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Mary Celeste

Mary Celeste (often erroneously referred to as Marie Celeste ) was a Canadian built, American-registered merchant brigantine that was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azorean islands on December 4, 1872. The Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia found her in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition under partial sail and with her lifeboat missing. The last entry in her log was dated ten days earlier. She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7 and was still amply provisioned when found. Her cargo of alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again.

Mary Celeste was built in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia, and launched under British registration as Amazon in 1861. She was transferred to American ownership and registration in 1868, when she acquired her new name. Thereafter she sailed uneventfully until her 1872 voyage. At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar following her recovery, the court's officers considered various possibilities of foul play, including mutiny by Mary Celeste's crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia crew or others, and conspiracy to carry out insurance or salvage fraud. No convincing evidence supported these theories, but unresolved suspicions led to a relatively low salvage award.

The inconclusive nature of the hearings fostered continued speculation as to what had happened to the ship's occupants, and the story has repeatedly been complicated by false detail and fantasy. Hypotheses that have been advanced include the effects on the crew of alcohol fumes rising from the cargo, submarine earthquakes, waterspouts, attack by a giant squid, and paranormal intervention.

After the Gibraltar hearings, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners. In 1885, her captain deliberately wrecked her off the coast of Haiti as part of an attempted insurance fraud. The story of her 1872 abandonment has been recounted and dramatized many times in documentaries, novels, plays, and films, and the name of the ship has become a byword for unexplained desertion. In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", a short story based on the mystery, but spelled the vessel's name as Marie Celeste. The story's popularity led to the spelling becoming more common than the original in everyday use.

Early history
The keel of the future Mary Celeste was laid in late 1860 at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis in the village of Spencer's Island, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. The ship was constructed of locally felled timber, with two masts, and was rigged as a brigantine; she was carvel-built, the hull planking flush rather than overlapping. She was launched on May 18, 1861, given the name Amazon, and registered at nearby Parrsboro on June 10, 1861. Her registration documents described her as 99.3 ft in length, 25.5 ft broad, with a depth of 11.7 ft, and of 198.42 gross tonnage. She was owned by a local consortium of nine people, headed by Dewis; among the co-owners was Robert McLellan, the ship's first captain.

For her maiden voyage in June 1861, Amazon sailed to Five Islands, Nova Scotia to take on a cargo of timber for passage across the Atlantic to London. After supervising the ship's loading, Captain McLellan fell ill; his condition worsened. The Amazon returned to Spencer's Island where McLellan died on June 19. John Nutting Parker took over as captain, and resumed the voyage to London, in the course of which Amazon encountered further misadventures. She collided with fishing equipment in the narrows off Eastport, Maine, and after leaving London ran into and sank a brig in the English Channel.

Parker remained in command for two years, during which Amazon worked mainly in the West Indies trade. She crossed the Atlantic to France in November 1861, and in Marseille was the subject of a painting, possibly by Honoré de Pellegrin, a well-known maritime artist of the Marseilles School. In 1863, Parker was succeeded by William Thompson, who remained in command until 1867. These were quiet years; Amazon's mate later recalled that, "We went to the West Indies, England and the Mediterranean—what we call the foreign trade. Not a thing unusual happened." In October 1867, at Cape Breton Island, Amazon was driven ashore in a storm, and was so badly damaged that her owners abandoned her as a wreck. On October 15, she was acquired as a derelict by Alexander McBean, of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

Ownership reassignment and name change
Within a month, McBean sold the wreck to a local businessman, who in November 1868, sold it to Richard W. Haines, an American mariner from New York. Haines paid US$1,750 for the wreck, and then spent $8,825 restoring it. He made himself her captain, and, in December 1868, registered her with the Collector of the Port of New York as an American vessel, under a new name, Mary Celeste.

In October 1869, the ship was seized by Haines's creditors, and sold to a New York consortium headed by James H. Winchester. During the next three years, the composition of this consortium changed several times, although Winchester retained at least a half-share throughout. No record of Mary Celeste's trading activities during this period have been found. Early in 1872, the ship underwent a major refit, costing $10,000, which enlarged her considerably. Her length was increased to 103 ft, her breadth to 25.7 ft and her depth to 16.2 ft. Among the structural changes, a second deck was added; an inspector's report refers to extensions to the poop deck, new transoms and the replacement of many timbers. The work increased the ship's tonnage to 282.28. On October 29, 1872, the consortium was made up of Winchester with six shares and two minor investors with one share apiece, the remaining four of twelve shares being held by the ship's new captain, Benjamin Spooner Briggs.

Captain Briggs and crew
Benjamin Briggs was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, on April 24, 1835, one of five sons of sea captain Nathan Briggs. All but one of the sons went to sea, two becoming captains. Benjamin was an observant Christian who read the Bible regularly and often bore witness to his faith at prayer meetings. In 1862, he married his cousin Sarah Elizabeth Cobb, and enjoyed a Mediterranean honeymoon on board his schooner Forest King. Two children were born: Arthur in September 1865, and Sophia Matilda in October 1870.

By the time of Sophia's birth, Briggs had achieved a high standing within his profession. He considered retiring from the sea to go into business with his seafaring brother Oliver, who had also grown tired of the wandering life. They did not proceed with this project, but each invested his savings in a share of a ship: Oliver invested in Julia A. Hallock, and Benjamin in Mary Celeste. In October 1872, Benjamin took command of Mary Celeste for her first voyage following her extensive New York refit, which was to take her to Genoa in Italy. He arranged for his wife and infant daughter to accompany him, while his school-aged son was left at home in the care of his grandmother.

Briggs chose the crew for this voyage with care. First mate Albert G. Richardson was married to a niece of Winchester and had sailed under Briggs before. Second mate Andrew Gilling, aged about 25, was born in New York, and was of Danish extraction. The steward, newly married Edward William Head, was signed on with a personal recommendation from Winchester. The four general seamen were Germans from the Frisian Islands: the brothers Volkert and Boz Lorenzen, Arian Martens, and Gottlieb Goudschaal. A later testimonial described them as "peaceable and first-class sailors." In a letter to his mother shortly before the voyage, Briggs declared himself eminently satisfied with ship and crew. Sarah Briggs informed her mother that the crew appeared to be quietly capable "... if they continue as they have begun".

New York
On October 20, 1872, Briggs arrived at Pier 50 on the East River in New York City to supervise the loading of the ship's cargo of 1,701 barrels of alcohol; his wife and infant daughter joined him a week later. On Sunday, November 3, Briggs wrote to his mother to say that he intended to leave on Tuesday, adding that "our vessel is in beautiful trim and I hope we shall have a fine passage."

On the morning of Tuesday, November 5, Mary Celeste left Pier 50 with Briggs, his wife and daughter, and seven crew members, and moved into New York Harbor. The weather was uncertain, and Briggs decided to wait for better conditions. He anchored the ship just off Staten Island, where Sarah used the delay to send a final letter to her mother-in-law. "Tell Arthur," she wrote, "I make great dependence on the letters I shall get from him, and will try to remember anything that happens on the voyage which he would be pleased to hear." The weather eased two days later, and Mary Celeste left the harbor and entered the Atlantic.

While Mary Celeste prepared to sail, the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia lay nearby in Hoboken, New Jersey, awaiting a cargo of petroleum destined for Genoa via Gibraltar. Captain David Morehouse and first mate Oliver Deveau were Nova Scotians, both highly experienced and respected seamen. Captains Briggs and Morehouse shared common interests, and some writers think it likely that they knew each other, if only casually. Some accounts assert that they were close friends who dined together on the evening before Mary Celeste's departure, but the evidence for this is limited to a recollection by Morehouse's widow 50 years after the event. Dei Gratia departed for Gibraltar on November 15, following the same general route eight days after Mary Celeste.

Derelict
Dei Gratia had reached a position of 38.33333°N, -17.25°W, midway between the Azores and the coast of Portugal at about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, December 4, 1872, land time (Thursday, December 5, sea time). Captain Morehouse came on deck, and the helmsman reported a vessel heading unsteadily towards Dei Gratia at a distance of about 6 miles. The ship's erratic movements and the odd set of her sails led Morehouse to suspect that something was wrong. As the vessel drew close, he could see nobody on deck, and he received no reply to his signals, so he sent Deveau and second mate John Wright in a ship's boat to investigate. The pair established that this was the Mary Celeste by the name on her stern; they then climbed aboard and found the ship deserted. The sails were partly set and in a poor condition, some missing altogether, and much of the rigging was damaged, with ropes hanging loosely over the sides. The main hatch cover was secure, but the fore and lazarette hatches were open, their covers beside them on the deck. The ship's single lifeboat was a small yawl that had apparently been stowed across the main hatch, but it was missing, while the binnacle housing the ship's compass had shifted from its place and its glass cover was broken. There was about 3+1/2 ft of water in the hold, a significant but not alarming amount for a ship of this size. A makeshift sounding rod (a device for measuring the amount of water in the hold) was found abandoned on the deck.

They found the ship's daily log in the mate's cabin, and its final entry was dated at 8 a.m. on November 25, nine days earlier. It recorded Mary Celeste's position then as 37.01667°N, -25.01667°W off Santa Maria Island in the Azores, nearly 400 nmi from the point where Dei Gratia encountered her. Deveau saw that the cabin interiors were wet and untidy from water that had entered through doorways and skylights, but were otherwise in reasonable order. He found personal items scattered about Briggs' cabin, including a sheathed sword under the bed, but most of the ship's papers were missing along with the captain's navigational instruments. Galley equipment was neatly stowed away; there was no food prepared or under preparation, but there were ample provisions in the stores. There were no obvious signs of fire or violence; the evidence indicated an orderly departure from the ship by means of the missing lifeboat.

Deveau returned to report these findings to Morehouse, who decided to bring the derelict into Gibraltar 600 nmi away. Under maritime law, a salvor could expect a substantial share of the combined value of rescued vessel and cargo, the exact award depending on the degree of danger inherent in the salvaging. Morehouse divided Dei Gratia's crew of eight between the two vessels, sending Deveau and two experienced seamen to Mary Celeste while he and four others remained on Dei Gratia. The weather was relatively calm for most of the way to Gibraltar, but each ship was seriously undercrewed and progress was slow. Dei Gratia reached Gibraltar on December 12; Mary Celeste had encountered fog and arrived on the following morning. She was immediately impounded by the vice admiralty court to prepare for salvage hearings. Deveau wrote to his wife that the ordeal of bringing the ship in was such that "I can hardly tell what I am made of, but I do not care so long as I got in safe. I shall be well paid for the Mary Celeste."

