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Bill Cash

Sir William Nigel Paul Cash (born 10 May 1940) is a British politician who served as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1984 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he was first elected for Stafford and then for Stone in Staffordshire in 1997. Cash is a prominent Eurosceptic. Following his tenth election victory in the 2019 general election, aged 79, Cash became the oldest sitting member of the House of Commons.

Cash was the founder of the Maastricht Referendum Campaign in the early 1990s, and is now the elected Chair of the House of Commons' European Scrutiny Committee. He has also served as a vice-president of the Eurosceptic pressure group Conservatives for Britain, and to this day is one of the strongest critics of the European Union from the Conservative Party. In June 2023, he announced his intention to stand down at the 2024 general election.

Cash was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2014 Birthday Honours for political services. He was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in Boris Johnson's resignation honours.

Education
Cash was born in Finsbury, London, to a political family, which included seven Liberal Members of Parliament, including John Bright.

Cash grew up in Sheffield and was privately educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire before attending Lincoln College, Oxford, from where he graduated with a BA in History. He qualified as a solicitor in 1967, and since 1979 has practised as a solicitor on his own account (i.e. he is neither employed by a law firm nor is he a member of a partnership).

Family
Cash married Bridget Mary (née Lee) at Wardour Castle Chapel in Wiltshire on 16 October 1965, and they have two sons and a daughter. His son is the journalist William Cash.

Along with his wife, Bill Cash restored the now Grade I Upton Cressett Hall in the 1970s. The Hall was subsequently voted the 'Best Hidden Gem' heritage destination in the UK at the 2011 Hudson's Heritage awards.

He is a distant cousin of the American country musician and singer Johnny Cash.

Parliament
Cash entered Parliament in 1984, when he was elected as MP for Stafford at a by-election in May following the death of Sir Hugh Fraser. Since the 1997 election he has been MP for Stone, Staffordshire. Stone was a then newly (re-)created constituency, the previous version of which (with slightly different boundaries) had been abolished in 1950.

He has been chairman of various parliamentary committees. He was elected unopposed as Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee on 8 September 2010, and has been a member of the Select Committee on European Legislation since 1985. Cash was elected chairman of the Conservative Backbench Committee on European Affairs (1989–91).

In June 2023, he was one of six Conservative MPs to vote against censuring Boris Johnson following the Commons Privileges Committee investigation. (By contrast, 354 MPs voted to approve the Committee's report).

International affairs
Cash is chairman of a number of All-Party African committees, including those on Kenya and Uganda. He is also chairman of the All-Party Committee on Malaysia. He has also served as chairman on the All-Party Group for the Jubilee 2000 (1997–2000).

He is chairman of the All-Party Sanitation and Water Committee (Third World) in which he works closely with Wateraid and Tearfund. He introduced the Gender Equality (International Development) Bill 2013, which, although only 18th in the Private Members Ballot, was enacted in March 2014.

Mariella Frostrup wrote in The Times, "The new law that puts gender equality at the heart of our overseas aid policy will be as historic as the Slave Trade Act." Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, wrote in The Telegraph blog "Yet for assiduously steering his Gender Equality in International Development Bill through Parliament over recent months, Bill Cash deserves the recognition of women everywhere. … It's also a proud legacy for a Parliamentary champion of women's rights [..] Bill Cash." The day after the Act came into force, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, told Cash in the House of Commons, "I am sure the whole House will want to join me in commending my hon. Friend on his Bill, and on his legislative achievement to get that important measure on the statute book."

Euroscepticism and the Maastricht Rebellion
Cash is known as a strong Eurosceptic. He has been described by Kenneth Clarke as the most "Eurosceptic" Member of Parliament. In the book by historian Robert Blake titled The Conservative Party: from Peel to Major, Cash is described as the leader of the Eurosceptics during the Maastricht Rebellion and as being "indefatigable... a constitutional lawyer of great expertise".

The 'Maastricht Rebellion' took place in the early 1990s, and reached its height in 1993. MPs belonging to the governing Conservative Party refused to support the government of John Major in the votes in the House of Commons on the issue of the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union) in British law. It was a major event of John Major's troubled second term as Prime Minister (1992–1997). Major's party had a small majority, thus giving the relatively small number of rebels great influence: for example, there were 22 rebels on the second reading of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill in May 1992, and the government's majority at the time was only 18. The rebellion (as Major later complained in his memoirs) had the support of the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Lord Tebbit. Thatcher declared in a speech in the House of Lords that she "could never have signed that Treaty" and that it was "a recipe for national suicide".

In 1993, Cash founded and remains chairman of the eurosceptic European Foundation which was created during the Maastricht Rebellion, the funding for which he organised. During 1994–1995 Cash was a member of the Tindemans group. He was secretary of the European Reform Forum, and has been vice-president of the Conservative Small Business Bureau.

After fellow Maastricht rebel Iain Duncan Smith became leader of the Conservatives, Cash was appointed to the post of shadow Attorney general in 2001, and in 2003 he was Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, but he returned to the backbenches later that year after Duncan Smith was ousted as party leader.

In April 2019, Cash was in favour of a "No-deal" option as a negotiating position for Britain leaving the European Union.

Writing
In November 2011, Cash published a biography of John Bright, whom he described as "one of the greatest parliamentarians of all time", to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Bright's birth. The biography was received with critical acclaim: reviewer Andrew Roberts notes that Bright's legacy "was largely forgotten until this first-class, encapsulating biography". Amanda Foreman states that "Bill Cash not only breathes new life into Bright but delivers an entirely fresh view of both the man himself and his stance as the professional scourge of the upper classes... Bright's character receives[s its] full due in Cash's nuanced portrait".

In addition to his historical writing, Cash has also published a number of books, pamphlets and essays on Britain's relationship with the European Union, and the Eurosceptic movement. These include: It's the EU, Stupid (2011), The Challenge for the Conservative Party: The future for Britain and Europe (2004), Associated, Not Absorbed: The Associated European Area: a constructive alternative to a single European state (2000), Visions of Europe (Duckworth, 1993) and Against a Federal Europe: The Battle for Britain (Duckworth, 1991).

Expenses claims
On 28 May 2009, it was reported that Cash had claimed £15,000 which he paid his daughter, Laetitia Cash, a prospective Conservative candidate, as rent for a Notting Hill flat, when he had a mortgaged flat of his own a few miles away, which his son Sam Cash was staying in rent-free. "It was only for a year, she was getting married, she wasn't there. My other flat wasn't round the corner, it was in Westminster. It was done through the rules", he said on Newsnight. The following day Cash announced that he had agreed to pay the money back. Cash rejected calls for his resignation and said he was hopeful of getting a fair hearing. David Cameron was said to have ordered Cash to co-operate or risk having the Conservative whip withdrawn. Cash was cleared on appeal in February 2010 by former High Court judge and President of the Court of Appeal, the Rt Hon Sir Paul Kennedy.

Cash faced a no-confidence vote by secret ballot by his constituency party on 2 July 2009. He was, however, re-selected with the support over 98% of the vote. Cash also received a personal letter of support from Conservative leader Cameron before the meeting thanking Cash for "the tireless contribution you make to the work of Parliament. You have a long record of serving your constituents with commitment and integrity." Kennedy, in his letter to Cash regarding his appeal, wrote: "In my judgment there are special reasons why it would not be fair and equitable to require repayment of any money. They are that in 2004–05 you paid rent for accommodation. Such rent was recoverable under the Rules as they existed at the time unless there was some evidence of impropriety. There is no such evidence in your case."

In popular culture
Cash was portrayed by actor Richard Durden in the 2019 HBO and Channel 4 produced drama entitled Brexit: The Uncivil War.

title: Bill Cash


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Question answering

Question answering (QA) is a computer science discipline within the fields of information retrieval and natural language processing (NLP) that is concerned with building systems that automatically answer questions that are posed by humans in a natural language.

Overview
A question-answering implementation, usually a computer program, may construct its answers by querying a structured database of knowledge or information, usually a knowledge base. More commonly, question-answering systems can pull answers from an unstructured collection of natural language documents.

Some examples of natural language document collections used for question answering systems include:

 * a collection of reference texts
 * internal organization documents and web pages
 * compiled newswire reports
 * a set of Wikipedia pages
 * a subset of World Wide Web pages

Types of question answering
Question-answering research attempts to develop ways of answering a wide range of question types, including fact, list, definition, how, why, hypothetical, semantically constrained, and cross-lingual questions.
 * Answering questions related to an article in order to evaluate reading comprehension is one of the simpler form of question answering, since a given article is relatively short compared to the domains of other types of question-answering problems. An example of such a question is "What did Albert Einstein win the Nobel Prize for?" after an article about this subject is given to the system.
 * Closed-book question answering is when a system has memorized some facts during training and can answer questions without explicitly being given a context. This is similar to humans taking closed-book exams.
 * Closed-domain question answering deals with questions under a specific domain (for example, medicine or automotive maintenance) and can exploit domain-specific knowledge frequently formalized in ontologies. Alternatively, "closed-domain" might refer to a situation where only a limited type of questions are accepted, such as questions asking for descriptive rather than procedural information. Question answering systems machine reading applications have also been constructed in the medical domain, for instance  Alzheimer's disease.
 * Open-domain question answering deals with questions about nearly anything and can only rely on general ontologies and world knowledge. Systems designed for open-domain question answering usually have much more data available from which to extract the answer. An example of an open-domain question is "What did Albert Einstein win the Nobel Prize for?" while no article about this subject is given to the system.

