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Rankine–Hugoniot conditions

The Rankine–Hugoniot conditions, also referred to as Rankine–Hugoniot jump conditions or Rankine–Hugoniot relations, describe the relationship between the states on both sides of a shock wave or a combustion wave (deflagration or detonation) in a one-dimensional flow in fluids or a one-dimensional deformation in solids. They are named in recognition of the work carried out by Scottish engineer and physicist William John Macquorn Rankine and French engineer Pierre Henri Hugoniot.

The basic idea of the jump conditions is to consider what happens to a fluid when it undergoes a rapid change. Consider, for example, driving a piston into a tube filled with non-reacting gas. A disturbance is propagated through the fluid somewhat faster than the speed of sound. Because the disturbance propagates supersonically, it is a shock wave, and the fluid downstream of the shock has no advance information of it. In a frame of reference moving with the wave, atoms or molecules in front of the wave slam into the wave supersonically. On a microscopic level, they undergo collisions on the scale of the mean free path length until they come to rest in the post-shock flow (but moving in the frame of reference of the wave or of the tube). The bulk transfer of kinetic energy heats the post-shock flow. Because the mean free path length is assumed to be negligible in comparison to all other length scales in a hydrodynamic treatment, the shock front is essentially a hydrodynamic discontinuity. The jump conditions then establish the transition between the pre- and post-shock flow, based solely upon the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy. The conditions are correct even though the shock actually has a positive thickness. This non-reacting example of a shock wave also generalizes to reacting flows, where a combustion front (either a detonation or a deflagration) can be modeled as a discontinuity in a first approximation.

Governing Equations
In a coordinate system that is moving with the discontinuity, the Rankine–Hugoniot conditions can be expressed as:

| style="text-align: right; padding-right: 1em;" | $$\rho_1\,u_1 = \rho_2\,u_2 \equiv m$$ | Conservation of mass |- | style="text-align: right; padding-right: 1em;" | $$\rho_1\,u_1^2 + p_1 = \rho_2\,u_2^2 + p_2$$ | Conservation of momentum |- | style="text-align: right; padding-right: 1em;" | $$h_1 + \frac{1}{2}u_1^2 = h_2 + \frac{1}{2}u_2^2$$ | Conservation of energy |}

where m is the mass flow rate per unit area, ρ1 and ρ2 are the mass density of the fluid upstream and downstream of the wave, u1 and u2 are the fluid velocity upstream and downstream of the wave, p1 and p2 are the pressures in the two regions, and h1 and h2 are the specific (with the sense of per unit mass) enthalpies in the two regions. If in addition, the flow is reactive, then the species conservation equations demands that

 * $$\omega_{i,1}=\omega_{i,2}=0,\quad i = 1,2,3,\dots,N, \qquad \text{Conservation of species}$$

to vanish both upstream and downstream of the discontinuity. Here, $$\omega$$ is the mass production rate of the i-th species of total N species involved in the reaction.

Combining conservation of mass and momentum gives us

 * $$\frac{p_2-p_1}{1/\rho_2-1/\rho_1}=-m^2$$

which defines a straight line known as the Michelson–Rayleigh line, named after the Russian physicist Vladimir A. Mikhelson (usually anglicized as Michelson) and Lord Rayleigh, that has a negative slope (since $$m^2$$ is always positive) in the $$p-\rho^{-1}$$ plane. Using the Rankine–Hugoniot equations for the conservation of mass and momentum to eliminate u1 and u2, the equation for the conservation of energy can be expressed as the Hugoniot equation:
 * $$ h_2 - h_1 = \frac{1}{2}\,\left(\frac{1}{\rho_2}+\frac{1}{\rho_1}\right)\,(p_2 - p_1).$$