Gibraltar salvage hearings
The salvage court hearings began in Gibraltar on December 17, 1872, under Sir James Cochrane, the chief justice of Gibraltar. The hearing was conducted by Frederick Solly-Flood, Attorney General of Gibraltar, who was also Advocate-General and Proctor for the Queen in Her Office of Admiralty. Flood was described by a historian of the Mary Celeste affair as a man "whose arrogance and pomposity were inversely proportional to his IQ", and as "... the sort of man who, once he had made up his mind about something, couldn't be shifted". The testimonies of Deveau and Wright convinced Flood unalterably that a crime had been committed, a belief picked up by the New York Shipping and Commercial List on December 21: "The inference is that there has been foul play somewhere, and that alcohol is at the bottom of it."

On December 23, Flood ordered an examination of Mary Celeste, which was carried out by John Austin, Surveyor of Shipping, with the assistance of a diver, Ricardo Portunato. Austin noted cuts on each side of the bow, caused, he thought, by a sharp instrument, and found possible traces of blood on the captain's sword. His report emphasized that the ship did not appear to have been struck by heavy weather, citing a vial of sewing machine oil found upright in its place. Austin did not acknowledge that the vial might have been replaced since the abandonment, nor did the court raise this point. Portunato's report on the hull concluded that the ship had not been involved in a collision or run aground. A further inspection by a group of Royal Naval captains endorsed Austin's opinion that the cuts on the bow had been caused deliberately. They also discovered stains on one of the ship's rails that might have been blood, together with a deep mark possibly caused by an axe. These findings strengthened Flood's suspicions that human wrongdoing rather than natural disaster lay behind the mystery. On January 22, 1873, he sent the reports to the Board of Trade in London, adding his own conclusion that the crew had got at the alcohol and murdered the Briggs family and the ship's officers in a drunken frenzy. They had cut the bows to simulate a collision, then fled in the yawl to suffer an unknown fate. Flood thought that Morehouse and his men were hiding something, specifically that Mary Celeste had been abandoned in a more easterly location, and that the log had been doctored. He could not accept that Mary Celeste could have traveled so far while uncrewed.

James Winchester arrived in Gibraltar on January 15, to enquire when Mary Celeste might be released to deliver her cargo. Flood demanded a surety of $15,000, money Winchester did not have. Winchester became aware that Flood thought Winchester might have deliberately engaged a crew that would kill Briggs and his officers as part of some conspiracy. On January 29, during a series of sharp exchanges with Flood, Winchester testified to Briggs's high character, and insisted that Briggs would not have abandoned the ship except in extremity. Flood's theories of mutiny and murder received significant setbacks when scientific analysis of the stains found on the sword and elsewhere on the ship showed that they were not blood. A second blow to Flood followed in a report commissioned by Horatio Sprague, the American consul in Gibraltar, from Captain Shufeldt of the US Navy. In Shufeldt's view, the marks on the bow were not man-made, but came from the natural actions of the sea on the ship's timbers.

With nothing concrete to support his suspicions, Flood reluctantly released Mary Celeste from the court's jurisdiction on February 25. Two weeks later, with a locally raised crew headed by Captain George Blatchford from Massachusetts, she left Gibraltar for Genoa. The question of the salvage payment was decided on April 8, when Cochrane announced the award: £1,700, or about one-fifth of the total value of ship and cargo. This was far lower than the general expectation—one authority thought that the award should have been twice or even three times that amount, given the level of hazard in bringing the derelict into port. Cochrane's final words were harshly critical of Morehouse for his decision, earlier in the hearing, to send Dei Gratia under Deveau to deliver her cargo of petroleum—although Morehouse had remained in Gibraltar at the disposal of the court. Cochrane's tone carried an implication of wrongdoing, which, says Hicks, ensured that Morehouse and his crew "...would be under suspicion in the court of public opinion forever."

Foul play
The evidence in Gibraltar failed to support Flood's theories of murder and conspiracy, yet suspicion of foul play lingered. Flood, and some newspaper reports, briefly suspected insurance fraud on the part of Winchester on the basis that Mary Celeste had been heavily overinsured. Winchester was able to refute these allegations, and no inquiry was instituted by the insurance companies that had issued the policies. In 1931, an article in the Quarterly Review suggested that Morehouse could have lain in wait for Mary Celeste, then lured Briggs and his crew aboard Dei Gratia and killed them there. Paul Begg argues that this theory ignores the fact that Dei Gratia was the slower ship; she left New York eight days after Mary Celeste departed and would not have caught Mary Celeste before she reached Gibraltar.

Another theory posits that Briggs and Morehouse were partners in a conspiracy to share the salvage proceeds, although no evidence exists of a friendship between the two captains. Hicks comments that "if Morehouse and Briggs had been planning such a scam, they would not have devised such an attention-drawing mystery." He also asks why Briggs abandoned his son Arthur if he had intended to disappear permanently.

Although Riffian pirates were active off the coast of Morocco in the 1870s, Charles Edey Fay observes that pirates would have looted the ship, but the personal possessions, some of significant value, of the captain and crew were left undisturbed. In 1925, historian John Gilbert Lockhart surmised that Briggs slaughtered all on board and then killed himself in a fit of religious mania. Lockhart later spoke to Briggs's descendants, and he apologized and withdrew this theory in a later edition of his book.

Lifeboat
Briggs's cousin Oliver Cobb later suggested that the transfer of personnel to the yawl may have been intended as a temporary safety measure. He speculated from Deveau's report on the state of the rigging and ropes that the ship's main halliard may have been used to attach the yawl to the ship, enabling the company to return to Mary Celeste when the danger had passed. However, Mary Celeste would have sailed away empty if the line had parted, leaving the yawl adrift with its occupants. Begg notes that it would be illogical to attach the yawl to a vessel that the crew thought was about to explode or sink. Macdonald Hastings argues that Briggs was an experienced captain who would not have led a panicked abandonment, writing: "If the Mary Celeste had blown her timbers, she would still have been a better bet for survival than the ship's boat." According to Hastings, if Briggs had relied on the ship's boat for survival rather than on Mary Celeste, he would have "behaved like a fool; worse, a frightened one."

Arthur N. Putman, a New York insurance appraiser, was a leading investigator in sea mysteries in the early 20th century and wrote a similar lifeboat theory stressing that only a single lifeboat was missing from the vessel. He discovered that the boat's rope was cut, not untied, which indicated that the abandonment of Mary Celeste was performed quickly. The ship's log contained several mentions of ominous rumbling and small explosions from the hold, although cargos of alcohol naturally emit explosive gas and such sounds are commonly heard. He supposes that there had been a more intense explosion and, in response, a sailor ventured below deck with an open flame or lit cigar that ignited the fumes, causing an explosion violent enough to dislodge the top of the hatch, which had been found in an unusual position. Putman also postulated that in a panicked terror the captain, his family and the crew boarded the lone lifeboat, cut the rope and abandoned Mary Celeste.

Natural phenomena
Commentators generally agree that some extraordinary and alarming circumstance must have arisen to cause the entire crew to abandon a sound and seaworthy ship with ample provisions. Deveau ventured an explanation based on the sounding rod found on deck. He suggested that Briggs abandoned ship after a false sounding because of a malfunction, perhaps of the pumps, that created a false impression that the vessel was rapidly accumulating water. A severe waterspout strike before the abandonment could explain the amount of water in the ship and the ragged state of her rigging and sails. The low barometric pressure generated by the spout could have driven water from the bilges up into the pumps, leading the crew to overestimate the amount of water on Mary Celeste and believe that she was in danger of sinking.

Other explanations include the possible appearance of a displaced iceberg, the fear of running aground while becalmed and a sudden submarine earthquake. Hydrographical evidence suggests that an iceberg drifting so far south was improbable and other ships would have seen it. Begg gives more consideration to a theory that Mary Celeste began drifting towards the Dollabarat reef off Santa Maria Island when she was becalmed. The theory supposes that Briggs feared that his ship would run aground and launched the yawl in the hope of reaching land. The wind could then have lifted and blown Mary Celeste away from the reef while the rising seas swamped and sank the yawl. The weakness of this theory is that if the ship had been becalmed, all sails would have been set to catch any available breeze, yet it was found with many of its sails furled.

An earthquake on the seabed could have caused sufficient turbulence on the surface to damage parts of Mary Celeste's cargo, thus releasing noxious fumes. Rising fears of an imminent explosion could have led Briggs to order the ship's abandonment; the displaced hatches suggest that an inspection, or an attempted airing, had taken place. The New York World of January 24, 1886 drew attention to a case in which a vessel carrying alcohol had exploded. The same journal's issue of February 9, 1913 cited a seepage of alcohol through a few porous barrels as the source of gases that may have caused or threatened an explosion in Mary Celeste's hold. Briggs's cousin Oliver Cobb was a strong proponent of this theory, in which a sufficiently alarming scenario—rumblings from the hold, the smell of escaping fumes and possibly an explosion—could have caused Briggs to have ordered the evacuation of the ship. In his haste to leave the ship before it exploded, Briggs may have failed to properly secure the yawl to the tow line. A sudden breeze could have blown the ship away from the occupants of the yawl, leaving them to succumb to the elements. The lack of damage from an explosion and the generally sound state of the cargo upon discovery tend to weaken this case.

In 2006, an experiment was performed for Channel Five television by chemist Andrea Sella of University College, London, and the results helped to revive the explosion theory. Sella built a model of the hold, with paper cartons representing the barrels. Using butane gas, he created an explosion that caused a considerable blast and ball of flame, but contrary to expectation, there was no fire damage within the replica hold. He said: "What we created was a pressure-wave type of explosion. There was a spectacular wave of flame but, behind it, was relatively cool air. No soot was left behind and there was no burning or scorching."

Myths and false histories
Fact and fiction became intertwined in the decades that followed. The Los Angeles Times retold the Mary Celeste story in June 1883 with invented detail. "Every sail was set, the tiller was lashed fast, not a rope was out of place. ... The fire was burning in the galley. The dinner was standing untasted and scarcely cold … the log written up to the hour of her discovery." The November 1906 Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine reported that Mary Celeste drifted off the Cape Verde Islands, some 1400 nmi south of the actual location. Among many inaccuracies, the first mate was "a man named Briggs," and there were live chickens on board.