Another way to categorize question-answering systems is by the technical approach used. There are a number of different types of QA systems, including
 * rule-based systems,
 * statistical systems, and
 * hybrid systems.

Rule-based systems use a set of rules to determine the correct answer to a question. Statistical systems use statistical methods to find the most likely answer to a question. Hybrid systems use a combination of rule-based and statistical methods.

History
Two early question answering systems were BASEBALL and LUNAR. BASEBALL answered questions about Major League Baseball over a period of one year. LUNAR answered questions about the geological analysis of rocks returned by the Apollo Moon missions. Both question answering systems were very effective in their chosen domains. LUNAR was demonstrated at a lunar science convention in 1971 and it was able to answer 90% of the questions in its domain that were posed by people untrained on the system. Further restricted-domain question answering systems were developed in the following years. The common feature of all these systems is that they had a core database or knowledge system that was hand-written by experts of the chosen domain. The language abilities of BASEBALL and LUNAR used techniques similar to ELIZA and DOCTOR, the first chatterbot programs.

SHRDLU was a successful question-answering program developed by Terry Winograd in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It simulated the operation of a robot in a toy world (the "blocks world"), and it offered the possibility of asking the robot questions about the state of the world. The strength of this system was the choice of a very specific domain and a very simple world with rules of physics that were easy to encode in a computer program.

In the 1970s, knowledge bases were developed that targeted narrower domains of knowledge. The question answering systems developed to interface with these expert systems produced and valid responses to questions within an area of knowledge. These expert systems closely resembled modern question answering systems except in their internal architecture. Expert systems rely heavily on expert-constructed and organized knowledge bases, whereas many modern question answering systems rely on statistical processing of a large, unstructured, natural language text corpus.

The 1970s and 1980s saw the development of comprehensive theories in computational linguistics, which led to the development of ambitious projects in text comprehension and question answering. One example was the Unix Consultant (UC), developed by Robert Wilensky at U.C. Berkeley in the late 1980s. The system answered questions pertaining to the Unix operating system. It had a comprehensive, hand-crafted knowledge base of its domain, and it aimed at phrasing the answer to accommodate various types of users. Another project was LILOG, a text-understanding system that operated on the domain of tourism information in a German city. The systems developed in the UC and LILOG projects never went past the stage of simple demonstrations, but they helped the development of theories on computational linguistics and reasoning.

Specialized natural-language question answering systems have been developed, such as EAGLi for health and life scientists.

Applications
QA systems are used in a variety of applications, including
 * Fact-checking if a fact is verified, by posing a question like: is fact X true or false?
 * customer service,
 * technical support,
 * market research,
 * generating reports or conducting research.

Architecture
, question-answering systems typically included a question classifier module that determined the type of question and the type of answer.

Different types of question-answering systems employ different architectures. For example, modern open-domain question answering systems may use a retriever-reader architecture. The retriever is aimed at retrieving relevant documents related to a given question, while the reader is used to infer the answer from the retrieved documents. Systems such as GPT-3, T5, and BART use an end-to-end architecture in which a transformer-based architecture stores large-scale textual data in the underlying parameters. Such models can answer questions without accessing any external knowledge sources.

Question answering methods
Question answering is dependent on a good search corpus; without documents containing the answer, there is little any question answering system can do. Larger collections generally mean better question answering performance, unless the question domain is orthogonal to the collection. Data redundancy in massive collections, such as the web, means that nuggets of information are likely to be phrased in many different ways in differing contexts and documents, leading to two benefits:

 * 1) If the right information appears in many forms, the question answering system needs to perform fewer complex NLP techniques to understand the text.
 * 2) Correct answers can be filtered from false positives because the system can rely on versions of the correct answer appearing more times in the corpus than incorrect ones.

Some question answering systems rely heavily on automated reasoning.

Open domain question answering
In information retrieval, an open-domain question answering system tries to return an answer in response to the user's question. The returned answer is in the form of short texts rather than a list of relevant documents. The system finds answers by using a combination of techniques from computational linguistics, information retrieval, and knowledge representation.

The system takes a natural language question as an input rather than a set of keywords, for example: "When is the national day of China?" It then transforms this input sentence into a query in its logical form. Accepting natural language questions makes the system more user-friendly, but harder to implement, as there are a variety of question types and the system will have to identify the correct one in order to give a sensible answer. Assigning a question type to the question is a crucial task; the entire answer extraction process relies on finding the correct question type and hence the correct answer type.

Keyword extraction is the first step in identifying the input question type. In some cases, words clearly indicate the question type, e.g., "Who", "Where", "When", or "How many"—these words might suggest to the system that the answers should be of type "Person", "Location", "Date", or "Number", respectively. POS (part-of-speech) tagging and syntactic parsing techniques can also determine the answer type. In the example above, the subject is "Chinese National Day", the predicate is "is" and the adverbial modifier is "when", therefore the answer type is "Date". Unfortunately, some interrogative words like "Which", "What", or "How" do not correspond to unambiguous answer types: Each can represent more than one type. In situations like this, other words in the question need to be considered. A lexical dictionary such as WordNet can be used for understanding the context.

Once the system identifies the question type, it uses an information retrieval system to find a set of documents that contain the correct keywords. A tagger and NP/Verb Group chunker can verify whether the correct entities and relations are mentioned in the found documents. For questions such as "Who" or "Where", a named-entity recogniser finds relevant "Person" and "Location" names from the retrieved documents.

A vector space model can classify the candidate answers. Check if the answer is of the correct type as determined in the question type analysis stage. An inference technique can validate the candidate answers. A score is then given to each of these candidates according to the number of question words it contains and how close these words are to the candidate—the more and the closer the better. The answer is then translated by parsing into a compact and meaningful representation. In the previous example, the expected output answer is "1st Oct."

Mathematical question answering
An open-source, math-aware, question answering system called MathQA, based on Ask Platypus and Wikidata, was published in 2018. MathQA takes an English or Hindi natural language question as input and returns a mathematical formula retrieved from Wikidata as a succinct answer, translated into a computable form that allows the user to insert values for the variables. The system retrieves names and values of variables and common constants from Wikidata if those are available. It is claimed that the system outperforms a commercial computational mathematical knowledge engine on a test set. MathQA is hosted by Wikimedia at https://mathqa.wmflabs.org/. In 2022, it was extended to answer 15 math question types.

MathQA methods need to combine natural and formula language. One possible approach is to perform supervised annotation via Entity Linking. The "ARQMath Task" at CLEF 2020 was launched to address the problem of linking newly posted questions from the platform Math Stack Exchange to existing ones that were already answered by the community. Providing hyperlinks to already answered, semantically related questions helps users to get answers earlier but is a challenging problem because semantic relatedness is not trivial. The lab was motivated by the fact that 20% of mathematical queries in general-purpose search engines are expressed as well-formed questions. The challenge contained two separate sub-tasks. Task 1: "Answer retrieval" matching old post answers to newly posed questions, and Task 2: "Formula retrieval" matching old post formulae to new questions. Starting with the domain of mathematics, which involves formula language, the goal is to later extend the task to other domains (e.g., STEM disciplines, such as chemistry, biology, etc.), which employ other types of special notation (e.g., chemical formulae).

The inverse of mathematical question answering—mathematical question generation—has also been researched. The PhysWikiQuiz physics question generation and test engine retrieves mathematical formulae from Wikidata together with semantic information about their constituting identifiers (names and values of variables). The formulae are then rearranged to generate a set of formula variants. Subsequently, the variables are substituted with random values to generate a large number of different questions suitable for individual student tests. PhysWikiquiz is hosted by Wikimedia at https://physwikiquiz.wmflabs.org/.

Progress
Question answering systems have been extended in recent years to encompass additional domains of knowledge For example, systems have been developed to automatically answer temporal and geospatial questions, questions of definition and terminology, biographical questions, multilingual questions, and questions about the content of audio, images, and video. Current question answering research topics include:

 * interactivity—clarification of questions or answers
 * answer reuse or caching
 * semantic parsing
 * answer presentation
 * knowledge representation and semantic entailment
 * social media analysis with question answering systems
 * sentiment analysis
 * utilization of thematic roles
 * Image captioning for visual question answering
 * Embodied question answering

In 2011, Watson, a question answering computer system developed by IBM, competed in two exhibition matches of Jeopardy! against Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, winning by a significant margin. Facebook Research made their DrQA system available under an open source license. This system uses Wikipedia as knowledge source. The open source framework Haystack by deepset combines open-domain question answering with generative question answering and supports the of the  language models for.

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

title: Question answering


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Ruben Lagus

Ernst Ruben Lagus (12 October 1896 – 15 July 1959), better known as Ruben Lagus, was a Finnish major general, a member of the Jäger Movement and the recipient of the first Mannerheim Cross. He participated in the Eastern Front of World War I as a volunteer of the 27th Royal Prussian Jäger Battalion, in the Finnish Civil War as battalion commander and as a supply officer in the Winter War. During the Continuation War, he commanded an armoured brigade, later division, which had a significant role in the influential Battle of Tali-Ihantala.

Early life
Ernst Ruben Lagus was born on 12 October 1896 in Koski Hl, Grand Duchy of Finland to parents Aleksander Gabriel Lagus and Emma Matilda Bellman. He became involved in the Jäger Movement, where Finnish volunteers received military training in Germany, and followed his brother to Germany in 1915. While in Germany, the Finnish volunteers formed the 27th Royal Prussian Jäger Battalion, fighting for the Imperial German Army on the Eastern Front of World War I. During this time, Lagus saw combat in several battles in the regions of Misa, Gulf of Riga and Lielupe.

