text:
Don Drysdale

Donald Scott Drysdale (July 23, 1936 – July 3, 1993), nicknamed "Big D", was an American professional baseball pitcher and broadcaster who played in Major League Baseball. He spent his entire 14-year career with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. Known for being a fierce competitor, Drysdale won the Cy Young Award in 1962 and was a three-time World Series champion during his playing career.

Born in Van Nuys, California, Drysdale made his major league debut in 1956. He quickly made a reputation for himself as a brushback pitcher who was not afraid to pitch inside to batters in order to keep them off balance. Often overshadowed by teammate and Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax, Drysdale was a dominant pitcher in his own right, winning the Cy Young Award in and setting a record six consecutive shutouts and $58 2/3$ consecutive scoreless innings in.

Drysdale was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984 and, the same year, had his number 53 retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers. After his playing career ended in 1969, Drysdale became a radio and television broadcaster until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1993.

Early life
Drysdale was born in Van Nuys, Los Angeles to Scott and Verna Drysdale. His father was a repair supervisor for the Pacific Telephone and Telegraphy Company who had a brief minor league career before Drysdale was born.

Drysdale attended Van Nuys High School where one of his classmates was actor Robert Redford. While he had played baseball since childhood, primarily as a second baseman, Drysdale only began to pitch during his senior year in high school; he posted a 10-1 record. He was signed out of high school by the Brooklyn Dodgers for a minimum salary and a signing bonus of $4,000.

Minor league career
Drysdale began his professional career in 1954, playing for the Class-C Bakersfield Indians of the California League where he posted a 8-5 win-loss record with a 3.46 earned run average and 73 strikeouts in Bakersfield.

The next season, Drysdale was promoted to the Triple-A Montreal Royals of the International League. In 1955, he posted an 11-11 record with a 3.33 earned run average and 80 strikeouts for Montreal. The following year, he was promoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers
Drysdale made his major league debut on April 17, 1956, pitching a scoreless 9th inning in an 8–6 loss against the Philadelphia Phillies. He made his first start on April 23, also against the Phillies, a complete game win in which he allowed only one run and struck out 9 batters. Drysdale finished his rookie season with an 2.64 earned run average and 55 strikeouts in 99 innings pitched.

Drysdale, along with Dodgers teammate Sandy Koufax, served six months in the United States Army Reserve at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Van Nuys, California after the end of the 1957 season and before spring training in 1958. In his autobiography, Once a Bum, Always a Dodger, Drysdale wrote:

"Those six months were good for me. When you wake up at three-thirty every morning, and you realize that some of your buddies are just getting in back home, it gives you a lot of discipline. The service should be mandatory for every kid in America. You thought you were hot stuff being a major league pitcher, and then you went to Fort Dix and found out that it doesn't matter who you were. There were no exceptions."

In 1962, Drysdale won 25 games and led the Majors in strikeouts with 232. He won the Cy Young Award and was named The Sporting News Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year. In 1963, he struck out 251 batters and won Game 3 of the World Series at Los Angeles's Dodger Stadium over the Yankees, 1–0. In 1965, he was the Dodgers' only .300 hitter and tied his own National League record for pitchers with seven home runs. That year, he also won 23 games and helped the Dodgers to their third pennant in Los Angeles.

In 1965, Koufax declined to pitch the first game of the World Series as it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Drysdale pitched for the Dodgers instead of Koufax, giving up seven runs in $2 2/3$ innings, with the Dodgers losing 8–2 to the Minnesota Twins. When Dodgers manager Walter Alston came to the mound to remove him from the game in the 3rd inning, Drysdale quipped, "Hey, skip, bet you wish I was Jewish today too." Despite the setback, the Dodgers went on to win the Series behind Koufax's MVP-winning performances in Games 5 and 7, with Drysdale winning Game 4 at Dodger Stadium.

Drysdale and Koufax took part in a famous joint holdout in the spring of 1966. They had set an NL record the year before for strikeouts by teammates, with a combined total of 592. Both wanted to be paid $500,000 over three seasons, but Dodgers' GM Buzzie Bavasi preferred to give them one-year contracts according to team policy. They both finally signed one-year contracts just before the season opened. Drysdale's contract was for $110,000, and Koufax's contract was for $125,000. Those contracts made them the first pitchers to earn more than $100,000 a year.

In 1968, the "year of the pitcher", Drysdale set Major League records with six consecutive shutouts and $58 2/3$ consecutive scoreless innings, winning NL Player of the Month honors in June and starting the All-Star Game in Houston. The scorless innings record was broken by fellow Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser 20 years later. Hershiser, however, did not match Drysdale's record of six consecutive complete-game shutouts.

Recurring shoulder injuries had slowed Drysdale down in his final years. After suffering a torn rotator cuff, Drysdale retired from Major League Baseball during the 1969 season, having made only 12 starts. At the time of his retirement, he was the last active player on the Dodgers who had played for them in Brooklyn.

Career overall and honors
In his 14-year career, Drysdale compiled a record of 209-166 with an earned run average of 2.95. He struck out 2,486 batters, posted 49 shutouts, and hit 154 batters. He struck out 200 or more batters six times and won 20 games twice. In the World Series, he had a record of 3-3 with a 2.95 ERA. Drysdale led the Majors in strikeouts three times, wins once, and lead the NL in shutouts once. In 1962, with a record of 25-9 and a Major League-leading 232 strikeouts, he won the Cy Young Award.

Additionally, Drysdale won three NL Player of the Month awards: June 1959 (6–0 record, 1.71 earned run average, 51 strikeouts), July 1960 (6–0 record, 2.00 earned run average, 48 strikeouts), and May 1968 (5–1 record, 0.53 earned run average, 45 strikeouts, with 5 consecutive shutouts to begin his scoreless inning streak, which was carried into June).

He was also a good hitting pitcher. In 14 seasons, he had 218 hits in 1,169 at-bats for a .186 batting average, including 96 runs, 26 doubles, 7 triples, 29 home runs, 113 RBI and 60 bases on balls. His 29 home runs are sixth all-time for pitchers. He was occasionally used as a pinch-hitter, including once during the 1965 World Series. Drysdale hit 7 home runs in a season twice, in 1958 and 1965, and was the only .300 hitter for the offensively-weak Dodgers during the latter season.

Drysdale was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, his tenth year of eligibility, and his number 53 retired was retired by the Dodgers on July 1, 1984. During his career, he was a nine-time All-Star, starting the Midsummer Classic a record five times and pitching record 19.1 innings, making an appearance in all nine he was selected to. During All-Star Game play, Drysdale compiled a record of 2–1, with a 1.40 ERA; he faced 69 batters and struck out 19, both All-Star records.

Pitching style
Standing at 6 ft, Drysdale was known to use brushback pitches and a sidearm fastball to intimidate batters. He gained a reputation for intimidation similar to his fellow Hall of Famer and contemporary Bob Gibson. Sal Maglie, also known for brushback pitches, taught him how to pitch aggressively when both were Dodger teammates in the 1950s. Drysdale led the NL in hit batsmen for four straight seasons from 1958 to 1961, and again in 1965. His 154 career hit batsmen is a modern National League record.

Fellow Hall of Famer Frank Robinson said of him, "He was mean enough to do it, and he did it continuously. You could count on him doing it. And when he did it, he just stood there on the mound and glared at you to let you know he meant it." Of his former teammate, Maglie said: "I don't think Don has ever tried intentionally to send someone to the hospital. A pitcher needs to pitch inside. And if one of your teammates goes down, you do what you have to do to even the score, plain and simple."

