensive geographical data for Chinese users to learn more about the world.

Online payment
The method of directly paying by online banking is required to be able to make online banking payment after opening online banking and can realize online payment of UnionPay, WeChat Pay, online payment by credit card, and so on.

This payment method is directly paid from the bank card. The third-party payment itself integrates multiple payment methods, and the process is as follows:

1. Recharge the money in online banking to a third-party.

2. Pay by third-party deposit when the user pays.

3. The fee is charged for withdrawal. Third-party payment methods are diverse, including mobile payments and fixed-line payments.

In 2013, Alipay overtook PayPal to become the world's largest mobile payment provider. As of January 2015, Alipay, owned by Alibaba Group has 600 million counts of users and has the largest user group among all online-payment providers. It continues to be China's largest online payment service as of at least 2023. WeChat Pay remains a strong competitor to Alipay, with 37% of the Chinese mobile payment market as of 2016.

Online gaming
As of 2022, China is the second largest market for online games after the United States. In 2023, the country has 668 million internet users playing online games and the industry was worth US$42 billion. 53.8% of gamers are male, 46.2% are female.

In 2007, the Ministry of Culture (MoC) and General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) along with several other agencies implemented the Online Game Anti-Addiction System which aimed to stop video game addiction in youth. This system restricted minors from playing more than 3 hours a day and required Identification (ID) checking in order to verify you are of age.

Later in 2019, the Chinese government announced in November that gamers under the age of 18 would be banned from playing video games between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. In addition, gamers under 18 would be restricted to 90 minutes of playing during the weekdays and 3 hours of playing during weekends and holidays as per new guidelines.

As of 2021, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) further restricted rules limiting playtime for under-18s to one hour per day from 8p.m. to 9 p.m. and only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Adult content
Although restrictions on political information remain strong, several sexually oriented blogs began appearing in early 2004. Women using the web aliases Muzi Mei (木子美) and Zhuying Qingtong (竹影青瞳) wrote online diaries of their sex lives and became minor celebrities. This was widely reported and criticized in mainland Chinese news media, and several of these bloggers' sites have since been blocked, and remain so to this day. This coincided with an artistic nude photography fad (including a self-published book by dancer Tang Jiali) and the appearance of pictures of minimally clad women or even topless photos in a few Chinese newspapers, magazines and on several websites. Many dating and "adult chat" sites, both Chinese and foreign, have been blocked, although some continue to be accessible.

Censorship
The Golden Shield Project was proposed to the State Council by Premier Zhu Rongji in 1993. It is overseen by the Ministry of Public Security. As a massive surveillance and content control system, it was launched in November 2000, and became known as the Great Firewall of China. The governmental authorities not only block website content but also monitor the Internet access of individuals; such measures have attracted the nickname The Great Firewall of China.

However, there are some methods of circumventing the censorship by using proxy servers outside the firewall. Users may circumvent all of the censorship and monitoring of the Great Firewall if they have a secure VPN or SSH connection method to a computer outside mainland China.

In 2017, the Chinese government declared unauthorized VPN services illegal, requiring VPN providers to obtain state approval. Although China restricts VPNs, they remain widely used by private individuals. State-owned enterprises or state institutions also use VPNs for official work. The Chinese government has authorized several official VPN providers. Those who develop or sell their own VPNs potentially face years in prison.

Different methods are used to block certain websites or pages including DNS poisoning, blocking access to IPs, analyzing and filtering URLs, inspecting filter packets and resetting connections.

In 2009, motivated in part by its desire to prevent color revolutions, China banned Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. It banned Google the next year. By blocking major international internet platforms such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, the Great Firewall has contributed to the development of domestic alternatives including Baidu, Renren, Youku, and Weibo.

Memes
The Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures, initially a humorous hoax, became a popular and widespread internet meme in China. These ten hoaxes reportedly originated in response to increasing online censorship and have become an icon of Chinese internet users' resistance to it.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued a directive on 30 March 2009 to highlight 31 categories of content prohibited online, including violence, pornography and content which may "incite ethnic discrimination or undermine social stability". Many Chinese internet users believe the instruction follows the official embarrassment over the "Grass Mud Horse" and the "River Crab". Industry observers believe that the move was designed to stop the spread of parodies or other comments on politically sensitive issues in the runup to the anniversary of the 4 June Tiananmen Square protests.