The most influential retelling, according to many commentators, was a story in the January 1884 issue of the Cornhill Magazine which ensured that the Mary Celeste affair would never be forgotten. This was an early work of Arthur Conan Doyle, a 25 year-old ship's surgeon at the time. Doyle's story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" did not adhere to the facts. He renamed the ship Marie Celeste, the captain's name was J. W. Tibbs, the fatal voyage took place in 1873, and it was from Boston to Lisbon. The vessel carried passengers, among them the titular Jephson. In the story, a fanatic named Septimius Goring with a hatred of the white race has suborned members of the crew to murder Tibbs and take the vessel to the shores of Western Africa. The rest of the ship's company is killed, save for Jephson who is spared because he possesses a magical charm that is venerated by Goring and his accomplices. Doyle had not expected his story to be taken seriously, but Sprague was still serving as the U.S. consul in Gibraltar and was sufficiently intrigued to inquire if any part of the story might be true.

In 1913, The Strand Magazine provided an alleged survivor's account from one Abel Fosdyk, supposedly Mary Celeste's steward. In this version, the crew had gathered on a temporary swimming platform to watch a swimming contest, when the platform suddenly collapsed. All except Fosdyk were drowned or eaten by sharks. Unlike Doyle's story, the magazine proposed this as a serious solution to the enigma, but it contained many simple mistakes, including "Griggs" for Briggs, "Boyce" for Morehouse, Briggs's daughter as a seven-year-old child rather than a two-year-old, a crew of 13, and an ignorance of nautical language. Many more people were convinced by a plausible literary hoax of the 1920s perpetrated by Irish writer Laurence J. Keating, again presented as a survivor's story of one John Pemberton. This one told a complex tale of murder, madness, and collusion with the Dei Gratia. It included basic errors, such as using Doyle's name ("Marie Celeste") and misnaming key personnel. Nevertheless, the story was so convincingly told that the New York Herald Tribune of July 26, 1926 believed its truth to be beyond dispute. Hastings describes Keating's hoax as "an impudent trick by a man not without imaginative ability."

In 1924, the Daily Express published a story by Captain R. Lucy, whose alleged informant was Mary Celeste's former boatswain, although no such person is recorded in the registered crew list. In this tale, Briggs and his crew are cast in the role of predators; they sight a derelict steamer, which they board and find deserted with £3,500 of gold and silver in its safe. They decide to split the money, abandon Mary Celeste, and seek new lives in Spain, which they reach by using the steamer's lifeboats. Hastings finds it astonishing that such an unlikely story was widely believed for a time; readers, he says, "were fooled by the magic of print."

Chambers's Journal of September 17, 1904, suggests that the entire complement of Mary Celeste was plucked off one by one by a giant octopus or squid. According to the Natural History Museum, giant squid (Architeuthis dux) can reach 15 m in length and have been known to attack ships. Begg remarks that such a creature could conceivably have picked off a crew member, but it could hardly have taken the yawl and the captain's navigation instruments. Other explanations have suggested paranormal intervention; an undated edition of the British Journal of Astrology describes the Mary Celeste story as "a mystical experience", connecting it "with the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, the lost continent of Atlantis, and the British Israel Movement". The Bermuda Triangle has been invoked, even though Mary Celeste was abandoned in a completely different part of the Atlantic. Similar fantasies have considered theories of abduction by aliens in flying saucers.

Later career and final voyage
Mary Celeste left Genoa on June 26, 1873, and arrived in New York on September 19. The Gibraltar hearings, with newspaper stories of bloodshed and murder, had made her an unpopular ship; Hastings records that she "... rotted on wharves where nobody wanted her." In February 1874, the consortium sold the ship, at a considerable loss, to a partnership of New York businessmen.

Under this new ownership, Mary Celeste sailed mainly in the West Indian and Indian Ocean routes, regularly losing money. Details of her movements occasionally appeared in the shipping news; in February 1879, she was reported at the island of St. Helena, where she had called to seek medical assistance for her captain, Edgar Tuthill, who had fallen ill. Tuthill died on the island, encouraging the idea that the ship was cursed—he was her third captain to die prematurely. In February 1880, the owners sold Mary Celeste to a partnership of Bostonians headed by Wesley Gove. A new captain, Thomas L. Fleming, remained in the post until August 1884, when he was replaced by Gilman C. Parker. During these years, the ship's port of registration changed several times, before reverting to Boston. There are no records of her voyages during this time, although Brian Hicks, in his study of the affair, asserts that Gove tried hard to make a success of her.

In November 1884, Parker conspired with a group of Boston shippers, who filled Mary Celeste with a largely worthless cargo, misrepresented on the ship's manifest as valuable goods and insured for US$30,000 ($ today). On December 16, Parker set out for Port-au-Prince, the capital and chief port of Haiti. On January 3, 1885, Mary Celeste approached the port via the channel between Gonâve Island and the mainland, in which lay a large and well-charted coral reef, the Rochelois Bank. Parker deliberately ran the ship on to this reef, ripping out her bottom and wrecking her beyond repair. He and the crew then rowed themselves ashore, where Parker sold the salvageable cargo for $500 to the American consul, and instituted insurance claims for the alleged value.

When the consul reported that what he had bought was almost worthless, the ship's insurers began a thorough investigation, which soon revealed the truth of the over-insured cargo. In July 1885, Parker and the shippers were tried in Boston for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Parker was additionally charged with "wilfully cast[ing] away the ship," a crime known as barratry, which at the time carried the death penalty. The conspiracy case was heard first, but on August 15, the jury announced that they could not agree on a verdict. Some jurors were unwilling to risk prejudicing Parker's forthcoming capital trial by finding him guilty on the conspiracy charge. Rather than ordering an expensive retrial, the judge negotiated an arrangement whereby the defendants withdrew their insurance claims and repaid all they had received. The barratry charge against Parker was deferred, and he was allowed to go free. Nevertheless, his professional reputation was ruined, and he died in poverty three months later. One of his co-defendants went mad, and another killed himself. Begg observes that "if the court of man could not punish these men ... the curse that had devilled the ship since her first skipper Robert McLellan had died on her maiden voyage could reach beyond the vessel's watery grave and exact its own terrible retribution."

In August 2001, an expedition headed by the marine archaeologist and author Clive Cussler announced that they had found the remains of a ship embedded in the Rochelois reef. Only a few pieces of timber and some metal artifacts could be salvaged, the remainder of the wreckage being lost within the coral. Initial tests on the wood indicated that it was the type extensively used in New York shipyards at the time of Mary Celeste's 1872 refit, and it seemed the remains of Mary Celeste had been found. However, dendrochronological tests carried out by Scott St George of the Geological Survey of Canada showed that the wood came from trees, most probably from the US state of Georgia, that would still have been growing in 1894, about ten years after Mary Celeste demise.

Legacy and commemorations
Mary Celeste was not the first reported case of a ship being found strangely deserted on the high seas. Rupert Gould, a naval officer and investigator of maritime mysteries, lists other such occurrences between 1840 and 1855. Whatever the truth of these stories, it is the Mary Celeste that is remembered; the ship's name, or the misspelled Marie Celeste, has become fixed in people's minds as synonymous with inexplicable desertion.

In October 1955, MV Joyita, a 70-ton motor vessel, disappeared in the South Pacific while traveling between Samoa and Tokelau, with 25 people on board. The vessel was found a month later, deserted and drifting north of Vanua Levu, 600 mi from its route. None of those aboard were seen again, and a commission of inquiry failed to establish an explanation. David Wright, the affair's principal historian, has described the case as "... a classic marine mystery of Mary Celeste proportions."

The Mary Celeste story inspired two well-received radio plays in the 1930s, by L. Du Garde Peach and Tim Healey respectively, and a stage version of Peach's play in 1949. Several novels have been published, generally offering natural rather than fantastic explanations. In 1935, the British film company Hammer Film Productions issued The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (retitled Phantom Ship for American audiences), starring Bela Lugosi as a deranged sailor. It was not a commercial success, although Begg considers it "a period piece well worth watching". A 1938 short film titled The Ship That Died presents dramatizations of a range of theories to explain the abandonment: mutiny, fear of explosion due to alcohol fumes, and the supernatural.

The Mary Celeste featured in the 1965 Doctor Who episode The Chase where the disappearance of the crew was explained as being due to a mass panic caused by the sudden appearance of a party of Daleks searching for the Doctor and his companions who had briefly landed the TARDIS on the ship a few minutes prior.

In November 2007, the Smithsonian Channel screened a documentary, The True Story of the Mary Celeste, which investigated many aspects of the case without offering any definite solution. One theory proposed pump congestion and instrument malfunction. The Mary Celeste had been used for transporting coal, which is known for its dust, before it was loaded with alcohol. The pump was found disassembled on deck, so the crew may have been attempting to repair it. The hull was packed full, and the captain would have no way of judging how much water had been taken on while navigating rough seas. The filmmakers postulated that the chronometer was faulty, meaning that Briggs could have ordered abandonment thinking that they were close to Santa Maria, when they were 120 mi farther west.

The 2020 supernatural horror movie Haunting of the Mary Celeste focuses on the Mary Celeste and its crew's disappearance. This movie blames the disappearance on supernatural "rifts" caused by tectonic plates that can suck in animals and people.

At Spencer's Island, Mary Celeste and her lost crew are commemorated by a monument at the site of the brigantine's construction and by a memorial outdoor cinema built in the shape of the vessel's hull. Postage stamps commemorating the incident have been issued by Gibraltar (twice) and by the Maldives (twice, once with the name of the ship misspelt as Marie Celeste).

title: Mary Celeste


text:
Startopia

Startopia is a video game by Mucky Foot Productions (formed by ex-Bullfrog employees) and published by Eidos in June 2001, in which the player administers various space stations with the task of developing them into popular hubs. The game has a comical overtone, with lighthearted humour and cartoonish aliens. The game was re-released on GOG.com in September 2012 and was added to the Steam catalogue in October 2013.

Startopia was shortlisted for BAFTA PC Game of the Year in 2001.

Gameplay
The player is tasked with developing a series of space stations according to the wishes of various employers. The game is set after an apocalyptic galactic war, and many of the stations are in a state of considerable disrepair. It is hinted that these space stations are essentially the last few space-based environments available to the denizens of Startopia, as most of them had been destroyed during the galactic war.