Broadcasting career

In 1970, Drysdale started a career in sports broadcasting that continued for the rest of his life: first for the Montreal Expos (1970–1971), then the Texas Rangers (1972), California Angels (1973–1979, 1981), Chicago White Sox (1982–1987), NBC (1977), ABC (1978–1986), and finally back in Los Angeles with the Dodgers (1988–1993). Additionally, he also worked with his Angels' partner Dick Enberg on Los Angeles Rams football broadcasts from 1973 to 1976. Drysdale kept the fans' interest with stories of his playing days.

While at ABC Sports, Drysdale not only did baseball telecasts, but also regional college football games as well as Superstars and Wide World of Sports. After the 1979 World Series, Drysdale covered the World Series Trophy presentation ceremonies for ABC. On October 11, 1980, Keith Jackson called an Oklahoma–Texas college football game for ABC in the afternoon, then flew to Houston to call Game 4 of the NLCS between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies. In the meantime, Drysdale filled in for Jackson on play-by-play for the early innings.

In 1984, Drysdale called play-by-play with analysts Reggie Jackson and Earl Weaver for the National League Championship Series between the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs. On October 6, 1984, at San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium, Game 4 of the NLCS ended when Padres first baseman Steve Garvey hit a now-iconic walk-off home run off Cubs relief pitcher Lee Smith, forcing a decisive Game 5. Drysdale on the call:

"Deep right field, way back. Cotto going back to the wall... It's gone! Home run Garvey! And there will be tomorrow!"

In his last ABC assignment, Drysdale interviewed the winners in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse following Game 7 of the 1986 American League Championship Series against the California Angels.

In 1985, for the Chicago White Sox, Drysdale broadcast Tom Seaver's 300th victory, against the host New York Yankees in 1985. His post-game interview with Seaver was carried live by both the Sox' network and the Yankees' longtime flagship television station WPIX.

On September 28, 1988, fellow Dodger Orel Hershiser surpassed Drysdale when Hershiser finished the season with a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. In his final start of the year, Hershiser needed to pitch 10 shutout innings to set the mark – meaning not only that he would have to prevent the San Diego Padres from scoring, but that his own team would also need to fail to score in order to ensure extra innings; against all odds, Hershiser pitched 10 innings of a scoreless tie, with the Padres eventually prevailing 2–1 in 16 innings, breaking Drysdale's record. Afterwards, Drysdale came onto the field to congratulate him, remarking, "Oh, I'll tell ya, congratulations... And at least you kept it in the family."

Drysdale also called Kirk Gibson's famous walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers Radio Network:

"Gibson a deep sigh, re-gripping the bat, shoulders just shrugged, now goes to the top of the helmet as he always does, steps in with that left foot. Eckersley working out of a stretch, now here's the 3-2 pitch...and a drive into right field (losing voice) WAY BACK! THIS BALL IS GONE! – *two minutes of crowd cheering* – This crowd will not stop! They can't believe the ending! And this time, Mighty Casey did NOT strike out!!"

Radio show
In 1987, Drysdale hosted a nationally syndicated radio show called Radio Baseball Cards. 162 episodes were produced with stories and anecdotes told by current and former Major League Baseball players. The highlight of the series were numerous episodes dedicated to the memory and impact of Jackie Robinson as told by teammates, opponents and admirers. Radio Baseball Cards aired on 38 stations, including WNBC New York, KSFO San Francisco and WEEI Boston, as a pre-game show. A collector's edition of the program was re-released in 2007 as a podcast.

Personal life
In 1958, Drysdale married Eula "Ginger" Dubberly, a native of Covington, Georgia, and a former Adrian fashion model. The couple had a daughter named Kelly Jean (b. 1959), but divorced in 1982.

On November 1, 1986, he married basketball player Ann Meyers, who took the name Ann Meyers-Drysdale. Drysdale and Meyers had three children together: two sons, Donald Scott Jr. (known as "DJ"; b. 1987, on his father's 51st birthday) and Darren John (b. 1989), and a daughter, Drew Ann (b. 1993). When Ann was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993, it was the first time that a married couple were members of their respective sports' Halls of Fame.

Death

On July 2, 1993, Drysdale worked the television broadcast for the game between the Dodgers and the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium. After the game, he returned to his room at the hotel the team was staying at, Le Centre Sheraton. As the team left for the stadium the next morning, Drysdale was not with them. Several broadcast team members were sent back to the hotel once the team realized Drysdale had not arrived at the stadium, and when hotel personnel went up to Drysdale's room they discovered his body lying face down on the floor. The cause of death was ruled to be a heart attack, and the coroner's report determined that Drysdale had been dead for at least eighteen hours by the time he was found.

The Dodgers noted the death of their former star pitcher during the broadcast of the game later on that day. Drysdale's broadcasting colleague Vin Scully, who was instructed not to say anything on the air until Drysdale's family was notified, announced the news of his death by saying, "Never have I been asked to make an announcement that hurts me as much as this one. And I say it to you as best I can with a broken heart." He later described it "the toughest broadcast" of his career.

While this was going on, word reached Drysdale's former White Sox colleague Ken Harrelson as he was calling that evening's game against the Baltimore Orioles at Comiskey Park for WGN television. Harrelson relayed the information to his audience, barely able to keep his composure while doing so. Dick Enberg, his broadcast partner with the Angels, said, "Every day was a good day when you were with Don Drysdale." Sandy Koufax, his former teammate, said of Drysdale's sudden death: "Don is one of those people you didn't think anything could ever happen to. This is a very hard thing to deal with."

Among the personal belongings found in Drysdale's hotel room was a cassette tape of Robert F. Kennedy's victory speech after the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary, a speech given only moments before Senator Kennedy's assassination. In the speech, Kennedy had noted, to the cheers of the crowd, that Drysdale had pitched his sixth straight shutout that evening. Drysdale had apparently carried the tape with him wherever he went since Kennedy's assassination.

Drysdale's funeral was held in Hall of the Crucifixion-Resurrection in Glendale, California. The ceremony was conducted by John Werhas, Drysdale's former teammate who had become a pastor. Vin Scully, Tommy Lasorda, Bob Uecker, and Orel Hershiser gave eulogies. Drysdale's body was cremated and his ashes were placed in the Utility Columbarium in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. They were returned to his family in February 2002 and scattered the next year.

Television appearances
Drysdale was a popular guest star in several television programs:

 * In 1959, with his first wife, Ginger, he appeared on You Bet Your Life with host Groucho Marx.
 * In 1959, Drysdale appeared as a mystery challenger on the TV panel show To Tell the Truth.
 * In 1960, Drysdale appeared in an episode of Lawman.
 * The Rifleman episode "Skull", which was first broadcast on January 1, 1962.
 * Leave It to Beaver episode "Long Distance Call", which was first broadcast on June 16, 1962.
 * The Donna Reed Show episodes "The Man in the Mask", first broadcast in 1962; "All Those Dreams", first broadcast in 1963; and "Play Ball" and "My Son the Catcher", both first broadcast in 1964. In all four episodes Drysdale plays himself, and in "All Those Dreams" he appeared with first wife, Ginger, and daughter Kelly.
 * On the April 10, 1963, episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, "The Clampetts & The Dodgers", Drysdale and Leo Durocher play golf with Jed and Jethro, and Durocher finds out that Jed and Jethro are good baseball prospects.
 * Our Man Higgins episode "Who's on First?" (May 8, 1963).
 * On the March 21, 1964, episode of The Joey Bishop Show, "Joey and the L.A. Dodgers", Bishop guests are several members of the 1963 World Series Champions Los Angeles Dodgers. The teammates show off their various talents, the highlight being Drysdale, a natural singer, crooning "I Left My Heart In San Francisco".
 * The Flying Nun episode "The Big Game" as the baseball game umpire, 1st episode of the 3rd season, aired September 17, 1969.
 * The Brady Bunch episode "The Dropout", which was first broadcast on September 25, 1970.
 * The Greatest American Hero episode "The Two Hundred Mile an Hour Fastball", which was first broadcast on November 4, 1981, as a broadcaster for the California Stars.

title: Don Drysdale


text:
Red triangle (Channel 4)

The red triangle was a content warning system employed by mainstream terrestrial British television broadcaster Channel 4 for a brief period from 1986 to 1987. The channel showed a number of mainly 'X' or 18 certificate art films in the early hours of the morning as part of the "red triangle" series, gaining unexpectedly large audiences. After lobbying from newspapers and pressure groups this method of identifying such material was discontinued.