Lagus returned to Finland on 25 February 1918, joining the Finnish Civil War on the side of the Whites. As a commander of a battalion and an adjutant of a regiment, he took part in the Battles of Tampere, Kuokkala and Ollila.

Career in the Finnish Army
Following the end of the civil war, from 1918 to 1927 Lagus served as a company commander in various units. He was promoted captain in 1919 and major in 1924. In 1927 and 1928, he commanded the 3rd Bicycle Battalion, followed by postings as the commander of a Non-commissioned Officer School from 1928 to 1929 and as the commander of a company of officer cadets in the Finnish Cadet School from 1929 to 1933.

In 1933, Lagus was made the commander of a supply battalion, later regiment, holding the posting until the start of the Finno-Soviet Winter War in late 1939. During the war, which ended in early 1940, he served as the supply chief for the Army of the Isthmus. Promoted to colonel in 1940, Lagus was given command of the Bicycle Brigade and then the Jäger Brigade during the Interim Peace.

In the Continuation War, where Finland attacked the Soviet Union alongside Germany, Lagus initially led the 1st Jäger Brigade in the Finnish invasion of Ladoga Karelia. The unit was the first armored formation of meaningful size in the history of the Finnish Army. His forces were the first Finnish units to cross the pre-Winter War Finno-Soviet border, advancing eventually to Svir and Petrozavodsk as part of the Finnish invasion of East Karelia. During this initial offensive phase, Lagus was briefly given command of the 5th Division, but had to relinquish the posting to Ilmari Karhu who was preferred by the Finnish commander-in-chief Marshal Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim. He was promoted to major general in 1941 and, on 22 July 1941, received the first Mannerheim Cross ever granted.

From 1942 to the end of the Continuation War in 1944, Lagus commanded the Finnish Armoured Division, to which the 1st Jäger Brigade was attached. Following the start of the Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive in 1944, his division took part in the highly influential Battle of Tali-Ihantala which repulsed the Soviet strategic offensive, paving the way for a Finnish exit from the war.

Following the Moscow Armistice which ended the war between Finland and Soviet Union, Lagus led a formation known as Group Lagus during the Lapland War in which the Finns expelled the remaining German forces from Finnish Lapland. From 1945 onwards, Lagus served as the commander of the 2nd Division, before resigning from service in 1947.

Later years and legacy
Following his retirement, Lagus became the chief executive officer of Lohjan Sato Oy, a Finnish limited company which built social housing in the Lohja region. He also took up gardening as a hobby. Lagus died on 15 July 1959 in Lohja.

Lagus was married twice. His first marriage, with Olga Johanna (Jane) Ramsay ran from 1921 to 1927, after which he married Kenny Christine Emilia Gadd in 1935. He had a total of six children across the two marriages.

During his life, Lagus was given several military awards. The most notable of these is the Finnish Mannerheim Cross he received in 1941. His other notable awards include the Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty and Order of the White Rose, the German Iron Cross (both 1st and 2nd class), and the Swedish Order of the Sword.

title: Ruben Lagus


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Ordnance Survey National Grid

The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system (OSGB), also known as British National Grid (BNG), is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, distinct from latitude and longitude.

The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in its survey data, and in maps based on those surveys, whether published by the Ordnance Survey or by commercial map producers. Grid references are also commonly quoted in other publications and data sources, such as guide books and government planning documents.

A number of different systems exist that can provide grid references for locations within the British Isles: this article describes the system created solely for Great Britain and its outlying islands (including the Isle of Man). The Irish grid reference system is a similar system created by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland for the island of Ireland. The Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) coordinate reference system was adopted in 2001 and is now the preferred coordinate reference system across Ireland. ITM is based on the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system (UTM), used to provide grid references for worldwide locations, and this is the system commonly used for the Channel Islands. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), or variants of it.

Grid letters
The first letter of the British National Grid is derived from a larger set of 25 squares of size 500 km by 500 km, labelled A to Z, omitting one letter (I) (refer diagram below), previously used as a military grid. Four of these largest squares contain significant land area within Great Britain: S, T, N and H. The O square contains a tiny area of North Yorkshire, Beast Cliff at, almost all of which lies below mean high tide. For the second letter, each 500 km square is subdivided into 25 squares of size 100 km by 100 km, each with a letter code from A to Z (again omitting I) starting with A in the north-west corner to Z in the south-east corner. These squares are outlined in light grey on the "100km squares" map, with those containing land lettered. The central (2° W) meridian is shown in red.

Grid digits
Within each square, eastings and northings from the south west corner of the square are given numerically. For example, NH0325 means a 1 km square whose south-west corner is 3 km east and 25 km north from the south-west corner of square NH. A location can be indicated to varying resolutions numerically, usually from two digits in each coordinate (for a 1 km square) through to five (for a 1 m square); in each case the first half of the digits is for the first coordinate and the second half for the other. The most common usage is the six figure grid reference, employing three digits in each coordinate to determine a 100 m square. For example, the grid reference of the 100 m square containing the summit of Ben Nevis is . (Grid references may be written with or without spaces; e.g., also NN166712.) NN has an easting of 200 km and northing of 700 km, so the OSGB36 National Grid location for Ben Nevis is at 216600, 771200.

All-numeric grid references
Grid references may also be quoted as a pair of numbers: eastings then northings in metres, measured from the southwest corner of the SV square. 13 digits may be required for locations in Orkney and further north. For example, the grid reference for Sullom Voe oil terminal in the Shetland Islands may be given as or.

Another, distinct, form of all-numeric grid reference is an abbreviated alphanumeric reference where the letters are simply omitted, e.g. 166712 for the summit of Ben Nevis. Unlike the numeric references described above, this abbreviated grid reference is incomplete; it gives the location relative to an OS 100×100 km square, but does not specify which square. It is often used informally when the context identifies the OS 2-letter square. For example, within the context of a location known to be on OS Landranger sheet 41 (which extends from NN000500 in the south-west to NN400900 in the north-east) the abbreviated grid reference 166712 is equivalent to NN166712. If working with more than one Landranger sheet, this may also be given as 41/166712.

Alternatively, sometimes numbers instead of the two-letter combinations are used for the 100×100 km squares. The numbering follows a grid index where the tens denote the progress from West to East and the units from South to North. In the north of Scotland, the numbering is modified: the 100 km square to the north of 39 is numbered N30; the square to the north of 49 is N40, etc.

Compatibility with related systems
The grid is based on the OSGB36 datum (Ordnance Survey Great Britain 1936, based on the Airy 1830 ellipsoid), and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the Cassini Grid which had previously been the standard projection for Ordnance Survey maps.

The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain; more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the Global Positioning System (the Airy ellipsoid assumes the Earth to be about 1 km smaller in diameter than the GRS80 ellipsoid, and to be slightly less flattened). The British maps adopt a transverse Mercator projection with an origin (the "true" origin) at 49° N, 2° W (an offshore point in the English Channel which lies between the island of Jersey and the French port of St. Malo). Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight line grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin to eliminate negative numbers, creating a 700 km by 1300 km grid. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly.

In order to minimize the overall scale error, a factor of 2499/2500 is applied. This creates two lines of longitude about 180 km east and west of the central meridian along which the local scale factor equals 1, i.e. map scale is correct. Inside these lines the local scale factor is less than 1, with a minimum of 0.04% too small at the central meridian. Outside these lines the local scale factor is greater than 1, and is about 0.04% too large near the east and west coasts. Grid north and true north are only aligned on the central meridian (400 km easting) of the grid which is 2° W (OSGB36) and approx. 2° 0′ 5″ W (WGS 84).

OSGB 36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS 84 has been used.

A geodetic transformation between OSGB 36 and other terrestrial reference systems (like ITRF2000, ETRS89, or WGS 84) can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true. The definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the Ordnance Survey is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN15. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy.

Datum shift between OSGB 36 and WGS 84
The difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB 36 are the same as for WGS 84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS 84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB 36 equivalents, this value rising gradually to about 120 m east on the east coast of East Anglia. The WGS 84 latitude lines are about 70 m south of the OSGB 36 lines in South Cornwall, the difference diminishing to zero in the Scottish Borders, and then increasing to about 50 m north on the north coast of Scotland. (If the lines are further east, then the longitude value of any given point is further west. Similarly, if the lines are further south, the values will give the point a more northerly latitude.) The smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent.

Datum shift between OSGB 36 and ED 50
These two datums are not both in general use in any one place, but for a point in the English Channel halfway between Dover and Calais, the ED50 longitude lines are about 20 m east of the OSGB36 equivalents, and the ED50 latitude lines are about 150 m south of the OSGB36 ones.

Summary parameters of the coordinate system

 * Datum: OSGB36
 * Map projection: Transverse Mercator projection using Redfearn series
 * True origin: 49°N, 2°W
 * False origin: 400 km west, 100 km north of True Origin
 * Scale factor: 0.9996012717
 * EPSG Code: EPSG:27700
 * Ellipsoid: Airy 1830
 * Semi-major axis a: 6 377  563.396
 * Semi-minor axis b: 6 356  256.909
 * Flattening (derived constant): 1/299.3249646

title: Ordnance Survey National Grid


text:
Talk:John Cleese

Blbliography
Shouldn't the Bibliography include something like:

John Cleese & Connie Booth The Complete Fawlty Towers Methuen Mandarin 1989 ISBN 0 7493 0159 7

There's also an earlier edition (1988), but I don't have any other details, other than that it's published by Methuen.