Internet advertising market
The size of China's online advertising market was RMB 3.3 billion in the third quarter 2008, up 19.1% compared with the previous quarter. Tencent, Baidu.com Inc, Sina Corp remain the Top 3 in terms of market share. Keyword advertising market size reached RMB 1.46 billion, accounting for 43.8% of the total Internet advertising market with a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of 19.3%, while that of the online advertising site amounted to RMB 1.70 billion, accounting for 50.7% of the total, up 18.9% compared with the second quarter.

Currently, Baidu has launched the CPA platform, and Sina Corp has launched an advertising scheme for intelligent investment. The moves indicate a market trend of effective advertising with low cost. Online advertisements of automobiles, real estate and finance will keep growing rapidly in the future.

title: Internet in China


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Joe Keithley

Joseph Edward "Joey Shithead" Keithley (né Keighley; June 3, 1956) is a Canadian punk musician who is best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist of the punk band DOA. He was elected a city councillor in Burnaby, BC in the 2018 municipal elections as a member of the Burnaby Green Party. He was re-elected in the October 2022 municipal election.

Early life
Joe Keithley was raised in Burnaby, British Columbia, and attended Burnaby North Secondary. At age 11, he began playing drums after being inspired by a drummer in a jazz band at his sister's wedding. Keithley recalls his father's chagrin at Keithley "banging on a kit of his own", describing his father as "super square... completely right wing". He would later take up the guitar and vocals, with some of his classmates becoming his bandmates.

In 1972, in light of the ongoing Vietnam War and the American's planned testing of nuclear weapons off the coast of Alaska's Amchitka Island, 16 year old Keithley and 300 fellow students participated in a school walkout to join a protest organized by Greenpeace. Since then, music and activism have been "fused at the center of Keithley's life".

Musical career
In 1977, Keithley, along with Chuck Biscuits' older brother, started a band called the Skulls. After the breakup of the Skulls, Keithley formed D.O.A. with Biscuits.

In 2004, he published the autobiography I, Shithead: A Life in Punk. He was inducted into the Canadian Independent Music Hall of Fame the same year. He has also done solo work, releasing a mix of music and spoken word. In 1999, he released his first solo record, Beat Trash. This was followed by "Band of Rebels" in 2007.

Keithley appeared in the punk/cult film Terminal City Ricochet, as well as contributing music (through D.O.A.) to the soundtrack. He and D.O.A. appeared in Bruce McDonald's 1995 cult film Hard Core Logo. He was interviewed for a documentary titled Let's All Hate Toronto, produced by Elevator Films and published by The Disinformation Company. In 2006, Keithley was featured prominently in the feature-length documentary American Hardcore. Keithley was also featured in the 2010 documentary Open Your Mouth And Say... Mr. Chi Pig, a film that looks at the life of Mr. Chi Pig of SNFU, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul and produced by Prairie Coast Films.

In 2008, The Vancouver Sun newspaper named Keithley one of British Columbia's most influential people of all time.

During D.O.A.'s 2011 Canadian tour, Keithley gave free solo acoustic performances in three of the 10 cities that had appeared across Canada in support of the Occupy Wall Street protests, Occupy Ottawa, Occupy Regina and Occupy Vancouver.

He owns and operates his own record company, Sudden Death Records. The recording company was started in 1978 as a DIY response to lack of interest from major labels. His motto is 'TALK-ACTION=ZERO.'

Politics
D.O.A. is known for playing in peace rallies and environmental events. Keithley has been increasingly interested in politics, saying that shows where he can make a difference are more rewarding. While studying at the University of British Columbia, he planned to become a labor lawyer, but found music irresistible. In 1996 and 2001, Keithley ran in the British Columbia provincial elections for the Green Party of British Columbia. In 2001, he received the highest percentage of the vote next to party leader Adriane Carr. He ran for the Burnaby-Lougheed seat in the 2017 British Columbia provincial election. On October 20, 2018, he was elected for Burnaby City Council in the 2018 municipal elections as a member of the Burnaby Green Party.

Books

 * I, Shithead: A Life in Punk (Arsenal Pulp Press)
 * Talk-Action=0: An Illustrated History of D.O.A. (Arsenal Pulp Press)

title: Joe Keithley


text:
User:Redhughs

See User:Red Hughs

title: User:Redhughs