The red triangle broadcasts
The channel, launched in November 1982, hoped to gain a reputation as a relatively avant-garde alternative to the existing terrestrial stations. It compiled a list of provocative films, generally cult film or art-house and mostly in another language, and entered into negotiation with independent TV regulator the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) with an eye to showing them. The films, all of which had been theatrically exhibited under British Board of Film Censorship's 'X' (or later '18') certificates, had never been shown on British television before. Their content transcended that which had hitherto been permitted by the UK's TV censors.

The series began in September 1986 in a very late slot (with most films beginning after midnight). Broadcasts were preceded by a warning, saying "Special Discretion Required" and displaying a full-screen logo of a red triangle with a white centre (the standard scheme used for warning signs in the UK). To prevent viewers who missed the warning at the beginning from later being unwittingly exposed to the adult content of the film, a smaller red triangle was continually displayed in the top left corner of the screen throughout the broadcast. This quickly led to the broadcasts being informally known as the "red triangle films".

The broadcasts proved to be controversial even before they began. Several newspapers branded some of the films to be shown "video nasties", and once broadcasts began the morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse became involved. Condemning the films as pornography, her National Viewers' and Listeners' Association campaigned vociferously against the broadcasts and lobbied parliament and the IBA, calling for the broadcasts to be ended.

The outcry over the red triangle series had entirely the opposite effect than the objectors had intended; the opening film, the grisly surreal comedy Themroc, garnered over two million viewers. Later films (mostly those whose TVTimes synopses sounded racy) gained viewerships of over three million, figures which dwarfed those of the other channels still broadcasting that late (which carried fare of very limited appeal and educational programming from the Open University). Some critics contended that the whole series was a cynical attempt to wilfully stir controversy, and in practice many viewers discovered that "softcore porn" against which campaigners had railed was in fact genuine art cinema (and not the titillation for which they had stayed up late). With viewing figures latterly declining, and press opposition remaining strong, Channel 4 quietly discontinued the red triangle the year after it had been introduced.

Legacy
Several years later around 1995, Channel 4 instituted a late-night programming slot (entitled "The Red Light Zone") in which it showed a variety of adult-oriented programmes with more overt sexual content, mixing avant-garde material such as the works of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe with more unabashedly salacious content. By this time Whitehouse's influence had declined, and the general moral panic over "smut" and "video nasties" had largely subsided, such that the Red Light Zone proceeded without great controversy.

More generally, the experiment showed there was a considerable appetite in the British viewing public for adult, sexually themed programming, and the following decade saw Channel 4 increasingly resorting to more blatantly sexual programmes to attract viewers. By showing that it was possible for TV to get viewership of several millions after midnight, the red triangle experiment (along with late-night comedy programme Who Dares Wins, which notably parodied the red triangle films) went some way to establishing a late-night "after the pub" slot. This continues (particularly on Channel 4 and its competitor Channel 5), although the content is more inclined toward the bawdy and laddish than to the red-triangle series' art house films.

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

title: Red triangle (Channel 4)


text:
August-Wilhelm Scheer

August-Wilhelm Scheer (born July 27, 1941) is a German Professor of business administration and business information at Saarland University, and founder and director of IDS Scheer AG, a major IT service and software company. He is known for the development of the Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) concept.

Biography
In 1972 Scheer received a PhD from University of Hamburg with the thesis "Kosten- und kapazitätsorientierte Ersatzpolitik bei stochastisch ausfallenden Produktionsanlagen". In 1974 he obtained his Habilitation also in Hamburg with a thesis about project control.

In 1975 Scheer took over one of the first chairs for information systems and founded the institute for information systems (IWi) at Saarland University, which he led until 2005. In 1984 he founded IDS Scheer, a Business Process Management (BPM) software company, which is widely regarded as the founder of the BPM industry. In 1997 he also founded IMC AG, a company for innovative learning technologies and spin-off of Saarland University, together with Wolfgang Kraemer, Frank Milius and Wolfgang Zimmermann.

In 2003 Scheer was awarded the Philip Morris Research Prize and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In December 2005 he was awarded the Erich Gutenberg price and in the same month the Federal Cross of Merit first class. In 2005 he was also elected as a fellow of the Gesellschaft für Informatik. Since 2006, he has been a member of the council for innovation and growth of the Federal Government. 2007 he was honored as a HPI-Fellow by the Hasso-Plattner-Institut (HPI) für Softwaresystemtechnik and was elected President of the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media.

On June 4, 2010 Scheer was awarded with the Design Science Lifetime Achievement Award at University of St. Gallen. He received the prize as a recognition for his contribution to design science research.

Work
His research focuses on information and business process management in industry, services and administration.

ARIS
The Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) concept, which is the representation of business processes in diagrammatic form so as to provide an unambiguous starting point for the development of computer-based information systems. The ARIS architecture and methodology is the core piece of intellectual property business process management software company IDS Scheer was founded on.

Event-driven Process Chain
Event-driven Process Chain is a business process modelling technique, mainly used for analysing processes for the purpose of an ERP implementation.

Businesses use EPC diagrams to lay out business process work flows, originally in conjunction with SAP R/3 modeling, but now more widely. There are a number of tools for creating EPC diagrams, including ARIS Toolset of IDS Scheer AG, free modeling tool ARIS Express by IDS Scheer AG, ADONIS of BOC Group, Visio of Microsoft Corp., Semtalk of Semtation GmbH, or Bonapart by Pikos GmbH. Some but not all of these tools support the tool-independent EPC Markup Language (EPML) interchange format.

There are also tools that generate EPC diagrams from operational data, such as SAP logs. EPC diagrams use symbols of several kinds to show the control flow structure (sequence of decisions, functions, events, and other elements) of a business process.