Cheers,

115.189.95.100 (talk) 01:17, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

 * The purists might say that this is not a book but simply a written collection of the scripts of Fawlty Towers. What do others think.?-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 06:50, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Well, it has got an ISBN, so it's probably a book. It also has eight pages of black & white photos, with amusing captions. (incidentally, they are not the pictures I would have chosen - for instance, if there had been one illustrating Page 137, The Germans, it would have clarified the point that Basil is being appallingly racist when he 'collides' with the black doctor.)

115.189.88.127 (talk) 20:41, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 July 2021
In the 21st century section, paragraph 3, please add a tag after the following: Also in 2005, a long-standing piece of Internet humour, "The Revocation of Independence of the United States", was wrongly attributed to Cleese. -- I cannot find evidence that such a thing exists. Or, add citation if it does.

Thanks, 107.15.157.44 (talk) 01:54, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Deleted the sentence. It didn't add much, if anything, to the article. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 02:54, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 September 2021
The google synopsis for this page does not include the fact he was in monthly python. The synopsis for all other members of monty python does include this information. Please update Cleese’s bio/synopsis so this information would be included on the google search Wikipedia synopsis 2A02:C7F:F4B9:E000:2596:83ED:1437:D65F (talk) 17:26, 4 September 2021 (UTC)

 * ❌: This is also a can't do, because Wikipedia has no control over how articles appear in search engine results, which are on external websites. Here is a screenshot of how it currently appears on Google. What seems to have happened is that they have used the opening paragraph, but chopped it off before it gets to the part about Monty Python.-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 17:55, 4 September 2021 (UTC)

Smoking cessation edits
An edit has been made to this section changing the.positive effects of the campaign from "half again" to "half". In numeric terms this is changing fron 150% to 50% implying that the cessation advertisements had a negative rather than positive affect. Whilst this might be comically amusing it's not true.

I have reviewed the link cited and it states that there is an overall positive benefit from the adverts.

Please review and correct, or point out that I'm wrong, as i believe it reflects poorly on JC 80.229.39.99 (talk) 07:46, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Part of post-1990 SDP?
Is there any sources of him actually being a member of the modern Social Democratic Party? Source shows him speaking at one of the events, but doesn't prove he's a member of said party. Edwint512 (talk) 15:00, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 August 2023
In the last line of the Politics & Activism subsection, about his anti-smoking campaign:

Change: "The study found that smokers in regions where the PSAs were broadcast were about half again as likely to have quit at the 18-month follow-up point as those who did not see them, irrespective of the local anti-tobacco campaign."

To: "The impact on quitting among smokers after 18 months was not statistically significant. However, the study did find a significant impact on relapse avoidance of ex-smokers. Ex-smokers who did not see the PSA were more than twice as likely to relapse than those who were in the PSA broadcast regions."

Justification: It is erroneously claimed that the conclusion of the referenced study was that smokers in the PSA test group were 50% more likely to quit than those in the control group. The study was not making that claim about quitting among smokers, rather the claim was about the pooled effects on non-smoking among smokers and ex-smokers.

For context, the study interviewed smokers and ex-smokers, and found the pooled adjusted odds ratio on the non -smoking effect was 1.53 (which includes both those who quit and those who avoided relapsing). The impact on relapse avoidance on ex-smokers was actually the only significant result before pooling (2.21 odds ratio, p value = 0.025), as the impact on quitting among smokers was not statistically significant (1.27 odds ratio, p value = 0.35), thus making the claim in the article false.

You could also essentially quote the study directly - "The effect of the PSA was estimated to have increased the odds of not smoking by 53%, although the confidence interval was wide" - that's nearly direct quote from the results section of the study."

Thanks.

Here is source for the PDF of the actual study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1748378/pdf/v009p00273.pdf Whiskeypuck (talk) 05:38, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

 * ✅. I blockquoted selected bits from the abstract that I thought gave a better sense of the TV campaign's effects, and would be less subject to misinterpretation by lay readers: After 18 months, 9.8% of successfully re-interviewed smokers had stopped and 4.3% of ex-smokers had relapsed. [...] There was no evidence of an extra effect of the local tobacco control network when combined with TV media [...] Applying these results to a typical population where 28% smoke and 28% are ex-smokers, and where there would be an equal number of quitters and relapsers over an 18 month period without the campaign, suggests that the campaign would reduce smoking prevalence by about 1.2%.
 * Feel free to ping me with any objections or additional suggestions. Xan747 (talk) 16:38, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Another Missing Book …
Tired of trying to jump through Wikipedia’s hoops, so here’ s the info. , someone else can take the glory. Written by John Cleese as “Muriel Volestrangler” ( He’s pictured on the cover in drag, as a military person, holding a royal orb.)

”The Golden Skits of Wing Commander Muriel Volestrangler, FRHS & BAR” 1984, Methuen,London ISBN:9780413567901 (Hardback) 75.106.32.81 (talk) 02:45, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

 * ✅-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 12:36, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
 * 👍 75.106.32.81 (talk) 19:37, 21 April 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 December 2023
Change 'In 2021, Cleese cancelled an appearance at Cambridge University after learning that art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon had been blacklisted by the student union for impersonating Adolf Hitler. His visit to the university was intended to be part of a documentary on wokeism.'

to

In 2021, Cleese cancelled an appearance at The Cambridge Union Society after learning that art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon had been blacklisted by the union for impersonating Adolf Hitler. His visit to the university was intended to be part of a documentary on wokeism.

Reason: he wasn't visiting Cambridge University, just the Cambridge Union which is an independent society and charity. He was also not blacklisted by the Student Union (Cambridge SU) - he was blacklisted by the Cambridge Union, which is correctly linked. Savandwich (talk) 23:38, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

 * ✅: The ban on Andrew Graham-Dixon was imposed by the Cambridge Union Society and nobody else.-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 08:37, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:John Cleese


text:
Free product

In mathematics, specifically group theory, the free product is an operation that takes two groups G and H and constructs a new group G ∗ H. The result contains both G and H as subgroups, is generated by the elements of these subgroups, and is the “universal” group having these properties, in the sense that any two homomorphisms from G and H into a group K factor uniquely through a homomorphism from G ∗ H to K. Unless one of the groups G and H is trivial, the free product is always infinite. The construction of a free product is similar in spirit to the construction of a free group (the universal group with a given set of generators).

The free product is the coproduct in the category of groups. That is, the free product plays the same role in group theory that disjoint union plays in set theory, or that the direct sum plays in module theory. Even if the groups are commutative, their free product is not, unless one of the two groups is the trivial group. Therefore, the free product is not the coproduct in the category of abelian groups.

The free product is important in algebraic topology because of van Kampen's theorem, which states that the fundamental group of the union of two path-connected topological spaces whose intersection is also path-connected is always an amalgamated free product of the fundamental groups of the spaces. In particular, the fundamental group of the wedge sum of two spaces (i.e. the space obtained by joining two spaces together at a single point) is, under certain conditions given in the Seifert van-Kampen theorem, the free product of the fundamental groups of the spaces.

Free products are also important in Bass–Serre theory, the study of groups acting by automorphisms on trees. Specifically, any group acting with finite vertex stabilizers on a tree may be constructed from finite groups using amalgamated free products and HNN extensions. Using the action of the modular group on a certain tessellation of the hyperbolic plane, it follows from this theory that the modular group is isomorphic to the free product of cyclic groups of orders 4 and 6 amalgamated over a cyclic group of order 2.

Construction
If G and H are groups, a word on G and H is a sequence of the form
 * $$s_1 s_2 \cdots s_n,$$

where each si is either an element of G or an element of H. Such a word may be reduced using the following operations: Every reduced word is either the empty sequence, contains exactly one element of G or H, or is an alternating sequence of elements of G and elements of H, e.g.
 * Remove an instance of the identity element (of either G or H).
 * Replace a pair of the form g1g2 by its product in G, or a pair h1h2 by its product in H.
 * $$g_1 h_1 g_2 h_2 \cdots g_k h_k.$$

The free product G ∗ H is the group whose elements are the reduced words in G and H, under the operation of concatenation followed by reduction.

For example, if G is the infinite cyclic group $$\langle x\rangle$$, and H is the infinite cyclic group $$\langle y\rangle$$, then every element of G ∗ H is an alternating product of powers of x with powers of y. In this case, G ∗ H is isomorphic to the free group generated by x and y.

Presentation
Suppose that
 * $$G = \langle S_G \mid R_G \rangle$$

is a presentation for G (where SG is a set of generators and RG is a set of relations), and suppose that
 * $$H = \langle S_H \mid R_H \rangle$$

is a presentation for H. Then
 * $$G * H = \langle S_G \cup S_H \mid R_G \cup R_H \rangle.$$

That is, G ∗ H is generated by the generators for G together with the generators for H, with relations consisting of the relations from G together with the relations from H (assume here no notational clashes so that these are in fact disjoint unions).

Examples
For example, suppose that G is a cyclic group of order 4,
 * $$G = \langle x \mid x^4 = 1 \rangle,$$

and H is a cyclic group of order 5
 * $$H = \langle y \mid y^5 = 1 \rangle.$$

Then G ∗ H is the infinite group
 * $$G * H = \langle x, y \mid x^4 = y^5 = 1 \rangle.$$

Because there are no relations in a free group, the free product of free groups is always a free group. In particular,
 * $$F_m * F_n \cong F_{m+n},$$

where Fn denotes the free group on n generators.