The inverse of the density can also be expressed as the specific volume, $$v=1/\rho$$. Along with these, one has to specify the relation between the upstream and downstream equation of state
 * $$f(p_1,\rho_1,T_1,Y_{i,1})=f(p_2,\rho_2,T_2,Y_{i,2})$$

where $$Y_i$$ is the mass fraction of the species. Finally, the calorific equation of state $$h=h(p,\rho,Y_i)$$ is assumed to be known, i.e.,
 * $$h(p_1,\rho_1,Y_{i,1})=h(p_2,\rho_2,Y_{i,2}).$$

Simplified Rankine–Hugoniot relations
The following assumptions are made in order to simplify the Rankine–Hugoniot equations. The mixture is assumed to obey the ideal gas law, so that relation between the downstream and upstream equation of state can be written as

 * $$\frac{p_2}{\rho_2T_2}=\frac{p_1}{\rho_1T_1}=\frac{R}{\overline W}$$

where $$R$$ is the universal gas constant and the mean molecular weight $$\overline W$$ is assumed to be constant (otherwise, $$\overline W$$ would depend on the mass fraction of the all species). If one assumes that the specific heat at constant pressure $$c_p $$ is also constant across the wave, the change in enthalpies (calorific equation of state) can be simply written as

 * $$h_2-h_1 = -q + c_p(T_2-T_1)$$

where the first term in the above expression represents the amount of heat released per unit mass of the upstream mixture by the wave and the second term represents the sensible heating. Eliminating temperature using the equation of state and substituting the above expression for the change in enthalpies into the Hugoniot equation, one obtains an Hugoniot equation expressed only in terms of pressure and densities,

 * $$\left(\frac{\gamma}{\gamma-1}\right)\left(\frac{p_2}{\rho_2}-\frac{p_1}{\rho_1}\right) - \frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{1}{\rho_2} + \frac{1}{\rho_1}\right)(p_2-p_1) = q,$$

where $$\gamma$$ is the specific heat ratio, which for ordinary room temperature air (298 KELVIN) = 1.40. An Hugoniot curve without heat release ($$q=0$$) is often called a "shock Hugoniot", or simply a(n) "Hugoniot". Along with the Rayleigh line equation, the above equation completely determines the state of the system. These two equations can be written compactly by introducing the following non-dimensional scales,

 * $$\tilde p = \frac{p_2}{p_1},\quad \tilde v = \frac{\rho_1}{\rho_2}, \quad \alpha = \frac{q\rho_1}{p_1}, \quad \mu = \frac{m^2}{p_1\rho_1}.$$

The Rayleigh line equation and the Hugoniot equation then simplifies to

 * $$\begin{align}

\frac{\tilde p-1}{\tilde v-1} &= -\mu \\ \tilde p &= \frac{[2\alpha + (\gamma+1)/(\gamma-1)]-\tilde v}{[(\gamma+1)/(\gamma-1)]\tilde v-1}. \end{align}$$

Given the upstream conditions, the intersection of above two equations in the $$\tilde v$$-$$\tilde p$$ plane determine the downstream conditions; in the $$\tilde v$$-$$\tilde p$$ plane, the upstream condition correspond to the point $$(\tilde v,\tilde p)=(1,1)$$. If no heat release occurs, for example, shock waves without chemical reaction, then $$\alpha=0$$. The Hugoniot curves asymptote to the lines $$\tilde v = (\gamma-1)/(\gamma+1)$$ and $$\tilde p=-(\gamma-1)/(\gamma+1)$$, which are depicted as dashed lines in the figure. As mentioned in the figure, only the white region bounded by these two asymptotes are allowed so that $$\mu$$ is positive. Shock waves and detonations correspond to the top-left white region wherein $$\tilde p>1$$ and $$\tilde v<1$$, that is to say, the pressure increases and the specific volume decreases across the wave (the Chapman–Jouguet condition for detonation is where Rayleigh line is tangent to the Hugoniot curve). Deflagrations, on the other hand, correspond to the bottom-right white region wherein $$\tilde p<1$$ and $$\tilde v>1$$, that is to say, the pressure decreases and the specific volume increases across the wave; the pressure decrease a flame is typically very small which is seldom considered when studying deflagrations.