Publications
His publications attract worldwide attention and were translated in 8 languages. A selection:
 * 1969. Industrielle Investitionsentscheidung. Eine theoret. u. empir. Untersuchung z. Investitionsverhalten in Industrieunternehmungen.
 * 1978. Projektsteuerung.
 * 1984. EDV-orientierte Betriebswirtschaftslehre
 * 1985. Computer, a challenge for business administration
 * 1989. Enterprise-wide data modelling : information systems in industry
 * 1990. CIM-Strategie als Teil der Unternehmensstrategie
 * 1992. Architecture of integrated information systems : foundations of enterprise modelling.
 * 1994. Business process engineering : reference models for industrial enterprises.
 * 1994. CIM : computer integrated manufacturing : towards the factory of the future.
 * 1998. SAP R/3 in der Praxis : neuere Entwicklungen und Anwendungen. With Dieter B. Pressmar.
 * 1998. ARIS—business process modeling
 * 2003. Business process change management : ARIS in practice. Edited with others.
 * 2006. Agility by Aris business process management : Yearbook business process excellence. Edited with others.
 * 2006. Corporate performance management : ARIS in practice
 * 2016. The Complete Business Process Handbook Volume 1: 'Body of Knowledge from Process Modeling to BPM

title: August-Wilhelm Scheer


text:
Breisgau

The Breisgau is an area in southwest Germany extending along the Rhine River and enveloping portions of the Black Forest. Part of the state of Baden-Württemberg, it centers on the city of Freiburg im Breisgau. The district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, which partly consists of the Breisgau, is named after the Black Forest area. Parts of the Breisgau are also situated in the political districts of Freiburg im Breisgau and Emmendingen.

History
In earlier times, the Breisgau was known as Breisachgau, meaning the county around the town of Breisach on the east bank of the Rhine.

The earliest historically attested inhabitants were Celts. In Roman times, the area was part of the province of Germania Superior, but after the rupture of the limes Germanicus in 260, the area was settled by the Alemanni. It remained a part of Alemannia throughout the Early Middle Ages and was a buffer zone between the central Alemannic lands and Alsace, which was less strongly colonized by the Alemanni.

In the mid-9th century, it was a march-like county guarding the frontier with southern Lotharingia and Alsace. In 859, it was bestowed on Charles the Fat, the son of King Louis I, a sign of its importance. In the 10th century, the Breisgau was a county within the Duchy of Swabia, ruled by the Zähringen family. In the 12th century, they detached themselves from Swabia, establishing the Margraviate of Baden. In the Breisgau, the dukes of Zähringen founded Freiburg, which became their chief city.

From the 13th/14th century to 1797, the area was part of the Vorlande, the area in southwest Germany ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs, but the Breisgau, along with the rest of the Vorlande, was ceded by them to the former Duke of Modena, a relative, as compensation for his loss of his hereditary lands to the French Cisalpine Republic. In 1805, by the Treaty of Pressburg, the area was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Baden.

Borders and area
The Breisgau includes the flat area around river Rhine, the foothills of the Black Forest and the western faces of the southern Black Forest mountains and the Kaiserstuhl hills.

In the south, the Breisgau borders onto the Markgräflerland, in the west onto the Sundgau (Alsace, France), in the east onto the Black Forest, and in the north onto the Ortenau area.

Climate
The climate of the Breisgau is warm; in fact, it is the warmest region in Germany. The average annual temperature is 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit), the average rainfall is 900 mm (36").

Agriculture
The Breisgau is known for its wine and used for fruit tree orchards and grain.

Places in the Breisgau
The biggest city by far in the Breisgau region is Freiburg. Other notable cities and towns are Bad Krozingen, Breisach, Emmendingen, Endingen, Kenzingen, Neuenburg, Staufen and Waldkirch.

A prominent mountain is the Schauinsland (1,284 m).

title: Breisgau


text:
Bell P-59 Airacomet

The Bell P-59 Airacomet is a single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft that was designed and built by Bell Aircraft during World War II. It was the first jet produced in the United States. As the British were further along in jet engine development, they donated an engine for the United States to copy in 1941 that became the basis for the General Electric J31 jet engine used by the P-59 a year later. Because the plane was underpowered, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was not impressed by its performance and canceled half of the original order for 100 fighters, using the completed aircraft as trainers. The USAAF would instead go on to select the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star as its first operational jet fighter. Although no P-59s entered combat, the aircraft paved the way for later generations of U.S. turbojet-powered aircraft.

Design and development
Major General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold became aware of the UK's jet program when he attended a taxiing demonstration of the Gloster E.28/39 in April 1941. The subject had been mentioned, but not in-depth, as part of the Tizard Mission the previous year. He requested and was given, the plans for the aircraft's powerplant, the Power Jets W.1, which he took back to the U.S. He also arranged for an example of the engine, the Whittle W.1X turbojet, to be flown to the U.S. on 1 October in a Consolidated B-24 Liberator, along with drawings for the more powerful W.2B/23 engine and a small team of Power Jets engineers. On 4 September, he offered the U.S. company General Electric a contract to produce an American version of the engine, which subsequently became the General Electric I-A. On the following day, he approached Lawrence Dale Bell, head of Bell Aircraft Corporation, to build a fighter to utilize it. Bell agreed and set to work on producing three prototypes. As a disinformation tactic, the USAAF gave the project the designation P-59A, to suggest it was a development of the unrelated Bell XP-59 fighter project which had been canceled. The design was finalized on 9 January 1942, and construction began. In March, long before the prototypes were completed, an order for 13 YP-59A pre-production aircraft was added to the contract.

The P-59A had an oval cross-section, all-metal stressed skin semi-monocoque fuselage that housed a single pressurized cockpit. The mid-mounted, straight wing had two spars plus a false spar in the inner panel. The electrically powered tricycle landing gear was attached to the center spar. The pair of General Electric J31 turbojets were positioned under the wing roots in streamlined nacelles. The armament was located in the nose of the aircraft; two of the three XP-59As and most of the YP-59As had a pair of 37 mm M10 autocannon. Later aircraft, including the production models, had one M10 autocannon and three 0.5 in AN/M2 Browning heavy machine guns. The aircraft carried a total of 290 USgal of fuel in four self-sealing tanks in the inner wing panels. Both production models could carry 1590 USgal drop tanks under the wings. In addition, the P-59B was provided with a 66 USgal fuel tank in each outer wing panel.

The crated prototype had been built on the second floor of a disused Pierce-Arrow factory, but its components were too big to fit through any elevator and required a hole to be broken in the brick outer wall to remove the first XP-59A. It was shipped to Muroc Army Air Field (today, Edwards Air Force Base) in California on 12 September 1942 by train for flight testing. The aircraft first became airborne during high-speed taxiing tests on 1 October with Bell test pilot Robert Stanley at the controls, although the first official flight was made by Colonel Laurence Craigie the next day. While being handled on the ground, the aircraft was fitted with a dummy propeller to disguise its true nature. When heavy rains flooded Rogers Dry Lake at Muroc in March 1943, the second prototype was towed 35 mi to Hawes Field, an auxiliary airfield of Victorville Army Airfield, later George Air Force Base, over a public road. After one flight on 11 March, security concerns caused the jet to be transferred to nearby Harper Lake where it remained until 7 April.

Five of the Airacomets, a pair of XP-59As, two YP-59As, and a P-59B had open-air flight observer cockpits (similar to those of biplanes) fitted in the nose with a small windscreen, replacing the armament bay. The XP-59As were used for flight demonstrations and testing, but one of the latter pair was used as a "mother ship" for the other modified YP-59A during remote control trials in late 1944 and early 1945. After the drone crashed during take-off on 23 March, a P-59B was modified to serve as its replacement. During diving trials in 1944, one YP-59A was forced to make a belly landing and another crashed when its entire empennage broke away.

Over the following months, tests on the prototypes and pre-production P-59s revealed a multitude of problems including poor engine response and reliability (common shortcomings of all early turbojets), poor lateral and directional stability at speeds over 290 mph, so that it tended to "snake" and was a poor gunnery platform. The performance was greatly hampered by the insufficient thrust from its engines that was far below expectations. The Army Air Force conducted combat trials against propeller-driven Lockheed P-38J Lightning and Republic P-47D Thunderbolt fighters in February 1944 and found that the older aircraft outperformed the jet. It, therefore, decided that the P-59 was best suited as a training aircraft to familiarize pilots with jet-engine aircraft.