Another example is the modular group $$PSL_2(\mathbf Z)$$. It is isomorphic to the free product of two cyclic groups:
 * $$PSL_2(\mathbf Z) \cong (\mathbf Z / 2 \mathbf Z) \ast (\mathbf Z / 3 \mathbf Z).$$

Generalization: Free product with amalgamation
The more general construction of free product with amalgamation is correspondingly a special kind of pushout in the same category. Suppose $$G$$ and $$H$$ are given as before, along with monomorphisms (i.e. injective group homomorphisms):
 * $$\varphi : F \rightarrow G \ \, $$ and $$\ \, \psi : F \rightarrow H,$$

where $$F$$ is some arbitrary group. Start with the free product $$G * H$$ and adjoin as relations
 * $$\varphi(f)\psi(f)^{-1}=1$$

for every $$f$$ in $$F$$. In other words, take the smallest normal subgroup $$N$$ of $$G * H$$ containing all elements on the left-hand side of the above equation, which are tacitly being considered in $$G * H$$ by means of the inclusions of $$G$$ and $$H$$ in their free product. The free product with amalgamation of $$G$$ and $$H$$, with respect to $$\varphi$$ and $$\psi$$, is the quotient group
 * $$(G * H)/N.\,$$

The amalgamation has forced an identification between $$ \varphi(F) $$ in $$G$$ with $$\psi(F)$$ in $$H$$, element by element. This is the construction needed to compute the fundamental group of two connected spaces joined along a path-connected subspace, with $$F$$ taking the role of the fundamental group of the subspace. See: Seifert–van Kampen theorem.

Karrass and Solitar have given a description of the subgroups of a free product with amalgamation. For example, the homomorphisms from $$G$$ and $$H$$ to the quotient group $$(G * H)/N$$ that are induced by $$\varphi$$ and $$\psi$$ are both injective, as is the induced homomorphism from $$F$$.

Free products with amalgamation and a closely related notion of HNN extension are basic building blocks in Bass–Serre theory of groups acting on trees.

In other branches
One may similarly define free products of other algebraic structures than groups, including algebras over a field. Free products of algebras of random variables play the same role in defining "freeness" in the theory of free probability that Cartesian products play in defining statistical independence in classical probability theory.

title: Free product


text:
Cherwell (district)

Cherwell  is a local government district in northern Oxfordshire, England. The district was created in 1974 and takes its name from the River Cherwell, which drains south through the region to flow into the River Thames at Oxford. Towns in Cherwell include Banbury and Bicester. Kidlington is a contender for largest village in England.

History
Cherwell district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the area of four former districts, which were all abolished at the same time:
 * Banbury Municipal Borough
 * Banbury Rural District
 * Bicester Urban District
 * Ploughley Rural District

The new district was named Cherwell after the main river in the area.

Geography
The northern half of the Cherwell district consists mainly of gently rolling hills going down towards the River Cherwell, but the southern half of the district around Bicester is much flatter. The north-west of the district lies at the northern extremity of the Cotswolds.

Governance
Oxfordshire has a two-tier structure of local government, with the five district councils (including Cherwell District Council) providing district-level services, and Oxfordshire County Council providing county-level services.

Political control
The council has been under no overall control since the 2023 election. Prior to that election, the Conservatives had held a majority of the seats on the council since 2000. Following the 2024 election a minority Liberal Democrat, Green Party and independent administration formed to run the council.

The first election to the district council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until it came into its powers on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:

Leadership
The leaders of the council since 2001 have been:

Composition
Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:

One of the independent councillors sits with the Green Party as the 'Green and Independent Alliance Group', which forms the council's administration with the Liberal Democrats. The other two independents sit together as the 'Independent Group'.

Following a series of negotiations, it was announced by the council that a coalition of the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, and one independent councillor would take charge of the council as a minority administration, ending a 24-year period of the Conservatives being in charge of the council.

The next election is due 7 May 2026.

Premises
The council is based at Bodicote House in Bodicote, a village immediately to the south of Banbury, the district's largest town. Bodicote House is a large eighteenth century house, which had served as the headquarters of the old Banbury Rural District Council since 1952. Large modern extensions have since been added to the original house. In 2023 the council announced plans to move its headquarters into the Castle Quay shopping centre in Banbury and sell the Bodicote House site.

Elections
Since 2016 the council has comprised 48 councillors elected from 16 wards, with each ward electing three councillors. Elections to the council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the council being chosen at each election. Elections to Oxfordshire County Council are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no district council elections.

Transport
Much of the district is within easy reach of the M40, with junctions 9, 10 and 11 in the district. It also has good rail links with London, Birmingham, Oxford and the South.

Media
In terms of television, the area is served by BBC South and ITV Meridian broadcasting from the Oxford transmitter. However, Banbury can also receive BBC West Midlands and ITV Central from the local relay transmitter which is transmitted via the Sutton Coldfield transmitter.

Radio stations for the area are BBC Radio Oxford, Heart Thames Valley, Capital Mid-Counties and Jack FM.

Local newspapers are Banbury Guardian and Bicester Advertiser.

Settlements in Cherwell district

 * Adderbury, Ambrosden, Ardley, Arncott
 * Banbury, Barford St. John, Barford St. Michael, Begbroke, Bicester
 * Blackthorn
 * Bletchingdon, Bloxham, Bodicote
 * Broughton
 * Bucknell, Burdrop
 * Charlton-on-Otmoor, Claydon, Cottisford, Cropredy
 * Deddington, Drayton, Duns Tew
 * Epwell
 * Fencott, Finmere, Fringford, Fritwell
 * Godington, Gosford, Great Bourton
 * Hampton Poyle, Hanwell, Hardwick, Hethe
 * Hook Norton, Horley
 * Islip
 * Juniper Hill
 * Kidlington, Kirtlington
 * Launton, Little Bourton, Lower Heyford
 * Merton, Middle Aston, Middleton Stoney
 * Milcombe, Milton, Mixbury, Mollington, Murcott
 * Noke, North Aston, North Newington
 * Oddington
 * Prescote
 * Shenington, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Shutford
 * Sibford Ferris, Sibford Gower, Somerton
 * Souldern, South Newington, Steeple Aston, Stoke Lyne, Swalcliffe
 * Tadmarton, Thrupp
 * Upper Heyford
 * Wardington, Water Eaton, Weston-on-the-Green, Wroxton
 * Yarnton

title: Cherwell (district)


text:
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, and cosmologist. He held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des plantes.

Buffon's works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent French scientists Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his Histoire Naturelle during his lifetime, with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death.

Ernst Mayr wrote that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century". Credited with being one of the first naturalists to recognize ecological succession, he was later forced by the theology committee at the University of Paris to recant his theories about geological history and animal evolution because they contradicted the biblical narrative of Creation.

Early life
Georges Louis Leclerc (later Comte de Buffon) was born at Montbard, in the province of Burgundy to Benjamin François Leclerc, a minor local official in charge of the salt tax and Anne-Christine Marlin, also from a family of civil servants. Georges was named after his mother's uncle (his godfather) Georges Blaisot, the tax-farmer of the Duke of Savoy for all of Sicily. In 1714 Blaisot died childless, leaving a considerable fortune to his seven-year-old godson. Benjamin Leclerc then purchased an estate containing the nearby village of Buffon and moved the family to Dijon acquiring various offices there as well as a seat in the Dijon Parlement.

Georges attended the Jesuit College of Godrans in Dijon from the age of ten onwards. From 1723 to 1726 he then studied law in Dijon, the prerequisite for continuing the family tradition in civil service. In 1728 Georges left Dijon to study mathematics and medicine at the University of Angers in France. At Angers in 1730 he made the acquaintance of the young English Duke of Kingston, who was on his grand tour of Europe, and traveled with him on a large and expensive entourage for a year and a half through southern France and parts of Italy.

There are persistent but completely undocumented rumors from this period about duels, abductions and secret trips to England. In 1732 after the death of his mother and before the impending remarriage of his father, Georges left Kingston and returned to Dijon to secure his inheritance. Having added 'de Buffon' to his name while traveling with the Duke, he repurchased the village of Buffon, which his father had meanwhile sold off. With a fortune of about 80,000 livres (at the time, worth nearly 27 kilograms of gold), Buffon set himself up in Paris to pursue science, at first primarily mathematics and mechanics, and the increase of his fortune.

Career

In 1732 he moved to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals. He lived in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, with Gilles-François Boulduc, first apothecary of the King, professor of chemistry at the Royal Garden of Plants, member of the Academy of Sciences. He first made his mark in the field of mathematics and, in his Sur le jeu de franc-carreau (On the game of fair-square), introduced differential and integral calculus into probability theory; the problem of Buffon's needle in probability theory is named after him. In 1734 he was admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. During this period he corresponded with the Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer.

His protector Maurepas had asked the Academy of Sciences to do research on wood for the construction of ships in 1733. Soon afterward, Buffon began a long-term study, performing some of the most comprehensive tests to date on the mechanical properties of wood. Included were a series of tests to compare the properties of small specimens with those of large members. After carefully testing more than a thousand small specimens without knots or other defects, Buffon concluded that it was not possible to extrapolate to the properties of full-size timbers, and he began a series of tests on full-size structural members.