For shock waves and detonations, the pressure increase across the wave can take any values between $$0\leq \tilde p<\infty$$; the steeper the slope of the Rayleigh line, the stronger is the wave. On the contrary, here the specific volume ratio is restricted to the finite interval $$(\gamma-1)/(\gamma+1)\leq \tilde v \leq 2\alpha + (\gamma+1)/(\gamma-1)$$ (the upper bound is derived for the case $$\tilde p\rightarrow 0$$ because pressure cannot take negative values). If $$\gamma=1.4$$ (diatomic gas without the vibrational mode excitation), the interval is $$1/6\leq \tilde v\leq 2\alpha + 6$$, in other words, the shock wave can increase the density at most by a factor of 6. For monatomic gas, $$\gamma=5/3$$, the allowed interval is $$1/4\leq \tilde v\leq 2\alpha + 4$$. For diatomic gases with vibrational mode excited, we have $$\gamma=9/7$$ leading to the interval $$1/8\leq \tilde v\leq 2\alpha + 8$$. In reality, the specific heat ratio is not constant in the shock wave due to molecular dissociation and ionization, but even in these cases, density ratio in general do not exceed a factor of about $11$.

Derivation from Euler equations
Consider gas in a one-dimensional container (e.g., a long thin tube). Assume that the fluid is inviscid (i.e., it shows no viscosity effects as for example friction with the tube walls). Furthermore, assume that there is no heat transfer by conduction or radiation and that gravitational acceleration can be neglected. Such a system can be described by the following system of conservation laws, known as the 1D Euler equations, that in conservation form is:

where
 * $$\rho,$$ fluid mass density,
 * $$u,$$ fluid velocity,
 * $$e,$$ specific internal energy of the fluid,
 * $$p,$$ fluid pressure, and
 * $$E^t = \rho e + \rho\tfrac{1}{2}u^2,$$ is the total energy density of the fluid, [J/m3], while e is its specific internal energy

Assume further that the gas is calorically ideal and that therefore a polytropic equation-of-state of the simple form

is valid, where $$\gamma$$ is the constant ratio of specific heats $$c_p/c_v$$. This quantity also appears as the polytropic exponent of the polytropic process described by

For an extensive list of compressible flow equations, etc., refer to NACA Report 1135 (1953).

Note: For a calorically ideal gas $$\gamma $$ is a constant and for a thermally ideal gas $$\gamma $$ is a function of temperature. In the latter case, the dependence of pressure on mass density and internal energy might differ from that given by equation ($$).

The jump condition
Before proceeding further it is necessary to introduce the concept of a jump condition – a condition that holds at a discontinuity or abrupt change.

Consider a 1D situation where there is a jump in the scalar conserved physical quantity $$w$$, which is governed by integral conservation law

for any $$x_1$$, $$x_2$$, $$x_1<x_2$$, and, therefore, by partial differential equation

for smooth solutions.

Let the solution exhibit a jump (or shock) at $$x=x_{s}(t)$$, where $$x_{1} < x_{s}(t)$$ and $$x_{s}(t) < x_{2}$$, then

The subscripts 1 and 2 indicate conditions just upstream and just downstream of the jump respectively, i.e. $w_1 = \lim_{\epsilon \to 0^{+}} w\left(x_s - \epsilon\right)$  and $w_2 = \lim_{\epsilon \to 0^{+}} w\left(x_s + \epsilon\right)$ .|undefined $$\therefore$$ is the therefore sign.

Note, to arrive at equation ($$) we have used the fact that $$dx_1/dt = 0$$ and $$dx_2/dt = 0$$.