The player has no direct control over the aliens that wander about the station. Instead, it is the player's job to construct rooms and hire aliens to staff them. The rooms provide basic necessities as well as recreation, encouraging visitors to remain on the station and continue spending money. Each type of alien is suited to a particular kind of task, and individual aliens have a set of statistics that determine their value as an employee. The actual goal for the player varies from one scenario to the next; in some scenarios, the player is expected to meet an economic goal, while in other scenarios the player is required to perform a specific task such as converting a certain number of aliens, or taking over the entire station by force. A sandbox mode is also available.

As with most business simulation games, the player builds facilities and hires workers to operate them. Some rooms take care of basic necessities such as food, sanitation, and health care, while others provide entertainment or love. Visitors may be hired by the player to remain on the station and attend to its facilities.

The space station has a toroidal shape, and it is divided by sectors. Additional sectors can be opened by paying a certain amount of energy for repairs. When sectors from two different players are adjacent, they can be opened to allow visitors to move between them. A war can also be started, allowing players to conquer other sectors by hacking an opponent´s sector door using security droids. The space station has three decks:

The player can trade with a merchant called Arona Daal since the start of the game. In order to trade with other species merchants, that provides better prices, the player has to build a star dock and have an active communications center.
 * The engineering deck is the biggest and the one that allows a biggest variety of building to be constructed.
 * At the pleasure deck, buildings for assessing love and fun necessities can be built.
 * The bio deck satisfies nature and religion necessities. Additionally, plants can be harvested for obtaining supplies. The deck can be terraformed by modifying temperature, humidity, water level and height.

Other mechanic of Startopia is research.By hiring Turakken employees and having a research lab, the player can discover new technologies and upgrade those technologies. In order to research a new technology, an object must be introduced in the lab´s analyzer. If the object´s technologies has not discovered yet, the player will get the technology, and the item´s production will be enabled at the factory. If that technology is already researched, it may unlock a new technology from the same brand of the tech tree or improve the current technology, reducing energy cost for producing the item. The analyzer can also disable bombs.When there are not items in the analyzer, the employees will randomly update previously discovered technologies.

In order to maintain the station operational, the player must hire employees among the visitors. Employees are required for the function of some buildings, and some species can also provide defense against enemies, spies and monsters. There are two types of droids: scuzzer droids clean the station, build and repair infrastructures, and move crates, whereas security scuzzers are part of the armed forces of the station, detain or expel criminals and can also hack enemy doors.

In addition to normal visitors, the station can also receive enemy agents. An agent can be disguised as a normal alien or appear as a shady human character sneaking around the station.

Startopia draws inspiration from and makes frequent references to mainstream science fiction, such as Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey (the player's assistant computer VAL is a parody of Space Odyssey's HAL), Red Dwarf, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Startopia is dedicated to the memory of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide, who died during the game's production.

Reception
John Lee reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Although a bit short on missions, it turns out to be a real kick to build your own luxury hotel in space.

Startopia received generally favorable reviews upon its release. It holds an average of 85% and 86/100 on aggregate web sites GameRankings and Metacritic.

Startopia sold approximately 110,000 copies.

Legacy
During the August 2019 Gamescom, Realmforge Studios and Kalypso Media announced Spacebase Startopia, a new game based on Startopia. It was scheduled to release on October 23, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows and in 2021 for Nintendo Switch, would include both competitive and co-operative multiplayer elements. After delays in production, the remake has then been officially released for all platforms on March 26, 2021.

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

title: Startopia


text:
Landover, Maryland

Landover is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 25,998.

Landover is contained between Sheriff Road and Central Avenue to the south, Hill Road, Cabin Branch Drive, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) Orange Line tracks to the west, John Hanson Highway (U.S. Highway 50) to the north, and Washington D.C.'s Capital Beltway (Interstate 495/95) to the east. Landover borders the communities of New Carrollton, Landover Hills, Glenarden, Lanham, Ardmore, Kentland, Cheverly, Chapel Oaks, Fairmount Heights, Carmody Hills, Pepper Mill Village, Walker Mill, and Largo.

History
Landover was named after the town of Llandovery, Wales.

The former CDPs of Landover, Dodge Park, Kentland, and Palmer Park, defined as such by the U.S. Census Bureau in the 1990 U.S. Census, were consolidated into the Greater Landover CDP as of the 2000 U.S. Census. This amalgamated area was renamed the Landover CDP as of the 2010 U.S. Census.

Geography
Landover is located at 38.924°N, -76.888°W. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it has an area of 10.55 sqkm, of which 0.01 sqkm, or 0.13%, is water. Landover residents have the postal zipcode of 20785. Since Landover is an unincorporated community in Prince George's County, residents of Landover have Hyattsville postal addresses though they live in Landover and not Hyattsville. Landover does not have its own postal zipcode.

Landover consists of several small subdivisions which are notably Ardwick Park, Kentland, Kenmoor, Dodge Park, Brightseat, Palmer Park, Columbia Park, Village Green, White House Heights, and Summerfield. Landover is home to FedExField, which the NFL's Washington Commanders have played at since it opened in 1997. It is also home to the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex, WMATA's Landover Metrobus Division, WMATA's Carmen E. Turner Maintenance Facility, Giant Food Corporate Office, Giant Food Corporate Plant, National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery, and Ardwick Industrial Park. WMATA Metrorail's Orange Line from New Carrollton to Vienna, MARC train Line to the BWI Light Rail Station to Washington D.C.'s Union Station, Cargo Trains, and Amtrak's Train Line from Washington D.C.'s Union Station to New York's Penn Station via Wilmington and Philadelphia, all go through Landover. Landover Hills is a separate, incorporated community just across the Orange Line train tracks and John Hanson Highway (U.S. Highway 50) to the north. Landover is the birthplace of the late Len Bias. From 1960 to 1972, Landover was the home of jazz guitarist, composer, arranger, author, and jazz educator Steve Rochinski.

For the 2000 census, Landover was delineated by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Greater Landover census-designated place.

Economy
Eight O'Clock Coffee's coffee production plant is located in Landover. Giant Food has its headquarters in a location in unincorporated Prince George's County in the Ardwick Industrial Park area, near Landover. The Giant Food Headquarters is located next to the New Carrollton Metro Station. It is served by the F13 metrobus shuttle that goes from the Cheverly Metro station to Washington Business Park.

Arts and culture
Beall's Pleasure and Ridgley Methodist Episcopal Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A Harlem Renaissance Festival occurs at Kentland-Columbia Park Community Center in Landover every year in May. In 2014, the National Archives for Black Women's History was controversially relocated from Washington, D.C., to 3300 Hubbard Road in Landover.

Sports

Commanders Field is a football stadium for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League in the neighboring CDP of Summerfield and has a Landover postal address. (See also Raljon, Maryland.) The Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals used to play in Landover's Capital Centre (later known as the US Airways Arena) before moving to the Capital One Arena, inside D.C itself. The arena was demolished in 2002.

The Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex is also in Summerfield CDP, located on approximately 80 acre adjacent to FedExField.

Government
Prince George's County Police Department headquarters, which is also District 3 Station, is in the Palmer Park area in Landover CDP.

The U.S. Postal Service operates the Landover Post Office in the CDP.

Public education
Landover is a part of the Prince George's County Public Schools system.

Elementary schools serving sections of the Landover CDP include: Columbia Park, Dodge Park, Cooper Lane, Gladys Noon Spellman, Highland Park, and William Paca. Middle schools serving sections of the Landover CDP include: G. James Gholson, Kenmoor, and Charles Carroll. Senior high schools serving sections of the Landover CDP include: Fairmont Heights, Charles Herbert Flowers, DuVal, and Bladensburg. The schools serving the 1990 CDP are: Cooper Lane and Gladys Noon Spellman elementaries, Charles Carroll Middle, and Bladensburg High.

When desegregation busing began in 1972, PG County school officials bused many black children in Landover to schools with large numbers of white students in other areas of the county. Since then many schools in the Landover area had closed. David Nakamura of The Washington Post stated that many Landover residents believed that desegregation busing contributed to the socioeconomic decline of Landover. In 1998 the busing program was abolished due to a settlement in federal court.

Matthew Henson Elementary School was previously in the CDP. It was scheduled to close in 2009. In 2012 EXCEL Academy agreed to open a charter school in the former Henson space, and it moved from its previous campus in Riverdale.

Other area schools:
 * Kenmoor Elementary School
 * Palmer Park Elementary School
 * Columbia Park Elementary School
 * John Carroll Elementary School - closed in 2009
 * Cora L. Rice Elementary School
 * Thomas Pullen Creative & Performing Arts Academy

Colleges and universities
Landover had career-based colleges, such as Fortis College, that offer programs including bio-technician, medical assisting, and medical coding and billing.

Transportation

Landover is one of the few regions in the Washington, D.C. area that is served directly by multiple separate Washington Metro rail lines. Landover is served by the Orange, Blue, and Silver lines (many DC area suburbs are not served directly by Metrorail at all). The Landover Metro station serves the northern portion of Landover on the Orange Line. This station is also the primary metro station that serves the Landover area. The Morgan Boulevard Metro station, constructed in 2004, serves the southern portion of Landover on the Blue and Silver Lines and is the main rail terminus providing access to Commanders Field, which is home to the Washington Commanders in addition to many other sporting and entertainment events. Landover also has a special Metrobus Division also houses many Metrobuses that serve routes in Prince George's County, Maryland.

In addition to the Landover and Morgan Boulevard Metro Stations that primarily serve the Landover area, Landover residents have access to other metro stations nearby, such as New Carrollton, Cheverly, Downtown Largo, and Addison Road-Seat Pleasant.

I-495/95, the Capital Beltway, crosses U.S. Route 50 in Landover. The Beltway also has junctions with Maryland Route 202 (Landover Road) and Brightseat Road, which leads directly to FedExField.

Shopping
Landover was the home of Landover Mall, owned and operated by Lerner Enterprises. Built in 1972, it was the first enclosed mall in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to house four high-end retail anchor stores: Garfinkel's, Hecht's (owned by the May company), Woodward and Lothrop (popularly known as Woodies), and Sears. The mall also housed a multiplex movie theater located in the basement of the northeast corridor of the building. Located at the Capital Beltway and Landover Road, the mall neighbored the towns of Palmer Park, Ardmore, Glenarden, and Largo. Palmer Park was the hometown of Olympic boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard. Garfinkel's closed in 1990, Woodies closed in 1995 and was replaced with a J.C. Penney store that lasted from 1996 to 2001, and Hecht's closed in 2002 with the opening of the Bowie Town Center located in Bowie. The entire mall officially closed in 2003 and was demolished in 2006, with the exception of Sears. Sears closed in 2014 and was later demolished.