In 1739 he was appointed head of the Parisian Jardin du Roi with the help of Maurepas; he held this position to the end of his life. Buffon was instrumental in transforming the Jardin du Roi into a major research center and museum. He also enlarged it, arranging the purchase of adjoining plots of land and acquiring new botanical and zoological specimens from all over the world.

Thanks to his talent as a writer, he was invited to join Paris's second great academy, the Académie Française in 1753 and then in 1768 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In his Discours sur le style ("Discourse on Style"), pronounced before the Académie française, he said, "Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul and taste ... The style is the man himself" ("Le style c'est l'homme même"). Unfortunately for him, Buffon's reputation as a literary stylist also gave ammunition to his detractors: the mathematician Jean le Rond d'Alembert, for example, called him "the great phrase-monger".

In 1752 Buffon married Marie-Françoise de Saint-Belin-Malain, the daughter of an impoverished noble family from Burgundy, who had been enrolled in the convent school run by his sister. Madame de Buffon's second child, a son born in 1764, survived childhood; she herself died in 1769. When in 1772 Buffon became seriously ill and the promise that his son (then only 8) should succeed him as director of the Jardin became clearly impracticable and was withdrawn, the King raised Buffon's estates in Burgundy to the status of a county – and thus Buffon (and his son) became a count. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1782. Buffon died in Paris in 1788.

He was buried in a chapel adjacent to the church of Sainte-Urse Montbard; during the French Revolution, his tomb was broken into and the lead that covered the coffin was ransacked to produce bullets. His son, George-Louie-Marie Buffon (often called Buffonet) was guillotined on July 10, 1794. Buffon's heart was initially saved, as it was guarded by Suzanne Necker (wife of Jacques Necker), but was later lost. Today, only Buffon's cerebellum remains, as it is kept in the base of the statue by Pajou that Louis XVI had commissioned in his honor in 1776, located at the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

His Histoire naturelle was also a source of inspiration for the painters of the Sèvres factory, giving rise to porcelain services called Buffon. The name of the different species, faithfully reproduced, is inscribed on the back of each piece. Several "Buffon services" were produced during the reign of Louis XVI; the first was intended for the Count of Artois, in 1782.

Histoire Naturelle

Buffon's Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749–1788: in 36 volumes; an additional volume based on his notes appeared in 1789) was originally intended to cover all three "kingdoms" of nature but the Histoire naturelle ended up being limited to the animal and mineral kingdoms, and the animals covered were only the birds and quadrupeds. "Written in a brilliant style, this work was read ... by every educated person in Europe". Those who assisted him in the production of this great work included Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton, Philibert Guéneau de Montbeillard, and Gabriel-Léopold Bexon, along with numerous artists. Buffon's Histoire naturelle was translated into many different languages, making him one of the most widely read authors of the day, a rival to Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire.

In the opening volumes of the Histoire naturelle Buffon questioned the usefulness of mathematics, criticized Carl Linnaeus's taxonomical approach to natural history, outlined a history of the Earth with little relation to the Biblical account, and proposed a theory of reproduction that ran counter to the prevailing theory of pre-existence. The early volumes were condemned by the Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne. Buffon published a retraction, but he continued publishing the offending volumes without any change.

In the course of his examination of the animal world, Buffon noted that different regions have distinct plants and animals despite similar environments, a concept later known as Buffon's Law. This is considered to be the first principle of biogeography. He made the suggestion that species may have both "improved" and "degenerated" after dispersing from a center of creation. In volume 14 he argued that all the world's quadrupeds had developed from an original set of just thirty-eight quadrupeds. On this basis, he is sometimes considered a "transformist" and a precursor of Darwin. He also asserted that climate change may have facilitated the worldwide spread of species from their centers of origin. Still, interpreting his ideas on the subject is not simple, for he returned to topics many times in the course of his work.

Buffon originally held that “the animals common both to the old and new world are smaller in the latter,” ascribing this to environmental conditions. Upon meeting Buffon, Thomas Jefferson attempted “to convince him of his error,” noting that “the reindeer could walk under the belly of our moose.” Buffon, who was “absolutely unacquainted” with the moose, asked for a specimen. Jefferson dispatched twenty soldiers to the New Hampshire woods to find a bull moose for Buffon as proof of the "stature and majesty of American quadrupeds". According to Jefferson, the specimen “convinced Mr. Buffon. He promised in his next volume to set these things right."

In Les époques de la nature (1778) Buffon discussed the origins of the Solar System, speculating that the planets had been created by a comet's collision with the Sun. He also suggested that the Earth originated much earlier than 4004 BC, the date determined by Archbishop James Ussher. Basing his figures on the cooling rate of iron tested at his Laboratory the Petit Fontenet at Montbard, he calculated that the Earth was at least 75,000 years old. Once again, his ideas were condemned by the Sorbonne, and once again he issued a retraction to avoid further problems.

Buffon knew of the existence of extinct species as mammoths or European rhinos. And some of his assumptions have inspired current models, such as continental drift.

Publications

Histoire naturelle, générale et particuliére, 1749–1767. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. Volumes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15.

Anthropological studies
Buffon believed in monogenism, the concept that all humanity has a single origin, and that physical differences arose from adaptation to environmental factors, including climate and diet. He speculated on the possibility that the first humans were dark-skinned Africans, but did not pinpoint the area of human origin beyond delineating it as “the most temperate climate [that] lies between the 40th and 50th degree of latitude.” This geophysical band encompasses portions of Europe, North America, North Africa, Mongolia, and China.

Controversially for a European of his era, Buffon did not believe that Europe was the cradle of human civilization. Instead he stated that Japanese and Chinese culture were “of a very ancient date,” and that Europe “only much later received the light from the East…it is thus in the northern countries of Asia that the stem of human knowledge grew."

Buffon thought that skin color could change in a single lifetime, depending on the conditions of climate and diet. Clarence Glacken suggests that "The environmental changes through human agency described by Buffon were those which were familiar and traditional in the history of Western civilization". However, Buffon also challenged Carl Linnaeus' conceptualization of the fixed division of race. In this sense, Buffon expands his perspective on monogenism that associating these dissimilar traits and features into one larger category rather than in a fixed division. This brought to his conceptualization on distinguishing race in a broad and narrow sense; in a broad sense, race means larger groups of people who inhabit a huge region known as a continent; while in a narrow sense, it denotes equivalently with "nation". With this, he implies his ambivalence in defining race by looking at specific traits to differenciate them but at the same time he rejects the idea of categorizing race in a specific fixed division. Therefore, because Buffon seems to favor in working on gerealization and marking the similarities rather than the difference in the race categorization.

Relevance to modern biology
Charles Darwin wrote in his preliminary historical sketch added to the third edition of On the Origin of Species: "Passing over ... Buffon, with whose writings I am not familiar". Then, from the fourth edition onwards, he amended this to say that "the first author who in modern times has treated it [evolution] in a scientific spirit was Buffon. But as his opinions fluctuated greatly at different periods, and as he does not enter on the causes or means of the transformation of species, I need not here enter on details". Buffon's work on degeneration, however, was immensely influential on later scholars but was overshadowed by strong moral overtones.

The paradox of Buffon is that, according to Ernst Mayr:

"He was not an evolutionary biologist, yet he was the father of evolutionism. He was the first person to discuss a large number of evolutionary problems, problems that before Buffon had not been raised by anybody ... he brought them to the attention of the scientific world.

Except for Aristotle and Darwin, no other student of organisms [whole animals and plants] has had as far-reaching an influence.

He brought the idea of evolution into the realm of science. He developed a concept of the 'unity of type', a precursor of comparative anatomy. More than anyone else, he was responsible for the acceptance of a long-time scale for the history of the earth. He was one of the first to imply that you get inheritance from your parents, in a description based on similarities between elephants and mammoths. And yet, he hindered evolution by his frequent endorsement of the immutability of species. He provided a criterion of species, fertility among members of a species, that was thought impregnable."

Buffon wrote about the concept of struggle for existence. He developed a system of heredity which was similar to Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis. Commenting on Buffon's views, Darwin stated, "If Buffon had assumed that his organic molecules had been formed by each separate unit throughout the body, his view and mine would have been very closely similar."

“Buffon asked most all of the questions that science has since been striving to answer,” the historian Otis Fellows wrote in 1970.

"His glory lies in what he prepared for his successors: bold and seminal views on the common characters of life’s origin, laws of geographical distribution, a geological record of the earth’s evolution, extinction of old species, the successive appearance of new species, the unity of the human race."

Works
Buffon, Œuvres, ed. S. Schmitt and C. Crémière, Paris: Gallimard, 2007.

Complete works
 * Vol 1. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy. Tome I (1749). Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2007, 1376 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-1601-1)
 * Vol 2. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière avec la participation du Cabinet du Roy. Tome II. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt, avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2008, 808 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-1729-2)
 * Vol 3. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome III (1749), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2009, 776 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-1730-8)
 * Vol 4. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome IV (1753), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2010. 1 vol., 864 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-1928-9)
 * Vol 5. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome V (1755), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2010. 1 vol., 536 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-2057-5)
 * Vol 6. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome VI (1756), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2011. 1 vol., 504 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-2150-3)
 * Vol. 7. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome VII (1758), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2011. 1 vol., 544 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-2239-5)
 * Vol. 8. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome VIII (1760), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2014, 640 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-2615-7)
 * Vol. 9. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome IX (1761), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2016, 720 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-2994-3)
 * Vol. 10. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome X (1763), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2017, 814 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-3456-5)
 * Vol. 11. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XI (1764), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2018, 724 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-4730-5)
 * Vol. 12. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XII (1764), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2018, 810 p. (ISBN 978-2-7453-4732-9)
 * Vol. 13. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XIII (1765), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2019, 887 p.
 * Vol. 14. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XIV (1768), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2020, 605 p.
 * Vol. 15. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XV (1767), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2021, 764 p.