Even as deliveries of the YP-59As began in July 1943, the USAAF had placed a preliminary order for 100 production machines as the P-59A Airacomet, the name having been chosen by Bell employees. This was confirmed on 11 March 1944 but was later cut to 50 aircraft on 10 October after the procurement bureaucracy had digested the earlier evaluation.

Operational service

The 13 service test YP-59As had a more powerful engine than their predecessor, the General Electric J31, but the performance improvement was negligible, with top speed increased by only 5 mph and a reduction in the time they could be used before an overhaul was needed. One of these aircraft, the third YP-59A (S/n: 42-108773) was supplied to the Royal Air Force (receiving British serial RJ362/G), in exchange for the first production Gloster Meteor I, EE210/G. British pilots found that the aircraft compared very unfavorably with the jets that they were already flying. Two YP-59A Airacomets (42-108778 and 42-100779) were also delivered to the U.S. Navy where they were evaluated as the "YF2L-1" but were quickly found completely unsuitable for carrier operations. Three P-59Bs were transferred to the Navy in 1945–1946, although they kept their designations. The Navy used all five of its jets as trainers and for flight testing.

Faced with their own ongoing difficulties, Bell eventually completed 50 production Airacomets, 20 P-59As and 30 P-59Bs; deliveries of P-59As took place in the fall of 1944. The P-59Bs were assigned to the 412th Fighter Group to familiarize AAF pilots with the handling and performance characteristics of jet aircraft. While the P-59 was not a great success, the type did give the USAAF and the USN experience with the operation of jet aircraft, in preparation for the more advanced types that would shortly become available.

Variants

 * XP-59
 * Unrelated piston engine-powered pusher-propeller design developed from the Bell XP-52. Not built.

 * XP-59A
 * Prototype of the new jet engine-powered aircraft, three built, serial numbers 42-108784/108786.

 * YP-59A
 * Series of test aircraft, 13 built, serial numbers 42-108771/108783.

 * YF2L-1
 * Two YP-59A (42-108778/108779) delivered to the US Navy for carrier evaluation as Bu63960/63961.

 * P-59A
 * First production version, 20 built, serial numbers 44-22609/22628. Redesignated ZF-59A in June 1948.

 * XP-59B
 * Study for a single-engined P-59A.

 * P-59B
 * Improved P-59A. 80 aircraft ordered but only 30 built, serial numbers 44-22629/22658, further 50 (44-22659/22708) canceled. Redesignated ZF-59B in June 1948.

Operators

 * Royal Air Force received one aircraft, becoming RJ362/G, in exchange for a Gloster Meteor I EE210/G.
 * 🇺🇸 United States
 * United States Army Air Forces
 * 412th Fighter Group
 * 29th Fighter Squadron
 * 31st Fighter Squadron
 * 445th Fighter Squadron
 * United States Navy
 * United States Navy

Surviving aircraft

Six P-59s are known to survive today.

On display: In storage:
 * P-59A
 * 44-22614 – March Field Air Museum, March Air Reserve Base (former March AFB) in Riverside, California.
 * P-59B
 * 44-22633 – Edwards AFB.
 * 44-22656 – Pioneer Village (Nebraska) in Minden, Nebraska.
 * 44-22650 – National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

 * XP-59A
 * 42-108784 – National Air and Space Museum

Under restoration:
 * YP-59A
 * 42-108777 – As of 2020, being restored to flying condition by the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California.

title: Bell P-59 Airacomet


text:
Göring (disambiguation)

Hermann Göring was a leading member of the Nazi Party.

Göring may also refer to:
 * Göring (surname)
 * Fallschirm-Panzergrenadier Division 2 Hermann Göring, a division formed in the area of Radom
 * Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring, a Luftwaffe armoured division

title: Göring (disambiguation)


text:
Etosha National Park

Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist. It was designated as Wildschutzgebiet in 1958, and was awarded the status of national park in 1967, by an act of parliament of the Republic of South Africa. It spans an area of 22270 km2 and was named after the large Etosha pan which is almost entirely within the park. With an area of 4760 km2, the Etosha pan covers 23% of the total area of the national park. The area is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including several threatened and endangered species such as the black rhinoceros. Sixty-one black rhinoceros were killed during poaching in Namibia during 2022, 46 of which were killed in Etosha.

The park is located in the Kunene region and shares boundaries with the regions of Oshana, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa.

History

Areas north of the Etosha pan were inhabited by Ovambo people, while various Otjiherero-speaking groups lived immediately outside the current park boundaries. The areas inside the park close to the Etosha pan were inhabited by Khoisan-speaking Hai//om people.

Explorers Charles John Andersson and Francis Galton are the first Europeans to record the existence of the Etosha pan on 29 May 1851, although it was already widely known by locals. These European explorers were traveling with Ovambo copper ore traders when they arrived at Omutjamatunda (now known as Namutoni). They passed through, and discovered the Etosha pan when they traveled north upon leaving Namutoni. The name Etosha (spelled Etotha in early literature) comes from the Oshindonga word meaning "Great White Place" referring to the Etosha pan. The Hai//om called the pan Khubus which means "totally bare, white place with lots of dust". The pan is also known as Chums, which refers to the noise made by a person's feet when walking on the clay of the pan.

At this time the Hai//om people recognized the authority of the Ovambo chief at Ondonga but the Hereros did not. The Hai||om were forcibly removed from the park in 1954, ending their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to become landless farm laborers. The Hai||om have had a recognized Traditional Authority since 2004 which helps facilitate communications between the community and the government. The government of Namibia acknowledges the park to be the home of Hai||om people and started to carry out plans to resettle displaced families on farms adjacent to the national park. Since 2007 the Government has acquired six farms directly south of the Gobaub depression in Etosha National Park. A number of families have settled on these farms under the leadership of Chief David Khamuxab, Paramount Chief of the Hai||om.

European settlers
In 1885, entrepreneur William Worthington Jordan bought a huge tract of land from Ovambo chief Kambonde. The land spanned nearly 170 km from Okaukuejo in the west to Fischer's Pan in the east. The price for the land was £300 sterling, paid for by 25 firearms, one salted horse and a cask of brandy. Dorstland Trekkers first travelled through the park between 1876 and 1879 on their way to Angola. The trekkers returned in 1885 and settled on 2500 ha farms given to them at no charge by Jordan. The trekkers named the area Upingtonia after the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. The settlement had to be abandoned in 1886 after clashes with the Hai||om and defeat by Chief Nehale Mpingana.

German South-West Africa
The German Reich ordered troops to occupy Okaukuejo, Namutoni and Sesfontein in 1886 in order to kill migrating wildlife to stop the spread of rinderpest to cattle. A fort was built by the German cavalry in 1889 at the site of the Namutoni spring. On 28 January 1904, 500 men under Nehale Mpingana attacked Imperial Germany Schutztruppe at Fort Namutoni and completely destroyed it, driving out the colonial forces and taking over their horses and cattle. The fort was rebuilt and troops were stationed once again when the area was declared a game reserve in 1907; Lieutenant Adolf Fischer of Fort Namutoni then became its first "game warden".

Boundary

The present-day Etosha National Park has had many major and minor boundary changes since its inception in 1907. The major boundary changes since 1907 were because of Ordinance 18 of 1958 and Ordinance 21 of 1970.