Now, let $$x_1 \to x_s(t) - \epsilon$$ and $$x_2 \to x_s(t) + \epsilon$$, when we have $\int_{x_1}^{x_s(t)-\epsilon} w_t \, dx \to 0$ and $\int_{x_s(t)+\epsilon}^{x_2} w_t \, dx \to 0$, and in the limit

where we have defined $$u_s = dx_s(t)/dt $$ (the system characteristic or shock speed), which by simple division is given by

Equation ($$) represents the jump condition for conservation law ($$). A shock situation arises in a system where its characteristics intersect, and under these conditions a requirement for a unique single-valued solution is that the solution should satisfy the admissibility condition or entropy condition. For physically real applications this means that the solution should satisfy the Lax entropy condition

where $$f'\left(w_1\right)$$ and $$f'\left(w_2\right)$$ represent characteristic speeds at upstream and downstream conditions respectively.

Shock condition
In the case of the hyperbolic conservation law ($$), we have seen that the shock speed can be obtained by simple division. However, for the 1D Euler equations ($$), ($$) and ($$), we have the vector state variable $$\begin{bmatrix}\rho & \rho u & E\end{bmatrix}^\mathsf{T}$$ and the jump conditions become

Equations ($$), ($$) and ($$) are known as the Rankine–Hugoniot conditions for the Euler equations and are derived by enforcing the conservation laws in integral form over a control volume that includes the shock. For this situation $$u_s$$ cannot be obtained by simple division. However, it can be shown by transforming the problem to a moving co-ordinate system (setting $$u_s' := u_s - u_1$$, $$u'_1 := 0$$, $$u'_2 := u_2 - u_1$$ to remove $$u_1$$) and some algebraic manipulation (involving the elimination of $$u'_2$$ from the transformed equation ($$) using the transformed equation ($$)), that the shock speed is given by

where $c_{1}=\sqrt{\gamma p_{1}/\rho_{1}}$ is the speed of sound in the fluid at upstream conditions.

Shock Hugoniot and Rayleigh line in solids
For shocks in solids, a closed form expression such as equation ($$) cannot be derived from first principles. Instead, experimental observations indicate that a linear relation can be used instead (called the shock Hugoniot in the us-up plane) that has the form

where c0 is the bulk speed of sound in the material (in uniaxial compression), s is a parameter (the slope of the shock Hugoniot) obtained from fits to experimental data, and up = u2 is the particle velocity inside the compressed region behind the shock front.

The above relation, when combined with the Hugoniot equations for the conservation of mass and momentum, can be used to determine the shock Hugoniot in the p-v plane, where v is the specific volume (per unit mass):

Alternative equations of state, such as the Mie–Grüneisen equation of state may also be used instead of the above equation.

The shock Hugoniot describes the locus of all possible thermodynamic states a material can exist in behind a shock, projected onto a two dimensional state-state plane. It is therefore a set of equilibrium states and does not specifically represent the path through which a material undergoes transformation.

Weak shocks are isentropic and that the isentrope represents the path through which the material is loaded from the initial to final states by a compression wave with converging characteristics. In the case of weak shocks, the Hugoniot will therefore fall directly on the isentrope and can be used directly as the equivalent path. In the case of a strong shock we can no longer make that simplification directly. However, for engineering calculations, it is deemed that the isentrope is close enough to the Hugoniot that the same assumption can be made.

If the Hugoniot is approximately the loading path between states for an "equivalent" compression wave, then the jump conditions for the shock loading path can be determined by drawing a straight line between the initial and final states. This line is called the Rayleigh line and has the following equation:

Hugoniot elastic limit
Most solid materials undergo plastic deformations when subjected to strong shocks. The point on the shock Hugoniot at which a material transitions from a purely elastic state to an elastic-plastic state is called the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) and the pressure at which this transition takes place is denoted pHEL. Values of pHEL can range from 0.2 GPa to 20 GPa. Above the HEL, the material loses much of its shear strength and starts behaving like a fluid.