With the arrival in 1997 of FedExField, the mall's parking lot is used for overflow parking. In 2007, according to The Washington Post, Prince George's County officials were in the midst of developing plans to transform the area where Landover Mall once stood. County officials propose to build luxury townhouses, trendy stores, and office buildings. The goal of the project is to transform the area into a residential and cultural hub that replicates the Bowie Town Center, and The Boulevard at the Capital Centre; the latter is in Lake Arbor CDP and has a Largo postal address.

Parks and recreation
The Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation operates the Kentland Community Center and the Palmer Park Community Center.

title: Landover, Maryland


text:
Alex Kidd in Miracle World

Alex Kidd in Miracle World (アレックスキッドのミラクルワールド) is a platform game for the Master System. It was released in Japan on November 1, 1986, followed by North America in December 1986, with Europe in September 1987, plus South Korea in October 1988, and Brazil in 1989. It was later built into many Master System and Master System II consoles. A remake by Merge Games and Jankenteam, titled Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, was released on June 22, 2021.

Gameplay

Alex Kidd in Miracle World is a 2D platform game. The player must finish levels and overcome obstacles and puzzles in both scrolling and single-screen environments. Throughout the 17 stages, Alex faces many monsters and the three henchmen of Janken the Great, before facing Janken himself.

Alex's punching ability is used to destroy enemies and to break rocks in order to access new paths and to collect items such as money which can then be used to purchase other items including vehicles such as motorbikes and helicopters. At the end of many stages, Alex plays jan-ken-pon (rock-paper-scissors) with one of Janken's henchmen. Alex dies with one hit, or by losing a game of rock, paper, scissors.

The game has no save system, but by holding the directional pad up and pressing the 2 button eight times at the Game Over screen, the player will restart the level with three new lives, at a cost of 400 Baums (the in-game currency).

Plot
A young martial artist named Alex Kidd learns of a villain named Janken the Great who has defeated King Thunder of the city of Radaxian and who has kidnapped his son, Prince Egle (or 'Igul'), and Egle's fiancée Princess Lora. Discovering that he is the lost son of King Thunder, Alex sets out to rescue the kingdom. On his quest, he defeats Janken's henchmen and retrieves various items which lead him toward Janken whom he defeats and sees turned to stone. Alex retrieves the crown, and the people of Radaxian are restored under the newly crowned King Egle.

Development and release
Alex Kidd in Miracle World originally began development in 1984 as a licensed tie-in game based on the Dragon Ball manga series. However, during development, the Dragon Ball license expired and Sega CEO Hayao Nakayama ordered the developers to start the game over from scratch.

The game was originally only available as a cartridge but was later built into many editions of both the Master System and the Master System II power base, enabling play without the use of a game cartridge. From 1990 onwards, a slightly different version was integrated into the US, Australian and European versions of the Master System II and also some Australian and European versions of the original Master System. There were two differences: firstly when changing targets in the game map, Alex is shown eating onigiri in the original version (and the 2008 Wii Virtual Console port), and a hamburger in the integrated version. Secondly, the original version used button 2 to hit and button 1 to jump; these controls were inverted in the integrated version.

The game was released alongside Super Hang-On and The Revenge of Shinobi as part of Sega Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd and Co., which was released for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in May 2012. This version allows play of any region version of the game (the European version retaining a 50 Hz framerate) and the Master System II variation. The original version is included on the AtGames Sega Genesis Flashback HD compilation, a dedicated console with games from the Sega Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear.

Reception
The game has been critically acclaimed since its release. In 1987, the French magazine Génération 4 gave the game a highly positive score. In 1991, Sega Pro magazine stated that, with "so much to do and so many different ways of doing it, this is one of those games you will keep coming back to even when you have finished it completely." Computer and Video Games magazine in 1991 described the game as "Sega's answer to Mario" and concluded that the "absorbing gameplay will have you glued to your screen for hours on end."

In a 2008 retro review, IGN gave Alex Kidd a score of 9 out of 10 and an "Editor's Choice" award, calling it "an exceptional platformer with loads of action and some great puzzle-solving challenges" that "still holds up remarkably well." IGN also gave the Wii Virtual Console release a score of 9 out of 10.

Remake
A remake of the game, titled Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, was announced on June 10, 2020, and released on June 22, 2021. The game is developed by Merge Games and Jankenteam for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows (Steam), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The remake features new levels, new NPCs, alternate boss fights, and can instantly change between modern or retro-style graphics by using the right trigger button. Once the player completes the game, the player unlocks two additional modes: Classic Mode, which is an upscaled Master System port of the original game, and Boss Rush, where the player must defeat all the bosses at Rock Paper Scissors and follow-up battle without dying.

title: Alex Kidd in Miracle World


text:
Lanham, Maryland

Lanham is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland. As of the 2020 United States Census, it has a population of 11,282. The New Carrollton station (the terminus of the Washington Metro's Orange Line) as well as an Amtrak station are across the Capital Beltway in New Carrollton, Maryland. Doctors Community Hospital is located in Lanham.

History
The Thomas J. Calloway House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Lanham has a total area of 9.2 sqkm, of which 9.1 sqkm is land and 0.05 sqkm, or 0.54%, is water.

Government and infrastructure
Prince George's County Police Department District 2 Station in Brock Hall CDP, with a Bowie postal address, serves the community.

The U.S. Postal Service operates the Lanham Seabrook Post Office in Lanham CDP.

Economy
EdTech company 2U (Nasdaq: REVU), Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, reverse logistics company Optoro, software company Vocus, media company Radio One and publisher Rowman & Littlefield are based in Lanham.

Religion

 * Grace Church
 * Grace Presbyterian Church
 * Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church (Orthodox Presbyterian Church)
 * Lanham Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
 * Lanham United Methodist Church
 * Murugan Temple of North America
 * Prince George's Muslim Association
 * Sri Siva Vishnu Temple
 * St. Matthias the Apostle Catholic Parish
 * St. Theodore Greek Orthodox Church
 * Diyanet Center of America
 * Kingdom Hall for Jehovah's Witnesses
 * New Dimensions Church
 * Korean Maryland Presbyterian Church

Education
Prince George's County Public Schools serves Lanham CDP.

Residents of the CDP are divided between James McHenry Elementary School and Seabrook Elementary School. All residents are zoned to Thomas Johnson Middle School and DuVal High School.

There is a private Catholic school, Academy of Saint Matthias the Apostle.

Other area schools:

Blue
 * Elementary schools
 * Catherine T. Reed Elementary School
 * Gaywood Elementary School
 * Magnolia Elementary School
 * Robert Goddard Montessori School
 * Middle schools
 * Robert Goddard Montessori

 * Colleges
 * Washington Bible College/Capital Bible Seminary/Equip Institute

Notable people

 * Antoine Brooks, NFL player and Super Bowl LVI champion
 * Daryl Ferguson, Barbadian footballer
 * Robert Griffith, former NFL strong safety
 * Frank Kratovil, former US Congressman
 * Jermaine Lewis, former NFL wide receiver
 * Guy S. Meloy Jr., former US Army general
 * Chinanu Onuaku (born 1996), basketball player
 * Lio Rush, professional wrestler

title: Lanham, Maryland


text:
Talk:Pale Fire

Ergodic
Is Pale Fire an example of Ergodic literature? If so, it should be mentioned in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Electrosaurus (talk • contribs) 03:21, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Aarseth mentions Pale Fire in his book "Cybertext" (p.8) under the chapter "Ergodic Literature" but does not mention it as an "example of ergodic literature" (p.9-13). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.61.83.137 (talk) 04:04, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing ergodic about the book because the three plots of the commentary are relatively straightforward; they're just dispersed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.98.192.193 (talk) 03:01, 20 January 2011 (UTC) That is not to say that questions of identity, authorship, and fiction-within-fiction do not abound.

Comment
I added the number of lines in "Pale Fire", the information that Shade was murdered and the poem was unfinished, and the connection between Kinbote and Karl.

I don't understand "The circumstances surrounding his possession of the manuscript are mysterious." The circumstances seem pretty straightforward to me. Unless somebody explains it, I'd like to delete that sentence sometime fairly soon.

Also, unless I've caused trouble with this edit, I'd like to amplify the paragraph on interpretations, since there are many beside the Shadean, Kinbotean, and "ghostean". I promise to be brief and keep a neutral point of view.

JerryFriedman 17:07, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC) (Wikinewbie)

I made changes as above. I think the discussion of Boyd's book is now more neutral. (Before, it said that he called attention to Hazel Shade's ghostly influence, but some would deny that it exists.) I wasn't as brief as I hoped to be, but as brief as I could be.

216.31.18.190 17:52, 5 Jan 2004 (UTC)

 * I used to think that Boyd's theory was far-fetched and bogus, but I've been growing more sympathetic to it as I've read more of Nabokov's minor works. The ghost business does seem like the sort of thing Nabokov would do.  In particular, anyone criticizing Boyd needs to first read Nabokov's short story The Vane Sisters.  That said, Shadeanism still seems like the most beautiful interpretation. --Shibboleth 07:01, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Calvin & Hobbes
This line: "like the tiger in Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes" makes no sense. It's gone. Feel free to put it back in if you can explain how it relates to Pale Fire. --Polynova 00:18, Dec 30, 2004 (UTC)

 * I believe the idea was that most of the time Hobbes (the tiger) was a character who occasionally seemed to accomplish things in the "real" world, but in a few panels, drawn from the point of view of people other than Calvin, Hobbes was an inanimate stuffed animal. Just as undecidable as whether Kinbote is Shade's creation or the other way around (except that neither of those possibilities interests me, and I doubt that Nabokov intended either).  However, all this has inspired me to find an external link for the goblet.  And maybe somebody needs to put it into Wikipedia!  —JerryFriedman 04:20, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Zembla
If "Zembla" is based on a real place, I think that it is more likely to be based on Severnaya Zemlya than Novaya Zemlya, which indeed means Northern Land as it is described in the book --- Revolver66 22:49 20/12/07

Hazel's suicide or not
Although I think for a brief summary just calling Hazel a "death by suicide" is fine, Shade says that her death is spoken of as an accident, and that it is only but that he and Sibyl are emotionally certain that it was deliberate. It's not really a question of reader interpretation but of Shade's presentation of the facts.