When the Etosha area was proclaimed as "Game Reserve 2" by Ordinance 88 of 1907, the park stretched from the mouths of the Kunene River and Hoarusib River on the Skeleton Coast to Namutoni in the east. The original area was estimated to be 99,526 km2, an estimate that has been corrected to about 80,000 km2. Ordinance 18 of 1958 changed the western park boundaries to exclude the area between the Kunene river and the Hoarusib river and instead include the area between Hoanib river and Ugab river, thus reducing the park's area to 55,000 km2. The Odendaal Commission's (1963) decision resulted in the demarcation of the present-day park boundary in 1970.

Etosha Ecological Institute
The Etosha Ecological Institute was formally opened on 1 April 1974 by Adolf Brinkmann of the South-West African Administration. The institute is responsible for all management-related research in the park. Classification of vegetation, population and ecological studies on wildebeest, elephants and lions, and studies on anthrax were among the first major topics to be investigated. The EEI has collaborations with researchers from universities in Namibia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Norway and Israel.

Etosha Pan
The salt pans are the most noticeable geological features in the national park. The main depression covers an area of about 5000 km2, and is roughly 130 km long and as wide as 50 km in some places. The hypersaline conditions of the pan limit the species that can permanently inhabit the pan itself; occurrences of extremophile micro-organisms are present, which can tolerate the hypersaline conditions. The salt pan is usually dry, but fills with water briefly in summer, when it attracts pelicans and flamingos in particular. In the dry season, winds blowing across the salt pan pick up saline dust and carry it across the country and out over the southern Atlantic. This salt enrichment provides minerals to the soil downwind of the pan on which some wildlife depends, though the salinity also creates challenges to farming activities. The Etosha Pan was one of several sites throughout southern Africa in the Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000). Using satellites, aircraft, and ground-based data from sites such as Etosha, partners in this program collected a wide variety of data on aerosols, land cover, and other characteristics of the land and atmosphere to study and understand the interactions between people and the natural environment.

Dolomite Hills
The dolomite hills on the southern border of the park near the Andersson entrance gate are called Ondundozonananandana, meaning the place where young boy herding cattle went to never return, probably implying a high density of predators like leopards in the hills, giving the mountains its English name of Leopard Hills. The Halali area is also home to dolomite hills within the park, with one hill inside the camp and the nearby Twee Koppies outside. Western Etosha is also dominated by dolomite hills and is the only place in the park that has mountain zebra.

Climate
The Etosha National Park has a savanna desert climate. The annual mean average temperature is 24 °C. In winter, the mean nighttime lows are around 10 °C, while in summer temperatures often hover around 40 °C. As it is a desert, there is a large variation between day and night. Rain almost never falls in the winter.

Vegetation types
In most places in the park, the pans are devoid of vegetation with the exception of halophytic Sporobolus salsus, a protein-rich grass that is eaten by grazers like blue wildebeest and springbok. The areas around the Etosha pan also have other halophytic vegetation including grasses like Sporobolus spicatus and Odyssea paucinervis, as well as shrubs like Suaeda articulata. Most of the park is savanna woodlands except for areas close to the pan. Mopane is the most common tree, estimated to make up around 80% of all trees in the park. The sandveld in the north-eastern corner of Etosha is dominated by acacia and Terminalia trees. Tamboti trees characterize the woodlands south of the sandveld. Dwarf shrub savanna occurs in areas close to the pan and is home to several small shrubs including a halophytic succulent Salsola etoshensis. Thorn bush savanna occurs close to the pan on limestone and alkaline soils and is dominated by acacia species such as Acacia nebrownii, Acacia luederitzii, Acacia melliferra, Acacia hebeclada and Acacia tortilis. Grasslands in the park are mainly around the Etosha pan where the soil is sandy. Depending on the soil and the effects of the pan, grasslands could be dominated by one of the Eragrostis, Sporobolus, Monelytrum, Odyssea or Enneapogon species.

Fauna
The park has about 114 mammal species, 340 bird species, 110 reptile species, 16 amphibian species and 1 species of fish (up to 49 species of fish during floods). Etosha National Park is also the single-most important custodian of the black rhino in the world. In 2022, 46 white and black rhinos were poached.

History
By 1881, large game mammals like elephants, rhinoceroses and lions had been nearly exterminated in the region. The proclamation of the game reserve helped some of the animals recover, but some species like buffalo and wild dogs have been extinct since the middle of the 20th century. A writer from Otjiwarongo was appointed game warden in 1951, and he considered the grasslands to be severely overgrazed. A bone meal plant was constructed near Rietfontein, and culling of zebras and wildebeests began in 1952. Official records indicate 293 zebras and 122 wildebeest were processed at the plant, but conservationists claimed thousands had been culled and successfully forced the plant's closure during the same year. The drought that began in the year 1980 resulted in the largest capture and culling operation in the history of the park. 2235 mountain zebras and 450 plains zebras were captured, culled or sold. 525 elephants were culled and processed at a temporary abattoir near Olifantsrus.

Since 2005, the protected area is considered part of a Lion Conservation Unit.

Mammals
Commonly seen mammals in the park, past and present, are listed in the table below:

Birds
This overview is only an indication of the diversity of birds in the park and is not a complete list.

title: Etosha National Park


text:
Talk:Pennsylvania library system

Untitled
so, how is this different to any other public library system? Morwen 21:32, 12 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * I can't find any evidence that this is exists as an entity. KatieBU (talk) 19:45, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
 * I can't find any evidence that this exists at all, save for one mention in 2003. So I nominated it for deletion. S EMMENDINGER  ( talk ) 15:39, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pennsylvania library system


text:
Arthur Tappan

Arthur Tappan (May 22, 1786 – July 23, 1865) was an American businessman, philanthropist and abolitionist. He was the brother of Ohio Senator Benjamin Tappan and abolitionist Lewis Tappan, and nephew of Harvard Divinity School theologian Rev. Dr. David Tappan.

He was a great-grandfather of Thornton Wilder.

Biography
Arthur was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, to Benjamin Tappan (1747–1831) and Sarah Homes Tappan (1748–1826), the latter a great-niece of Benjamin Franklin. They were devout Calvinists. Tappan moved to Boston at the age of 15. In 1807 he established a dry goods business in Portland, Maine.

After his death, Arthur was described thus by his friend and educational collaborator Theodore Dwight Weld, who called him one of humanity's "great benefactors":

"So simple in all his tastes and habits, so quiet and modest, yet so firm, independent, and conscientious, that nothing could swerve him from the right — so careful and deliberate in forming conclusions, yet instant and indomitable in executing. Economical in spending, yet always bountiful in giving. So faithful and true, so scrupulously just in all things. Never seeking his own; of few words, each straight to the point, and that a deed, and how often a great one; so earnest in daring for the weak against the strong."

In 1826, a year after the Erie Canal was completed, Arthur and his brother Lewis moved to New York City, the new national center of business and retail trade, where they established a silk importing business. In 1827 the brothers founded the New York Journal of Commerce with Samuel Morse.

Arthur and Lewis Tappan were successful businessmen, but commerce was never their foremost interest. They viewed making money as less important than saving souls. They made the Journal of Commerce a publication free of "immoral advertisements." Arthur Tappan's summer home in New Haven, Connecticut, was destroyed by a mob in 1831 (along with a black hotel and a black home) after his support for a surprisingly unpopular (New Haven Excitement) proposal of a college for African Americans in that city. (See Simeon Jocelyn.)

Both men suffered in the anti-abolitionist riots of 1834, in which mobs attacked their property. Arthur Tappan was one of two signatories who issued a disclaimer on behalf of the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which he was president, in the aftermath of the riots, emphasising its dedication to abolishing slavery within the existing laws of the United States.