Magnetohydrodynamics
Rankine–Hugoniot conditions in magnetohydrodynamics are interesting to consider since they are very relevant to astrophysical applications. Across the discontinuity the normal component $$H_n$$ of the magnetic field $$\mathbf H$$ and the tangential component $$\mathbf E_t$$ of the electric field $$\mathbf E = - \mathbf u \times \mathbf H/c$$ (infinite conductivity limit) must be continuous. We thus have

 * $$\begin{align}

0=[\![j]\!],\,\, j\equiv \rho u_n &\quad \text{conservation of mass}, \\ 0=[\![H_n]\!] &\quad \text{continuity of normal component of }\mathbf H, \end{align} $$

where $$[\![\cdot ]\!]$$ is the difference between the values of any physical quantity on the two sides of the discontinuity. The remaining conditions are given by

 * $$\begin{align}

j^2[\![1/\rho]\!] + [\![p]\!] + [\![\mathbf H_t^2]\!]/8\pi = 0 &\quad \text{conservation of normal momentum},\\ j[\![\mathbf u_t]\!] = H_n [\![\mathbf H_t]\!]/4\pi &\quad \text{conservation of tangential momentum},\\ j[\![h+j^2/2\rho^2+\mathbf u_t^2/2 + \mathbf H_t^2/4\pi\rho]\!] = H_n[\![\mathbf H_t\cdot\mathbf u_t]\!]/4\pi &\quad \text{conservation of energy},\\ H_n[\![\mathbf u_t]\!] = j[\![\mathbf H_t/\rho]\!] &\quad \text{continuity of tangential components of }\mathbf E. \end{align} $$

These conditions are general in the sense that they include contact discontinuities ($$j=0,\, H_n\neq 0, \,[\![\mathbf u]\!]=[\![p]\!]=[\![\mathbf H]\!]=0,\, [\![\rho]\!]\neq 0$$) tangential discontinuities ($$j=H_n=0,\,[\![\mathbf u_t\rho]\!]\neq 0,\, [\![\mathbf H_t]\!]\neq 0,\,[\![\rho]\!]\neq 0$$), rotational or Alfvén discontinuities ($j=H_n\sqrt{\rho/4\pi}\neq 0,\,[\![\rho]\!]=[\![u_n]\!]=[\![p]\!]=[\![\mathbf H_t]\!]=0$ ) and shock waves ($$j\neq 0,\,[\![\rho]\!]\neq 0$$).

title: Rankine–Hugoniot conditions


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Bottom bracket

The bottom bracket on a bicycle connects the crankset (chainset) to the bicycle and allows the crankset to rotate freely. It contains a spindle to which the crankset attaches, and the bearings that allow the spindle and crankset to rotate. The chainrings and pedals attach to the cranks. Bottom bracket bearings fit inside the bottom bracket shell, which connects the seat tube, down tube and chain stays as part of the bicycle frame.

The term "bracket" refers to the tube fittings that are used to hold frame tubes together in lugged steel frames which also form the shell that contains the spindle and bearings; the term is now used for all frames, bracketed or not.

There is some disagreement as to whether the word axle or spindle should be used in particular contexts. The distinction is based on whether the unit is stationary, as in a hub, or rotates, as in a bottom bracket. American bicycle mechanic and author Sheldon Brown uses axle once and spindle four times in his bottom bracket glossary entry. This article uses spindle throughout for consistency.

Bottom brackets are available in several types, and can be split into whether they are assembled and disassembled with screw threads or whether they are pressed into the bottom bracket shell. Since the 2000s and especially the 2010s, a lack of standardization, or rather the constant introduction of new standards that disappear after relatively short periods, has been described as a complex topic to deal with for those who want to buy bicycle components or maintain bicycles. Many bicycle brands have introduced their own dimensions for bottom bracket bearings, and the different use of terminology by the various manufacturers has been described as confusing.

An old American term for the bottom bracket is hanger. This is usually used in connection with Ashtabula cranks, alternatively termed one-piece cranks.

Three-piece
In typical modern utility bikes, the bottom bracket spindle is separate from the cranks. This is known as a three-piece crankset (spindle, left crank-arm and right crank-arm). The cranks attach to the spindle via a common square taper, cotter or splined interface.