 * People have thought she tried to cross the lake
 * At Lochan Neck where zesty skaters crossed
 * From Exe to Wye on days of special frost
 * Others supposed she might have lost her way
 * By turning left from Bridgeroad; and some say
 * She took her poor young life. I know. You know.

Dybryd 21:28, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Stephen Blackwell, who has published a well-respected works on Nabokov, wrote this at NABOKV-L:
 * Did Hazel commit suicide, or did she take a chance--maybe the ice would hold up?? (Shade "knows"--but can we be sure?)

 * Here's another post from NABOKV-L in which two people doubt that Hazel committed suicide.

 * I don't know of any published doubts, but in view of the above, I prefer the "apparently" wording. —JerryFriedman 00:04, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Lev Yashin in Allusions section?
Wonder for what reason Yashin was included, and damn that music. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DBWikis (talk • contribs) 04:03, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

 * He's got to be the "stupendous Dynamo goalkeeper" whose mannerisms Niagarin could imitate. See, although not that frequently, the note to line 681.  —JerryFriedman 04:09, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Good
Just wanted to say good work to those behind the interpretation section. It's clear and informative, but still made me laugh out loud when i read it - the reasoning of Pale Fire analysts is as twisted as the story itself.

-- Tom Anderson 05/01/2008 15:19 +0000 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.56.80.10 (talk) 15:19, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Haze and Hazel
The daughter's name is Hazel and Lolita's last name is Haze. Surely that's an allusion, but I don't know if it's worthy of inclusion; inserting it seems to disrupt the flow.—OlYeller (talk) 15:53, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

 * Though one can do even better—Lolita could be "Haze, L."—I'm inclined to agree that it's not worth including. I don't remember seeing it in anything I've read.  Of course, if some reliable says it's important, that's different.  —JerryFriedman  (Talk) 21:38, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

 * Hurricane Lolita is also mentioned in the book, and Professor Pnin is also mentioned. Perhaps this could be included in a section that discusses Pale Fire's references to other works by Nabokov? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.98.35.195 (talk) 20:05, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pale Fire


text:
Carmody Hills, Maryland

Carmody Hills is an unincorporated community in Prince George's County in the U.S. state of Maryland. Because it is not formally incorporated, it has no official boundaries, but the United States Census Bureau has defined a census-designated place consisting of Carmody Hills and the adjacent community of Pepper Mill Village, together designated "Peppermill Village", for statistical purposes. (At the 2000 census the area was delineated as "Carmody Hills-Pepper Mill Village". ) Carmody Hills is located on the south side of Seat Pleasant Drive and east of Seat Pleasant.

History
Carmody Hills, platted in the 1930s, is one of several subdivisions constructed in the early to mid 20th century around the Town of Seat Pleasant. Suburban development in this area of Prince George’s County began in the late 19th century and continued to grow throughout the 20th century due to its proximity to Washington and access to the city via railroads, streetcar lines, and road networks. The early 20th-century communities were fostered by the Chesapeake Beach Railway (1898) and the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railroad (1908). As the popular mode of transportation shifted from streetcar line to the automobile in the 1930s and 1940s, highways gave suburban residents access to the city. The George Palmer Highway (present-day Martin Luther King, Jr. Highway) was constructed on the right-of-way of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railroad in the early 1940s.

The first development of the Carmody Hills subdivision began in the early 1930s. House construction and road development continued from the 1930s through the 1970s. By 1942, the community was well established with approximately 130 houses on a grid pattern of nine north-south streets and three east-west streets. In the immediate post-World War II period, vacant lots within the established residential blocks were developed. Between 1957 and 1965, the community expanded one block to the south and several blocks to the east. Also constructed within that time period was the Carmody Hills School. An evaluation of housing conditions in Carmody Hills in the late 1960s found approximately one-third of the houses in need of enhancement. Code enforcement, as well as street paving and drainage, encouraged the construction of new houses in the 1970s in areas of the community previously inaccessible.

title: Carmody Hills, Maryland


text:
Talk:Saliva

Comment
SAliva is a 6-7 on the pH scale you shold add that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.3.180.218 (talk) 02:37, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Seriously
Can someone not find a better picture that actually relates saliva to the human body, rather than some bubbly puddle of muck on the sidewalk? 174.99.62.175 (talk) 21:15, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Water in saliva?
In the first paragraph of the article, it states water makes up 99% of saliva, but in the Contents section it claims that figure is 98%. Can someone clarify this?

81.23.49.215 (talk) 19:06, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Emulsion or digestion of fats?
What part of the content of saliva emulsifies or digests fats, and which (emulsification/enzymatic digestion) does it do? I know that if I spit onto my fingers after eating oily foods like potato chips, I can wash them clean with water as if I had used soap. ~GMH 18:40, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

Response:

Saliva contains a lipase (an enzyme that digests fats) named lingual lipase. Although fat digestion is minimal in the mouth because the fat is not yet emulsified. Emulsification first occurs in the duodenum of the small intestine

Category?
Note: no Category yet... --katpatuka 08:29, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Quoting from Britannica?
One part of the article currently says: "From Encyclopædia Britannica School Edition." Is this a paraphrase of something from Britannica? If it's a direct quote, is it a legal one? --Elysdir 23:28, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Does saliva have calories??(Extra credit project) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.251.171.111 (talk) 22:53, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Quantity
I was informed by my ENT attending that the average human produces a liter of saliva. Is there a source for the 700mL quantity?

 * It seems plausible to me that if the average human produces 1000mL, that -millions- of people would be producing in the 700mL range. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.122.208.51 (talk) 17:06, 29 December 2006 (UTC).

The article flatly contradicts itself in two consecutive sentences. http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1997-03/856841521.An.r.html talks about the subject a little, but does not give an exact amount in a proper scientific fashion. Anyone want to fix it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.2.17.193 (talk) 13:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

What else produces saliva?
To quote: In animals, saliva is produced in and secreted from the salivary glands. It is a fluid containing:

What Non-Animal produces Saliva? Do plants also produce saliva? If so is it still called Saliva? i dont think so maaanhink I heard that some insects produce saliva, but I'm not sure, and I'm having a hard time verifying that. Maybe you could help me check into that. --Kevin 22:42, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

 * See this section of the article on mosquitoes, for example. FJPB 16:22, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I think it is just being clear that the scope of this article is restricted to animals precisely because only animals produce saliva. Would you rather have a sentence that says 'Only animals produce saliva because only animals produce a substance that meet the criteria below which are clearly oriented around determining which substances produced by animals are saliva?' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.112.3.130 (talk) 15:36, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

please help me:
What is the scientific name or term for Saliva..I must know for a big science project!

Kisses?
What about kisses or sex???, it plays a very important role....

What about diseases transmitted through Saliva?

Swifts
I've added a bit about swift saliva, which doesn't sit all that easily with the primarily human focus of this article, but I don't know where else it can go. Jimfbleak 08:23, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

drivel
when I look up drivel it comes up saliva not mentaioning drivel can be used as another name for saliva Drivel also means nonsense but also no reference to this —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marinalikas (talk • contribs) 23:00, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

buffering capacity?
I was under the impression that an important function of saliva is its buffering capacity. Could this be added to the article? Mba123 (talk) 19:45, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Genetically modified saliva
Perhaps there should be additional information on the relatively new concept of genetically modified saliva, which has enthused scientists into solving some of the most ancient problems in dental medicine. ADM (talk) 21:39, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Pixel Eater (talk • contribs) 19:43, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Number of glands producing saliva
I was fascinated that someone thought only one of a total of three salivary glands is producing the saliva. Eeyore tim (talk) 05:53, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

First reference is broken
Can someone fix the first reference? It's broken for me; the first link just leads to a wiki page about a Med School of Georgia, and the second link leads to a "permission denied" page.

Is there a scientific paper that analyzes and quantifies the components of saliva?

Eleysanne (talk) 15:50, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Sodium and Potassium
In the article it is mentioned, that saliva contains ~2-21 mmol/l sodium and ~10-36 mmol/l potassium.

I could not find any sources to back up these values, can anyone help me out here? Where do these come from? Any studies or books on this matter?

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.1.75.113 (talk) 20:18, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Formatting
There is a large empty field between the end of Section 1.2 Disinfectants and the beginning of Section 1.3 Hormonal Function, at least on my Firefox 22.0 browser. Tried to backspace that empty field out but neither of my two tries would work. Could somebody with experience at editing Wikipedia pages take care of this? THUMOV (talk) 02:36, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Fixed! Thanks for bringing it up :) —' Epicurus B. (Not my talk page) ' 08:22, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

Second sentence inconsistent
"Human saliva is 98% water, while the other 0.5% consists of […]"

The other would be 2.0%, not 0.5%. As stated in the article, this makes no sense …

--134.76.63.190 (talk) 21:42, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

Starch conversion period
Any studies on the amount of time needed for mastication in the mouth to complete the 30% conversion of starch to sugar via salivary amylase? 71.203.88.32 (talk)  — Preceding undated comment added 15:30, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

Revision 840333155
Statements in this revision are closely related to laryngopharyngeal reflux. Since this is a low importance article adding reference does not seem to be necessary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sachinthonakkara (talk • contribs) 06:42, 10 May 2018 (UTC)

Periods or Menstruation
I advice that women talk about what they go through during periods & that we should warn other childrens about having sexual intercourse during periods 41.116.211.121 (talk) 19:44, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

I drink period blood, mix it with come and saliva and spit it in others peoples bottoms. — Preceding unsigned comment added by My sweet phlegm in your mouth (talk • contribs) 14:42, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Sliva
Sliva 86.120.171.113 (talk) 13:05, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Saliva


text:
Peppermill Village, Maryland

Peppermill Village is an unincorporated community near Maryland Route 214 (Central Avenue) in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 5,264. FedExField, Metrorail's Blue Line, and Hampton Mall shopping center are all located nearby. Because it is not formally incorporated, it has no official boundaries, but the United States Census Bureau has defined a census-designated place (CDP) consisting of Peppermill Village and the adjacent community of Carmody Hills, for statistical purposes.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Peppermill Village had a total area of 1.9 sqkm, all land. The CDP is bordered to the west and north by the city of Seat Pleasant, to the north and east by the Summerfield CDP, and to the south by the Walker Mill CDP. Peppermill Village is bounded to the east by Hill Road, west by Carmody Hills Drive, north by Seat Pleasant Drive and south by Maryland Route 214, or Central Avenue, which to the west becomes East Capitol Street in the District of Columbia and to the east connects with the Capital Beltway and the town of Largo.