"In the great commercial crisis of 1837 he suffered immense losses; and not long after turned his attention to other and more retired occupations, by which he obtained a comfortable subsistence for his family, and the ability still to contribute, though on a greatly diminished scale, throughout his protracted life." Their philanthropic efforts crippled and pledges not met, the Tappans were forced to close their silk-importing business, and almost their paper, but the brothers persevered. In the 1840s, they founded another lucrative business enterprise when they opened the first commercial credit-rating service, the Mercantile Agency, a predecessor of Dun & Bradstreet.

Philanthropic and abolitionist activity
The Tappan brothers made their mark in commerce and in abolitionism. Throughout their careers, the Tappans devoted time and money to philanthropic causes as diverse as temperance, the abolition of slavery, and their support of new colleges in what was then the west of the country: successively, the Oneida Institute, Lane Theological Seminary, the Lane Rebels at Cumminsville, Ohio, and Oberlin Collegiate Institute. Their beliefs about observing Sabbath extended to campaigns against providing stagecoach service and mail deliveries on Sundays.

In 1833, while a principal owner of the Journal of Commerce, Arthur Tappan allied with William Lloyd Garrison and co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. Arthur served as its first president, and there was in 1835 a reward of $20,000 for his capture and delivery to New Orleans.

He resigned in 1840 because of his opposition to the society's new support of women's suffrage and feminism. Their early support for Oberlin College, a center of abolitionist activity, included $10,000 to build Tappan Hall. Oberlin's green Tappan Square now occupies the site.

Continuing their support for abolition, Arthur and his brother founded the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1840 and the American Missionary Association in 1846. After the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was passed, Tappan refused to comply with the new law and donated money to the Underground Railroad. The brothers' positions on the slavery issue were not universally popular. In early July 1834, Lewis Tappan's New York home was sacked by a mob, who threw his furniture into the street and burned it.

The Tappans and the Journal of Commerce attracted bitter criticism for their campaign to free the Africans who had taken over the slave ship Amistad in 1839. James Gordon Bennett, Sr.’s rival New York Morning Herald denounced “"the humbug doctrines of the abolitionists and the miserable fanatics who propagate them," particularly Lewis Tappan and the Journal of Commerce.

Arthur Tappan died in 1865, Lewis in 1873. Both men lived long enough to see the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment eliminate slavery in the United States, granting freedom to millions of African Americans. Arthur is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven.

title: Arthur Tappan


text:
Billy West

William Richard Werstine (born April 16, 1952), known professionally as Billy West, is an American voice actor. His voice roles include Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film Space Jam and several subsequent projects, the title characters of Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show, as well as the Futurama characters Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, and many more. In commercials, he voices the Red M&M and formerly voiced Buzz for Honey Nut Cheerios. West also voices other such established characters such as Elmer Fudd, Popeye, Shaggy Rogers, Rocket Raccoon, Muttley, and Woody Woodpecker. He was a cast member on The Howard Stern Show, during which time he was noted for his impressions of Larry Fine, Marge Schott, George Takei, and Jackie Martling.

Early life
William Richard Werstine was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 16, 1952. He is of Irish descent, and was born with ADHD and autism. He grew up in Boston, in the Roslindale neighborhood. He graduated from Roslindale High School. After a semester at Berklee College of Music, West found himself in various bands, gigging the Boston scene by night, and selling guitars in a Harvard Square shop during the day.

West has stated that during the Vietnam War, he was subject to the draft lottery under the Nixon administration, receiving a low draft number which would have resulted in his being drafted in 1970. West was ultimately classified "4-F" and excluded from enlistment on medical grounds as he had hypertension and flat feet. West described his later recurring role as Richard Nixon on Futurama as his "revenge" against Nixon. In a 2019 video post, West opined that the "biggest joke" about his experience was the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum subsequently including images and footage of the Futurama Nixon character as part of its "Nixon in Popular Culture" exhibit.

Radio career
In 1980, West was part of an oldies band called The Shutdowns. West worked at WBCN in Boston, performing daily comedic routines on The Big Mattress show, then moved to New York City in 1988, working at K-Rock Radio (92.3 FM WXRK). West became a regular on The Howard Stern Show at that time until leaving in 1995, where he gained notice for his impersonations of Three Stooges middleman Larry Fine, Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott and Stern's head writer Jackie Martling. West moved to Los Angeles, where he found success as a voice actor and performer.

Television
He left the radio station in 1988 to work on the short-lived revival of Beany and Cecil, which was his first voice role in television. West's first major roles were on Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show, which were two of the first three Nicktoons on Nickelodeon (the other being Rugrats). Over his career, West has been the voice talent for close to 120 different characters including some of the most iconic animated figures in television history. He has become one of the few voice actors who can impersonate Mel Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, the voice Arthur Q. Bryan used for Elmer Fudd, as well as other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons. In 1998, Entertainment Weekly described West as "the new Mel Blanc" and noted his ability to mimic well-known voices, though he would rather develop original voices. West's favorite characters are Philip J. Fry and Stimpy, both of which he originated. West has been very outspoken over his displeasure about the influx of star actors providing voice-over for films and major shows. West has stated that he did not like the Disney version of Doug and that he "couldn't watch" the show. West was the voice of the show's namesake, Geeker, throughout Project Geeker's 13-episode run. West was the voice of Zim in the original pilot for Invader Zim. However, according to creator Jhonen Vasquez, he was replaced by Richard Steven Horvitz due to his voice being too recognizable. West was the voice of "Red" in numerous M&M commercials, as well as the 3D film I Lost my M in Vegas, currently playing at M&M's World in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also voices a number of minor characters in the series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World. He voiced the character Moobeard in Moobeard the Cow Pirate, a short animation featured on Random! Cartoons and reprises his role as Elmer Fudd in Cartoon Network's series The Looney Tunes Show. In 1999, he also had a cameo in the Emmy Award-winning cartoon Dilbert.

The Ren & Stimpy Show
West provided the voice of Stimpson J. Cat in Nickelodeon's The Ren & Stimpy Show from 1991 until 1996, and he later provided the voice of Ren Höek from 1993 to 1996 when Ren's original voice and series creator John Kricfalusi was fired by Nickelodeon (then a division of the original Viacom) for delivering late and objectionable episodes. He performed other characters on the series, such as Mr. Horse (another role he took over after Kricfalusi's departure) and the announcer for the "Log" ads (a voice West would use years later as the narrator for The Weird Al Show).

According to West, he was originally supposed to do the voice of both Ren and Stimpy (and performed both characters on the tape that was used to sell the show to Nickelodeon), but then Kricfalusi decided to do the voice of Ren himself once the show was sold and he had West on board as part of the selling point. However, West provided Ren's laughter with Kricfalusi as Ren's speaking voice.

Futurama
West's roles in Futurama include Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, and Dr. Zoidberg, among others. As he and other Futurama cast and crew point out in DVD commentaries, he voiced so many characters throughout the series that conversations are often held entirely between characters he is voicing. West went into the Futurama auditions and was asked to try out for, as he says, "just about every part". He eventually landed the roles of Farnsworth, Zoidberg, and Brannigan. He later got the main role of Fry, which originally had gone to Charlie Schlatter. While West is known for his original voices, the voice he uses for Fry is often considered to be closer to his natural voice than any other character he has played; in an audio commentary, he states Fry is "just [himself] at age 25". This similarity, West acknowledges, was done purposefully in order to make it harder to replace him in the part along with placing more of himself personally into the role.