Eponyms of Buffon

 * Buffon (crater), a lunar impact crater located on the southern hemisphere of the far side of the Moon.
 * Lycée Buffon, a secondary school in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.
 * Rue Buffon (Paris), a street bordering the Jardin des Plantes in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.
 * Rue Buffon (Dijon) Rue Buffon], a street in Dijon, France.
 * An asteroid was named (7420) Buffon.

title: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon


text:
Talk:Answering engine

Good start! Is any of this stuff operational or is it still in the research stage? -- Viajero 12:48, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * well, i guess Ask Jeeves is pretty operational, but it's a bit on the stupid end (templates), not to say that stupid is bad, just that not as interesting Kowey 13:11, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Wow! Nice to see this grow. Wtg, DMolla. Kowey 10:23, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

--- START ( http://start.csail.mit.edu/ ) is operational and listed with several other web search engines in the article. There is no specific mention in the article of Wendy Lehnert's QUALM program even though her work is cited in the Roadmap paper (http://www.alta.asn.au/events/altss_w2003_proc/altss/courses/molla/qa_roadmap.pdf) and is related to the problem discussed in the Wilson Wong paper that is cited as a reference.

There is no mention of PIQUANT or JAVELIN.

Alex, I'll take "What is Watson?" for $500, please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.159.209.23 (talk) 00:30, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Answer Questioning
The entire "Answer Questioning" paragraph in the Deep section is pretty inscrutable. Almost every sentence is complicated, but doesn't seem to actually say much of anything. It also uses an unexplained symbolic system, one example being "1(Q) = (∞(A)-∞) = 1(A)". What is this supposed to mean? Can someone rewrite the whole paragraph? - dcljr (talk) 22:35, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Low quality article
I tagged this for a rewrite. Is a disaster or errors... Just take the simplest issue, it says: "The first QA systems were developed in the 1960s and they were basically natural-language interfaces to expert systems" But as the Wikipage on expert systems states (one of the few correct statements there!), those only appeared in the 1970s. Then the comedy of errors here continues... History2007 (talk) 23:13, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

what are the auxillary verbs
what are the auxillary verbs — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.90.227.201 (talk) 10:56, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Study
What is the average age of matric pass — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.178.206.97 (talk) 05:40, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Answering engine


text:
Stryker Corporation

Stryker Corporation is an American multinational medical technologies corporation based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Stryker's products include implants used in joint replacement and trauma surgeries; surgical equipment and surgical navigation systems; endoscopic and communications systems; patient handling and emergency medical equipment; neurosurgical, neurovascular and spinal devices; as well as other medical device products used in a variety of medical specialties.

In the United States, most of Stryker's products are marketed directly to doctors, hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Internationally, Stryker products are sold in over 100 countries through company-owned sales subsidiaries and branches as well as third-party dealers and distributors.

Business segments
Stryker segregates their reporting into three reportable business segments: Orthopedics, Medical and Surgical (MedSurg), and Neurotechnology and Spine.

 * Orthopedics products consist primarily of implants used in hip and knee joint replacements and trauma and extremities surgeries.
 * MedSurg products include surgical equipment and surgical navigation systems (Instruments); endoscopic and communications systems (Endoscopy); patient handling and emergency medical equipment (Medical); and reprocessed and remanufactured medical devices as well as other medical device products used in a variety of medical specialties.
 * Stryker Neurotechnology and Spine products include a portfolio of products including both neurosurgical and neurovascular devices. Their neurotechnology offering includes products used for minimally invasive endovascular techniques, as well as a line of products for traditional brain and open skull base surgical procedures, orthobiologic and biosurgery products including synthetic bone grafts and vertebral augmentation products, as well as minimally invasive products for the treatment of acute ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Stryker also develops, manufactures and markets spinal implant products including cervical, thoracolumbar and interbody systems used in spinal injury, deformity and degenerative therapies.

History
The Orthopedic Frame Company, the precursor of Stryker Corporation, was formed in 1941 by Dr. Homer Stryker, a Kalamazoo, Michigan, orthopedist and a 1925 graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School. Stryker developed the Turning Frame, a mobile hospital bed that allowed for repositioning of injured patients while providing necessary body immobility; the cast cutter, a cast cutting apparatus that removed cast material without damaging underlying tissues; and the walking heel, among others. In 1964, the company name was officially changed to Stryker Corporation.

In 1979, Stryker made an initial public offering of stock and later acquired Osteonics Corporation, entering the replacement hip, knee, and other orthopedic implants market (Stryker). In 1999 annual sales reached $2.1 billion, and in 2000 Stryker was included in the S&P 500 and the Forbes Platinum 400 for the first time. In 2002 sales reached $3.0 billion and Stryker was listed in the Fortune 500 for the first time.

In 2003, Stephen P. MacMillan joined Stryker as president and CEO. In 2005, annual sales reached $4.9 billion and John W. Brown transitioned to the single role of chairman of the board, a role he retired from in 2010, while MacMillan became president and CEO. By 2007, Stryker sold its Physiotherapy Associates division to private equity firm Water Street Healthcare Partners for $150 million. In February 2012, Mr. MacMillan resigned and Curt R. Hartman was named Interim Chief Executive Officer and vice president and chief financial officer. Mr. William U. Parfet was named non-executive chairman of the board. On October 1, 2012, Mr. Kevin A. Lobo was appointed as president and chief executive officer.

At the end of 2012, Stryker had approximately 22,000 global employees and annual sales of $8.7 billion. 35% of those sales were outside the U.S.

In a 2012 global market overview of top medical technology firms, Stryker was ranked number 10 with total portfolio sales in excess of $8.6 billion. Moreover, the firm maintains 35% worldwide reconstructive market share; 50% worldwide MedSurg market share; 15% worldwide Neurotechnology and Spine market share.

The company was recognized by Hermann Simon as a role model for other small to medium-sized business in his book Hidden Champions. Stryker recently hired former Johnson & Johnson executive Rob Fletcher as its new chief legal officer.

John Brown
Brown served as president, CEO and finally chairman of the board across a 32-year career with Stryker. One report attributes Stryker's rise from a maker of hospital beds to a world-class medical technology company to Brown. , Brown's retained investment in Stryker placed him on the Forbes 400 list with a net worth of US$1.5 Billion.

Corporate governance
As of 2018, members of the board of directors of Stryker Corporation are:
 * Kevin A. Lobo, chairman and CEO
 * Allan C. Golston, lead independent director
 * Mary K. Brainerd
 * Srikant M. Datar, Ph.D.
 * Dr. Roch Doliveux, DVM
 * Louise L. Francesconi
 * Sherilyn S. McCoy
 * Andrew K. Silvernail
 * Ronda E. Stryker
 * Rajeev Suri
 * John W. Brown, chairman emeritus
 * Howard E. Cox, Jr, director emeritus

1998–2010
In 1998, Stryker purchased Howmedica, the orthopaedic division of Pfizer, for $1.65 billion. Howmedica became Stryker Orthopaedics. In August 2000, Stryker acquired, with stock, Guided Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of optical localizers purposed for use in healthcare and industrial.

In August 2004, Stryker acquired, for $120 million, SpineCore, a company involved in the development of artificial spinal disks. About two years preceding this date, in June 2002, the firm acquired the Spinal Implant Business of Surgical Dynamics for $135 million.

In March 2006, Stryker absorbed the Haifa, Israel-based Sightline Technologies into its operations. Sightline, a manufacturer of gastrointestinal endoscopy apparatuses, propelled Stryker into the flexible endoscopy market. In February of the same year, the firm acquired eTrauma.com, a privately held entity involved in the development of software for Picture archiving and communication system (PACS); the company was incorporated into Stryker Endoscopy Business. December 2005 marked the company's acquisition of PlasmaSol Corp. for $17.5 million. PlasmaSol produces technologies allowing sterilization of various MedSurg equipments.

In 2009, Stryker acquired Ascent Healthcare Solutions the market leader in the reprocessing and remanufacturing of medical devices in the U.S.

2011–today
In January 2011, Stryker acquired the Neurovascular Division of Boston Scientific, which includes products used for the minimally invasive treatment of hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke. In June 2011, Stryker purchased Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Orthovita, a biomaterials company specializing in bone augmentation and substitution technologies. The Orthovita business now makes up the Stryker Orthobiologics division, which specializes in biomaterials for all Stryker divisions. In July 2011, Stryker completed the acquisition of privately held Memometal Technologies S.A.. France based Memometal develops, manufactures and markets products for extremity indications based on its proprietary methods for preparing and manufacturing a shape memory metal alloy. In August 2011, Stryker signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Concentric Medical, Inc. in an all-cash transaction for $135 million. Concentric's products include devices for the removal of thrombus in patients experiencing acute ischemic stroke along with a broad range of AIS access products. In November 2012, Stryker acquired the Tel Aviv, Israel-based Surpass Medical Ltd., a company developing a flow diversion stent technology to treat brain aneurysms using a mesh design and delivery system, for $135 million.