2010 Census
The population of the CDP was 4,895 at the 2010 census. For previous censuses, the CDP was named "Carmody Hills-Pepper Mill Village".

It has a majority African-American population.

Schools
The CDP is served by the Prince George's County Public Schools district.

Almost all of the CDP is zoned to Carmbody Hills elementary while a small section is zoned to Cora L. Rice Elementary. All residents are zoned to G. James Gholson Middle School. Most CDP residents are zoned to Central High School while some are zoned to Fairmont Heights High School and.

title: Peppermill Village, Maryland


text:
List of probability topics

This is a list of probability topics. It overlaps with the (alphabetical) list of statistical topics. There are also the outline of probability and catalog of articles in probability theory. For distributions, see List of probability distributions. For journals, see list of probability journals. For contributors to the field, see list of mathematical probabilists and list of statisticians.

General aspects

 * Probability
 * Randomness, Pseudorandomness, Quasirandomness
 * Randomization, hardware random number generator
 * Random number generation
 * Random sequence
 * Uncertainty
 * Statistical dispersion
 * Observational error
 * Equiprobable
 * Equipossible
 * Average
 * Probability interpretations
 * Markovian
 * Statistical regularity
 * Central tendency
 * Bean machine
 * Relative frequency
 * Frequency probability
 * Maximum likelihood
 * Bayesian probability
 * Principle of indifference
 * Credal set
 * Cox's theorem
 * Principle of maximum entropy
 * Information entropy
 * Urn problems
 * Extractor
 * Free probability
 * Exotic probability
 * Schrödinger method
 * Empirical measure
 * Glivenko–Cantelli theorem
 * Zero–one law
 * Kolmogorov's zero–one law
 * Hewitt–Savage zero–one law
 * Law of truly large numbers
 * Littlewood's law
 * Infinite monkey theorem
 * Littlewood–Offord problem
 * Inclusion–exclusion principle
 * Impossible event
 * Information geometry
 * Talagrand's concentration inequality

Foundations of probability theory

 * Probability theory
 * Probability space
 * Sample space
 * Standard probability space
 * Random element
 * Random compact set
 * Dynkin system
 * Probability axioms
 * Normalizing constant
 * Event (probability theory)
 * Complementary event
 * Elementary event
 * Mutually exclusive
 * Boole's inequality
 * Probability density function
 * Cumulative distribution function
 * Law of total cumulance
 * Law of total expectation
 * Law of total probability
 * Law of total variance
 * Almost surely
 * Cox's theorem
 * Bayesianism
 * Prior probability
 * Posterior probability
 * Borel's paradox
 * Bertrand's paradox
 * Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy)
 * Dutch book
 * Algebra of random variables
 * Belief propagation
 * Transferable belief model
 * Dempster–Shafer theory
 * Possibility theory

Random variables

 * Discrete random variable
 * Probability mass function
 * Constant random variable
 * Expected value
 * Jensen's inequality
 * Variance
 * Standard deviation
 * Geometric standard deviation
 * Multivariate random variable
 * Joint probability distribution
 * Marginal distribution
 * Kirkwood approximation
 * Independent identically-distributed random variables
 * Independent and identically-distributed random variables
 * Statistical independence
 * Conditional independence
 * Pairwise independence
 * Covariance
 * Covariance matrix
 * De Finetti's theorem
 * Correlation
 * Uncorrelated
 * Correlation function
 * Canonical correlation
 * Convergence of random variables
 * Weak convergence of measures
 * Helly–Bray theorem
 * Slutsky's theorem
 * Skorokhod's representation theorem
 * Lévy's continuity theorem
 * Uniform integrability
 * Markov's inequality
 * Chebyshev's inequality = Chernoff bound
 * Chernoff's inequality
 * Bernstein inequalities (probability theory)
 * Hoeffding's inequality
 * Kolmogorov's inequality
 * Etemadi's inequality
 * Chung–Erdős inequality
 * Khintchine inequality
 * Paley–Zygmund inequality
 * Laws of large numbers
 * Asymptotic equipartition property
 * Typical set
 * Law of large numbers
 * Kolmogorov's two-series theorem
 * Random field
 * Conditional random field
 * Borel–Cantelli lemma
 * Wick product

Conditional probability

 * Conditioning (probability)
 * Conditional expectation
 * Conditional probability distribution
 * Regular conditional probability
 * Disintegration theorem
 * Bayes' theorem
 * de Finetti's theorem
 * Exchangeable random variables
 * Rule of succession
 * Conditional independence
 * Conditional event algebra
 * Goodman–Nguyen–van Fraassen algebra

Theory of probability distributions

 * Probability distribution
 * Probability distribution function
 * Probability density function
 * Probability mass function
 * Cumulative distribution function
 * Quantile
 * Moment (mathematics)
 * Moment about the mean
 * Standardized moment
 * Skewness
 * Kurtosis
 * Locality
 * Cumulant
 * Factorial moment
 * Expected value
 * Law of the unconscious statistician
 * Second moment method
 * Variance
 * Coefficient of variation
 * Variance-to-mean ratio
 * Covariance function
 * An inequality on location and scale parameters
 * Taylor expansions for the moments of functions of random variables
 * Moment problem
 * Hamburger moment problem
 * Carleman's condition
 * Hausdorff moment problem
 * Trigonometric moment problem
 * Stieltjes moment problem
 * Prior probability distribution
 * Total variation distance
 * Hellinger distance
 * Wasserstein metric
 * Lévy–Prokhorov metric
 * Lévy metric
 * Continuity correction
 * Heavy-tailed distribution
 * Truncated distribution
 * Infinite divisibility
 * Stability (probability)
 * Indecomposable distribution
 * Power law
 * Anderson's theorem
 * Probability bounds analysis
 * Probability box

Properties of probability distributions

 * Central limit theorem
 * Illustration of the central limit theorem
 * Concrete illustration of the central limit theorem
 * Berry–Esséen theorem
 * Berry–Esséen theorem
 * De Moivre–Laplace theorem
 * Lyapunov's central limit theorem
 * Misconceptions about the normal distribution
 * Martingale central limit theorem
 * Infinite divisibility (probability)
 * Method of moments (probability theory)
 * Stability (probability)
 * Stein's lemma
 * Characteristic function (probability theory)
 * Lévy continuity theorem
 * Darmois–Skitovich theorem
 * Edgeworth series
 * Helly–Bray theorem
 * Kac–Bernstein theorem
 * Location parameter
 * Maxwell's theorem
 * Moment-generating function
 * Factorial moment generating function
 * Negative probability
 * Probability-generating function
 * Vysochanskiï–Petunin inequality
 * Mutual information
 * Kullback–Leibler divergence
 * Le Cam's theorem
 * Large deviations theory
 * Contraction principle (large deviations theory)
 * Varadhan's lemma
 * Tilted large deviation principle
 * Rate function
 * Laplace principle (large deviations theory)
 * Exponentially equivalent measures
 * Cramér's theorem (second part)

Applied probability

 * Empirical findings
 * Benford's law
 * Pareto principle
 * Zipf's law
 * Boy or Girl paradox

Stochastic processes

 * Adapted process
 * Basic affine jump diffusion
 * Bernoulli process
 * Bernoulli scheme
 * Branching process
 * Point process
 * Chapman–Kolmogorov equation
 * Chinese restaurant process
 * Coupling (probability)
 * Ergodic theory
 * Maximal ergodic theorem
 * Ergodic (adjective)
 * Galton–Watson process
 * Gauss–Markov process
 * Gaussian process
 * Gaussian random field
 * Gaussian isoperimetric inequality
 * Large deviations of Gaussian random functions
 * Girsanov's theorem
 * Hawkes process
 * Increasing process
 * Itô's lemma
 * Jump diffusion
 * Law of the iterated logarithm
 * Lévy flight
 * Lévy process
 * Loop-erased random walk
 * Markov chain
 * Examples of Markov chains
 * Detailed balance
 * Markov property
 * Hidden Markov model
 * Maximum-entropy Markov model
 * Markov chain mixing time
 * Markov partition
 * Markov process
 * Continuous-time Markov process
 * Piecewise-deterministic Markov process
 * Martingale
 * Doob martingale
 * Optional stopping theorem
 * Martingale representation theorem
 * Azuma's inequality
 * Wald's equation
 * Poisson process
 * Poisson random measure
 * Population process
 * Process with independent increments
 * Progressively measurable process
 * Queueing theory
 * Erlang unit
 * Random walk
 * Random walk Monte Carlo
 * Renewal theory
 * Skorokhod's embedding theorem
 * Stationary process
 * Stochastic calculus
 * Itô calculus
 * Malliavin calculus
 * Stratonovich integral
 * Time series analysis
 * Autoregressive model
 * Moving average model
 * Autoregressive moving average model
 * Autoregressive integrated moving average model
 * Anomaly time series
 * Voter model
 * Wiener process
 * Brownian motion
 * Geometric Brownian motion
 * Donsker's theorem
 * Empirical process
 * Wiener equation
 * Wiener sausage

Geometric probability

 * Buffon's needle
 * Integral geometry
 * Hadwiger's theorem
 * Wendel's theorem

Gambling

 * Luck
 * Game of chance
 * Odds
 * Gambler's fallacy
 * Inverse gambler's fallacy
 * Parrondo's paradox
 * Pascal's wager
 * Gambler's ruin
 * Poker probability
 * Poker probability (Omaha)
 * Poker probability (Texas hold 'em)
 * Pot odds
 * Roulette
 * Martingale (betting system)
 * The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo
 * Lottery
 * Lottery machine
 * Pachinko
 * Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy)
 * Coupon collector's problem

Coincidence

 * Birthday paradox
 * Birthday problem
 * Index of coincidence
 * Bible code
 * Spurious relationship
 * Monty Hall problem

Algorithmics

 * Probable prime
 * Probabilistic algorithm = Randomised algorithm
 * Monte Carlo method
 * Las Vegas algorithm
 * Probabilistic Turing machine
 * Stochastic programming
 * Probabilistically checkable proof
 * Box–Muller transform
 * Metropolis algorithm
 * Gibbs sampling
 * Inverse transform sampling method
 * Walk-on-spheres method

Financial mathematics

 * Risk
 * Value at risk
 * Market risk
 * Risk-neutral measure
 * Volatility
 * SWOT analysis (Marketing)
 * Kelly criterion

Genetics

 * Punnett square
 * Hardy–Weinberg principle
 * Ewens's sampling formula
 * Population genetics

Historical

 * History of probability
 * The Doctrine of Chances

title: List of probability topics


text:
Oxon Hill, Maryland

Oxon Hill is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in southern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Oxon Hill is a suburb of Washington, located southeast of the downtown district and east of Alexandria, Virginia. Since 2008, it contains the 300 acre National Harbor development on the shore of the Potomac River.