The role of Zapp Brannigan was written for the late Phil Hartman, who died before the show started; West was given the role. West has described his interpretation of Zapp Brannigan's voice as an imitation of Hartman, but described the actual vocalizations of the character as being based on "a couple of big dumb announcers I knew." Futurama was renewed by Comedy Central as four direct-to-DVD films broken into 16 television episodes. West reprised his roles for these films and was signed on for two new 26-episode production seasons (four 13-episode air seasons) of Futurama which aired summers of 2010 to 2013.

In 2022, it was announced that Futurama would be returning in 2023 with the original cast, including West.

Advertising
West was the announcer of the program Screen Gems Network which ran from 1999 to 2001. He was the promotional announcer for The Comedy Channel before it merged with HA! to become Comedy Central. Over his career, Billy West has voiced multiple characters in television commercials. These include (but are not limited to): West voiced the Speed Racer character in a late 1990s advertisement for Volkswagen, because the commercial's producers could not locate Peter Fernandez, the original voice of Speed. However, the producers did locate Corinne Orr, the original voice for the characters Trixie and Spritle.
 * Red, the plain milk chocolate M&M (1996–present) (after Jon Lovitz's departure from the role in 1996).
 * Buzz, the bee for Honey Nut Cheerios (1990–2004).
 * An alien for Pentium 4.
 * Popeye for Minute Maid.
 * Babe Ruth, Mickey Goldmill and Bruce Lee for Brisk Iced Tea.
 * Marfalump, a mascot for Pepsi from 1999 to 2000; created to tie in with the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Online
West voiced Graham and Julius F. in Eric Kaplan's web cartoon Zombie College and two characters in Tofu the Vegan Zombie. He appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor Podcast on January 30, 2015. The episode was recorded live at The Smell in Downtown Los Angeles during the third annual Riot LA Comedy Festival.

West began his own podcast show in July 2015. It features him doing numerous characters per episode, recurring segments such as "Song Demolition", "Billy Bastard – Amateur Human Being" and special guest Jim Gomez.

Films
In the 1996 film Space Jam, West voiced Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. He reprised both roles in subsequent Looney Tunes feature-length films and returned as Fudd in the theatrically released Looney Tunes: Back in Action. In 1998, West starred in the direct-to-video film Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island as Shaggy Rogers, becoming the second person to portray the character (the first being Casey Kasem). He was one of the top contenders to replace Kasem after his retirement in 2009 but lost the role to Matthew Lillard. He voiced the role of Muttley in the 2020 Scooby-Doo CGI film Scoob!. In 2000, he provided additional voices in Disney's Dinosaur. In 2004, West voiced the classic character Popeye in the 75th-anniversary film Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, and made his live-action film debut in Mark Hamill's Comic Book: The Movie. He also appeared in a cameo in Garfield: The Movie. Other films featuring West's vocal talents include Joe's Apartment, Cats & Dogs, Olive, the Other Reindeer, TMNT, The Proud Family Movie and as Biff Buzzard in two Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films.

Music
West is a guitarist and singer-songwriter with a band called Billy West and The Grief Counselors. They have released their first album, Me-Pod. West has toured as a guitarist for Roy Orbison and Brian Wilson.

In 1982, West sang lead, doing an impersonation of Mike Love, on a Beach Boys-inspired tune, "Another Cape Cod Summer This Year," by studio band ROUTE 28, written and produced by Erik Lindgren on his Arf! Arf! Records label.

West has collaborated with Deborah Harry, Lou Reed, and Los Lobos, and he has played live on several occasions with Brian Wilson, including the guitar solo on the Beach Boys tune "Do it Again" on Late Show with David Letterman, in the mid-1990s.

The Futurama episode "Proposition Infinity" features the track "Shut up and Love Me" which was written and played by Billy West and Greg Leon, under the name Wailing Fungus.

Radio
Throughout the 1980s, West provided character voices on Charles Laquidara's Big Mattress radio show on Boston's WBCN. West was one-half of the award-winning WBCN Production team from 1980 to 1986. From 1989 through 1995, West provided The Howard Stern Show with character voices such as Jim Backus, Lucille Ball, Raymond Burr, Johnny Carson, Johnnie Cochran, Connie Chung, Pat Cooper, Jane Curtin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Doris Day, Louis "Red" Deutsch, David Dinkins, Mia Farrow, Larry Fine, Pete Fornatale, Frank Gifford, Kathie Lee Gifford, Rudolph Giuliani, Mark Goddard, Bobcat Goldthwait, the Greaseman, Jonathan Harris (as Dr. Zachary Smith), Leona Helmsley, Evander Holyfield, Shemp Howard, Lance Ito, Elton John, Don Knotts, Jay Leno, Nelson Mandela, Jackie Martling (as the Jackie puppet), Ed McMahon, Al Michaels, Bill Mumy (as Will Robinson), Cardinal O'Connor, Maury Povich, Soon-Yi Previn, Marge Schott, Frank Sinatra, Rae Stern (Howard Stern's mother), George Takei, Joe Walsh and Robin Williams until eventually leaving the show over money. West was an occasional contributor to The Adam Carolla Show, a syndicated morning radio show that replaced Stern's show on CBS in LA. On February 19 and 20, 2007, The Howard Stern Show ran a special two-part retrospective of West's work with the show. It marked his first work with the show since leaving after his last show on November 1, 1995. On June 9, 2009, West appeared on Jackie Martling's Jackie's Joke Hunt on Stern's satellite radio channel Howard 101.

Video games
Characters voiced by West include Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in numerous Looney Tunes video games.

Other video game characters West has voiced include:
 * Stimpy in The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! (1993), Nicktoons Racing (2000), and Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (2007).
 * Dr. Zoidberg in The Simpsons Game (2007).
 * Additional Voices in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly (2002).
 * Ricky Sr. and O'Toole in Open Season (2006).
 * Sparx in The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (2007).
 * Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan in Futurama (2003).
 * Nash and Zam in Crash Nitro Kart (2003).
 * Voices for the player character in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000).
 * Murfy and other characters in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (2003).
 * Muttley and L'il Gruesome in Wacky Races: Starring Dastardly and Muttley (2001).
 * Red in M&M's: The Lost Formulas (2000).
 * Hamton J. Pig in Tiny Toon Adventures: Toonenstein.
 * Atomic Bomberman in Atomic Bomberman.
 * Emilio Baza in Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned.
 * Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time (1999).
 * The Yak in Nicktoons MLB (2011).
 * Fire Kraken, Freeze Blade, Food Fight, Chill Bill and Rocky Roll in Skylanders: Swap Force, Skylanders: Trap Team and Skylanders: SuperChargers.
 * The narrator in Minecraft: Story Mode (2015).
 * Ren and Stimpy in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (2021; voice added as part of the June 6th, 2022 update).

Personal life
West was married to Violet Benny, but they later divorced.

West has spoken openly about the child abuse he experienced from his father. He says he developed his impressionist skills as a way to distract himself from his trauma.

West has been critical of Dick Cheney and the Republican Party, describing Republican senators as "old men with bad breath and dandruff." He has also mocked the tweets of Donald Trump by reading them in character as Zapp Brannigan, drawing similarities between Trump and the Futurama antagonist.

West purchased a home in the Hollywood Hills West neighborhood of Los Angeles for $480,000 in 1998, and sold it for $1.18 million in March 2016.

West is a prostate cancer survivor. He has been open about his experiences with bouts of depression.

Discography

 * Me-Pod (2004) Label under Universal Records (Philippines)

title: Billy West