In March 2013, Stryker acquired Trauson Holdings Company Limited. Trauson is a trauma manufacturer in China and a major competitor in the spine segment. In December 2013, Stryker acquired MAKO Surgical Corporation. MAKO is a company in South Florida that manufactures and markets surgical robotic arm assistance platforms, most notably the RIO (Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic System) as well as orthopedic implants used by orthopedic surgeons for use in partial knee and total hip arthroplasty. Stryker also acquired Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. The company offers Safety-Sponge System, an integrated counting and documentation system that prevents surgical sponges and towels from being unintentionally left in patients after surgical procedures.

In March 2014, Stryker acquired Pivot Medical, Inc. Pivot is a privately held business selling innovative products for hip arthroscopy with operating facilities in Sunnyvale, CA. In April 2014 Stryker acquires Berchtold Holding AG (Berchtold), a provider of customer-centric healthcare equipment for over 90 years. Berchtold's product portfolio includes surgical tables, equipment booms, and surgical lighting systems geared towards maximizing efficiency and safety in operating rooms and ICUs. On July 1, 2014, Stryker Corp. announced that it had agreed to buy the assets of Small Bone Innovations Inc., a Morrisville, Pa.-based company that specializes in products that help surgeons treat and replace small bones and joints for $358 million. The company also acquired Patient Safety Technologies for $120 million.

In September 2015, Stryker acquired Turkish company Muka Metal A.S. which is manufacturing hospital beds and patient furniture in Kayseri.

In February 2016, the company announced it would acquire Sage Products for $2.8 billion. Later in the same month the company announced the acquisition of Physio-Control from Bain Capital Outline of the Northern Mariana Islands Equity for $1.28 billion.

In June 2017, Stryker acquired Arthrogenx, LLC, which developed the Cobra reusable suture passer for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and Novadaq. In September, Stryker completed its acquisition of Novadaq Technologies for $700 million. In October, the company acquired Vexim for €183 million. In November 2017 the company announced it would acquire Entellus Medical Inc $662 million, bolstering Strykers ENT business.

In 2018 Stryker acquired K2M Group Holdings, Inc., producer of complex spine and minimally invasive technology. In May the business acquired Hygia Health, Services SafeAir AG, HyperBranch Medical Technology, Inc., and Invuity, Inc.

In February 2019 the company announced it would acquire Arrinex, Inc. manufacturer of cryoablation technology for the treatment of chronic rhinitis. In March Stryker acquired the Israeli-based OrthoSpace, Ltd for up to $220 million. In October, the business acquired Mobius Imaging, LLC and GYS Tech, LLC (DBA Cardan Robotics). In November of the same year the company announced it would acquire Wright Medical Group N.V. for around $4 billion ($5.4 billion including debt), expanding into upper-body implants.

In January 2021, Stryker announced it would acquire joint replacement technology business, OrthoSensor, Inc. In May 2021, Stryker announced the acquisition of TMJ Concepts.

In January 2022, the company announced it would acquire digital care business Vocera Communications for around $3 billion.

In 2023, Stryker has introduced a new minimally invasive bunion treatment system, Prostep MIS Lapidus, as part of its growing extremities portfolio, acquired through its takeover of Wright Medical in 2020. The device aims to reduce bunion recurrence, minimize scarring, and lower opioid use, debuting at the 2023 American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society Annual Meeting.

In March 2024, it was announced Stryker had completed the acquisition of the France-based joint replacement company, SERF SAS from its parent company Menix.

Acquisition history

 * Stryker Corporation (Est. 1941 as The Orthopedic Frame Company)
 * Osteonics Corporation
 * Howmedica (Acq 1998)
 * Leibinger GmbH (Acq 1996)
 * Guided Technologies, Inc. (Sold 2007, SpineCore Inc.)
 * Water Street Healthcare Partners (Sold 2007)
 * Surgical Dynamics Inc. (Acq 2002)
 * SpineCore Inc. (Acq 2004)
 * PlasmaSol Corporation (Acq 2005)
 * Sightline Technologies Ltd (Acq 2006)
 * eTrauma.com Corporation (Acq 2006)
 * Ascent Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (Acq 2009)
 * Boston Scientific (Neurovascular div) (Acq 2011)
 * Orthovita (Acq 2011)
 * Memometal Technologies S.A. (Acq 2011)
 * Concentric Medical, Inc. (Acq 2011)
 * Trauson Holdings Company Limited (Acq 2012)
 * MAKO Surgical Corporation (Acq 2012)
 * Patient Safety Technologies (Acq 2012)
 * Surpass Medical Ltd (Acq 2012)
 * Pivot Medical, Inc. (Acq 2014)
 * Berchtold Holding AG (Acq 2014)
 * Small Bone Innovations Inc. (Acq 2014)
 * Sage Products (Acq 2016)
 * Physio-Control (Acq 2016)
 * Stanmore Implants Worldwide Ltd (Acq 2016)
 * Entellus Medical Inc (Acq 2017)
 * Arthrogenx, LLC (Acq 2017)
 * Novadaq (Acq 2017)
 * Vexim (Acq 2017)
 * Scopis GmbH (Acq 2017)
 * K2M Group Holdings, Inc. (Acq 2018)
 * Hygia Health Services (Acq 2018)
 * SafeAir AG (Acq 2018)
 * HyperBranch Medical Technology, Inc. (Acq 2018)
 * Invuity, Inc (Acq 2018)
 * Arrinex, Inc. (Acq 2019)
 * OrthoSpace, Ltd (Acq 2019)
 * GYS Tech, LLC (Acq 2019)
 * Mobius Imaging, LLC (Acq 2019)
 * Stryker B.V.
 * Stryker Unite, (Bermuda) Ltd
 * Wright Medical Group N.V. (Acq 2019)
 * Wright Luxembourg S.A.
 * Wright Medical (Bermuda) Ltd
 * IMASCAP SAS (Acq 2017)
 * Cartiva, Inc. (Acq 2018)
 * OrthoSensor, Inc. (Acq 2020)
 * TMJ Concepts (Acq 2020)
 * Vocera Communications (Acq 2021)
 * SERF SAS (Acq 2024)

Controversies and lawsuits
On January 27, 2000, Stryker Corporation restated its operating results for the year ended December 31, 1998, to reduce acquisition-related charges by $30.9 million.

Since early 2007, the company has received three warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration citing issues in compliancy. The first of these, a seven-page correspondence, named various issues at an Irish manufacturing facility, such as untimely fix of failures and procedural noncompliance in the testing of failed or otherwise problem-prone devices. The second, sent November 2007, cites issues at the firm's Mahwah, New Jersey, facility, including poor fixation of hip implant components, in some instances requiring mitigation by revision surgeries; exceeded microbial level violations in the cleaning and final packaging areas of the sterile implants; and failure to institute measures in prevention of recurrence of these and other problems. The final warning letter, sent April 2008, cites issues at the firm's Hopkinton, MA biotechnology facility. Again, issues relate to quality and noncompliance including falsification of documents relevant to the selling of products to hospitals which are to be sold under a limited, government-mandated basis. Stryker maintains that employees involved in the falsification of documents have since been terminated.

In the fall of 2007, Stryker, along with the related companies Biomet, Zimmer Holdings, DePuy Orthopaedics and Smith & Nephew, were involved in civil litigation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. This litigation called for a net payout of $311 million as the governmental department maintains the aforementioned companies engaged in unlawful kickbacks to physicians who urged hospitals to purchase their respective products. Stryker, however, having cooperated early in the investigation, was not fined.

As of February 2008, a dispute exists between Stryker Corp. and the U.S. Department of Justice concerning a subpoena linking the company to aforementioned misconduct in sale of products. Since governmental filing of the injunction, Stryker notes that it has produced in excess of 300,000 pages of documentation in compliance with the mandate. U.S. Government counters, however, that the documentation was not proper in scope and format. Law officials expect the investigation to continue for several months.

Stryker recalled several models of medical vacuums sold under the Neptune Waste Management System brand in June and September 2012. The devices, some of which had not been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, caused a fatal accident when the vacuum was mistakenly used to suction a passive drainage tube.

Lawsuits
On 2012, FDA has issued a warning for the Stryker Rejuvenate hip replacement after it was discovered that the hip replacement was considered defective and can cause similar side effects to DePuy hip implants. As a result, in 2014, Stryker was fined 1 billion and 2.5 billion respectively for their defective Rejuvenate and ABG II hip replacements that can cause excruciating pain.

In 2016, subsidiary company Stryker EMEA Supply Chain Services BV challenged the Dutch authorities' interpretation of procurement nomenclature regarding implant screws intended to be inserted in the human body. The matter was referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the legal position and on the validity of the relevant EU implementing regulation.

Response to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stryker was among those that continued business-as-usual in Russia rather than join the more than a thousand international corporations that have curtailed operations there. Research from Yale School of Management evaluating companies' reaction to the Russian invasion put Stryker in the "Grade F" category of "Digging In", meaning "Defying Demands for Exit or Reduction of Activities." [Original research?]

title: Stryker Corporation


text:
User talk:Smallweed

Round-Tailed Sea Cow listed at Redirects for discussion
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Nyköping County

Nyköping County, or Nyköpings län, was a county of the Swedish Empire from 1634 to 1683. It was one of three counties in the province of Södermanland, and in 1683 they were merged into Södermanland County.

title: Nyköping County


text:
User:Gabarro

Gabarro is the user used by Penya Gabarro people.

 * Visio3D: Some notes in projective geometry and 3D vision.

PetPodrit

title: User:Gabarro