For the 1990 and 2000 censuses, the United States Census Bureau defined a census-designated place consisting of Oxon Hill and the adjacent community of Glassmanor, designated Oxon Hill-Glassmanor, for statistical purposes. As of the 2010 census, Oxon Hill was delineated separately and had a population of 17,722. Per the 2020 census, the population was 18,791.

History
Oxon Hill was named for the colonial 18th century manor home of Thomas Addison (which burned in 1895 but was replaced in 1929 by a large 49-room neo-Georgian-style home called Oxon Hill Manor, standing on a bluff over the Potomac River). The current Manor is now owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and is used for cultural activities, as well as being rented for weddings and special events. "Oxon" is an abbreviation for the Latin Oxoniensis, meaning "of Oxford." The area now known as Oxon Hill reminded Addison of the area near Oxford, England. The Revolutionary patriot John Hanson died while visiting the first Manor, and may be buried there in an unmarked grave.

Oxon Hill Manor, the Butler House, Oxon Cove Park, and St. Ignatius Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today the community is bisected by the busy Capital Beltway (I-95/495), which includes the interstate Woodrow Wilson Bridge built in 1961. The enlarged bridge was opened December 15, 2008, and highway interchanges and ramps near the bridge were also re-aligned and re-configured. Prior to that date, traffic backed up into Oxon Hill daily for decades as 250,000–300,000 vehicles a day crossed the Wilson Bridge.

Oxon Hill includes many garden apartment and townhouse communities along with single-family detached homes built mostly between the 1940s when suburban development began, through the early 1990s (except for the newer National Harbor condominiums), including the incorporated town Forest Heights. Oxon Hill's two principal shopping centers ("Rivertowne", built about 1985 and "Eastover", built about 1955 ) attract neighborhood customers as well as shoppers from nearby Southeast Washington, D.C. Eastover, located at the D.C./state line, is a hub of many bus routes, some of them operating 24 hours a day, and has a Prince George's County Police station. The apartment communities closest to the D.C. line are informally called by their original name "Glassmanor", although rental companies have officially given them newer names. Rather unusual community features of Oxon Hill are a nursing home and a large cultural center, both operated for an ethnic Filipino population who are numerous in Oxon Hill and Fort Washington.

Until about 1960, the community used the mailing address Washington, D.C., before getting its own postal designation. About 1980, the United States Postal Service detached the two-thirds of greater Oxon Hill that was furthest from Washington, D.C., and re-defined that part as a new postal designation, Fort Washington, MD. To make mail sorting easier at that time, the new postal boundary line separating the two Maryland communities was drawn along already existing zip code boundaries. (The former zip 20021 portion of Oxon Hill remained Oxon Hill with the new code 20745, while everything in the former zip 20022 portion of Oxon Hill about 1980 was automatically renamed the new Fort Washington 20744.) Illogically, this partitioning reassigned some areas that seem to be almost in the heart of Oxon Hill (such as all of the Bock Road, Tucker Road, Murray Hills, and Brinkley Road areas, including several large prominent churches, Rosecroft Raceway, the ice rink, and ironically even Oxon Hill Middle School) to Fort Washington mailing addresses, which can cause confusion.

Geography
Oxon Hill is located in Prince George's County along Maryland Route 210 (Indian Head Highway) and Maryland Route 414 (Oxon Hill Road), less than 2 mi south of the boundary of Washington. The CDP lies directly south of the Capital Beltway (I-495/I-95), just east of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the total area of Oxon Hill is 17.2 sqkm, of which 17.1 sqkm is land and 0.03 sqkm, or 0.20%, is water.

Parks and recreation
Rosecroft Raceway (founded in 1949) and Henson Creek Golf Course (a nine-hole course) are among Oxon Hill's recreational attractions; Rosecroft Raceway offers a limited number of harness horse racing dates throughout the year, as well as betting on select televised simulcast races from around the country (per article in Washington Post, May 20, 2010). (The Maryland slot machine referendum in November 2008 did not include Rosecroft in its list of possible sites to add slots.)

The Parks Commission's 1974 Tucker Road ice skating rink, at the Tucker Road Athletic Complex, was enclosed and expanded to year-round use in 2005; across from it is the Tucker Road Community Center and nearby is a private swimming club, the Oxon Hill Recreation Club (OHRC). OHRC has been in continuous operation since 1958. A 37,000 square foot gymnasium and recreation and learning center (Southern Regional Technology & Recreation Complex) opened in 2013, on Bock Road. The Henson Creek paved hiker-biker trail extends 5.5 mi paralleling Henson Creek, a tributary to the Potomac River. Oxon Cove Farm (formerly Oxon Hill Children's Farm) is a free of charge, educational facility operated daily for families by the National Park Service adjacent to, but separate from National Harbor. The farm also has a bicycle trail used by a few commuters to nearby government facilities. Public indoor and outdoor swimming pools are also located on Allentown Road near Padgett's Corner at the Allentown Splash, Tennis and Fitness Park.

Oxon Hill is also the location of National Harbor, a major development on the Potomac River: a 7300000 sqft mixed-use community including 2,500 residential units, 4,000 hotel rooms, 1000000 sqft of retail, upscale dining, and entertainment, and 500000 sqft of class-"A" office space, along with one of the largest marinas on the Potomac and the 2,000 room Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, the largest hotel in the entire Washington area. The first phase of the development began opening in April 2008, and is currently well into its second phase.

The MGM National Harbor Resort Casino, located at the entrance to the National Harbor development and a $950 million project, opened on December 8, 2016.

Primary and secondary schools
Residents are zoned to Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS):

Elementary schools serving sections of the CDP include Apple Grove, Avalon, J. Frank Dent, Flintstone, Oxon Hill, Valley View and Tayac.

Middle schools serving the CDP include Isaac J. Gourdine, Oxon Hill, and Thurgood Marshall.

High schools serving sections of the CDP include Oxon Hill High School, Crossland High School, and Friendly High School. Oxon Hill High has a magnet science and technology program, which is offered at only three of the county's high schools; The original buildings from 1959 have been completely replaced by a new facility, which opened in August 2013.

Another magnet school in Oxon Hill is the K–8 Maya Angelou French Immersion School whose mission is to ensure that all students acquire knowledge and skills, through speaking, reading and writing the French language. The French Immersion school is also attached to the John Hanson Montessori School which upholds the teaching ideals of Italian educator Maria Montessori. Both are located in the former John Hanson Junior High School building, which is next door to the main Oxon Hill post office.

There is a Roman Catholic private school, St. Columba School. It was established in 1962.

Public libraries
Prince George's County Memorial Library System operates the Oxon Hill Library. It completely remodeled and reopened in 2005. Originally built in 1967, the Oxon Hill Library Branch contains the Sojourner Truth Room, an African American research collection. This comprehensive collection of reference materials on African American history and culture includes over 16,000 cataloged items (many are rare or out-of-print), periodicals, sheet music by African American composers, pictures and posters. Vertical files contain pamphlets, clippings and bibliographies. Copies of selected materials are also in the Oxon Hill Branch's circulating collection. An extensive collection of current and historical periodicals, including the NAACP's Crisis from 1910, the Journal of Negro History from 1916 and Ebony from 1945. The collection includes original editions of some slave narratives, as well as many reprint editions and the thirty-one volume Writer's Project series. Other topics are antislavery and slavery tracts, literary criticism, and the history of African Americans in Maryland and Prince George's County.

Government
Prince George's County Police Department District 4 Station in Glassmanor CDP, with an Oxon Hill postal address, serves the community.

The U.S. Postal Service operates the Oxon Hill Post Office in the CDP.

Notable people

 * John H. Bayne, Union Army physician, horticulturist, and member of the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate. The land that his plantation, "Salubria", once occupied is directly adjacent to National Harbor and is now the location of Tanger Outlets shopping complex.
 * Singer Eva Cassidy, who rose to prominence in United Kingdom after her untimely death in 1996 at age 33 from cancer, lived with her family in Oxon Hill in her early years.
 * Ronald Darby, cornerback for NFL's Denver Broncos; born in Oxon Hill and attended Potomac High School.
 * Roger L. Easton, Naval scientist, chief inventor of GPS, winner of 2004 Presidential National Medal of Technology; lived on Oxon Hill Road (more information is on "Google images").
 * Actress Taraji P. Henson, winner of Golden Globe award for TV series Empire, nominee for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2009, attended Oxon Hill High School.
 * G. Gordon Liddy, FBI bureau chief, lawyer, Richard Nixon's White House Staff Assistant, key Watergate figure, author, and nationally syndicated radio talk show host.
 * U.S. Senator George McGovern, Democratic presidential candidate, and family lived briefly in Glassmanor while a freshman U.S. congressman.
 * Sammy Nestico, distinguished band music composer/arranger, lived in Birchwood City in 1960s.
 * Jason Reynolds (born December 6, 1983), American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audiences, grew up in Oxon Hill and has drawn inspiration for his books from his childhood experiences there.
 * Arnie Sachs (1928–2006), photojournalist, took famous photo of teenager Bill Clinton shaking hands with President John F. Kennedy
 * Sumner Welles, U.S. Undersecretary of State to Franklin D. Roosevelt, lived in second "Oxon Hill Manor" home and hosted Roosevelt and possibly Sir Winston Churchill there. Home was later occupied by Fred Maloof (wealthy oilman, timberland tycoon, and art collector) before coming into ownership of Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
 * Tavon Young, cornerback for NFL's Baltimore Ravens, fourth-round pick out of Temple University, graduate of Potomac High School.

title: Oxon Hill, Maryland