Loose bearing (adjustable cup and cone)
Earlier three-piece cranks consist of a spindle incorporating bearing cones (facing out), a fixed cup on the drive side (with a cone), an adjustable cup on the non-drive side (also with a cone), and loose bearing balls (or held by a cage). Overhauling requires removing at least one cup, cleaning the cups, cleaning or (more usually) replacing the bearing balls, reinstalling the spindle, and adjusting the cups. The design is nowadays mostly found on affordable bikes due to its simple and affordable design, and is also an easily serviceable design.

Bayliss Wiley unit bottom bracket

The Bayliss Wiley unit bottom bracket is a self-contained unit that fits into a plain, slightly larger-than-usual bottom bracket shell in a bicycle frame. It comprises a standard spindle and bearings in a steel cylinder with a slightly-modified bearing cup at each end. The cylinder, bearing and spindle are placed in the shell and held in place by the bearing cups, each of which has a narrow flange that bears against the edge of the shell.

The Bayliss-Wiley Unit Bottom Bracket was introduced in the mid-1940s. It was fitted to various English lightweights through the 1950s and was used by Royal Enfield on its 'Revelation' small wheeler in the mid-1960s. However, the unit bottom bracket was never popular and it had a reputation for being troublesome. A lack of positive location allowed it to rotate within the frame, loosening the bearing cups. Contemporary users overcome the problem by fixing the unit in the frame using adhesive or a screw.

Cartridge bearing
Many modern bicycles use what is called a "cartridge" bottom bracket instead. "Cartridge" here refers to the bottom bracket unit being a pre-mounted assembly containing the spindle (or axle) as well as its bearings, as opposed to them being separate parts which must be mounted separately. Cartridge hence refers to the functional assembly unit, and does not indicate what type of bearings the cartridge utilizes. Either loose ball bearings (adjustable cup and cones), sealed bearings or other types of bearings may be used in a cartridge assembly. Independent of the type of bearing used, the cartridge often has some sealing to protect the assembly from the environment.

Sealed cartridge bottom brackets are normally two pieces, a unit holding the spindle and bearings that screws into the bottom bracket shell from the drive side and a screw-in support cup (often made of light alloy or plastic) that supports the spindle and bearing assembly on the non-drive side. Other designs are three piece, the spindle is separate, but the bearing cups incorporate cheaply replaceable pairs of standard industrial sealed bearings. Either arrangement makes servicing the bottom bracket a simple matter of removing the old cartridge from the bottom bracket shell, and installing a new one in its place. Cartridge bottom brackets generally have seals to prevent the ingress of water and dirt. The early Shimano LP bottom brackets from the 1990s had the support cup on the drive side and used loose bearings inside; they could be dismantled and serviced much like adjustable cup and cone bearings.

In general use, the term 'three piece' refers to the former design, with sealed bottom brackets being seen as the 'standard'. Designs utilizing separate bearings are usually found on low end bikes, due to the low cost.

One-piece (Ashtabula)
With a one-piece (also called Ashtabula) crank and bottom bracket, the spindle and crank arms are a single piece. The bottom bracket shell is large to accommodate removal of this S-shaped crank. Bearing cups are pressed into the bottom bracket shell. The crank holds the cones, facing in; adjustment is made via the left-threaded non-drive side cone.

One-piece cranks are easily maintained and reliable, but heavy. They are found on BMX bikes as well as children's bicycles and low-end road and mountain bikes. They fit only frames with American sized (also known as "Pro size") bottom brackets.

The bearings are normally open to the elements and easily contaminated, although this rarely causes failure. Ball retainers (caged bearings) are used to facilitate assembly and to reduce the number of balls required.

Thompson
The Thompson bottom bracket uses adjustable spindle cones and cups pressed into the bottom bracket shell like the Ashtabula bottom bracket. Unlike the Ashtabula crank, the non-drive side crank is removable, allowing for a smaller bottom bracket shell. Frames with either Italian or English bottom bracket shell diameters (independent of threading) may be fitted with Thompson bottom brackets. Thompson bottom brackets are rare. The design is similar to a typical hub bearing and theoretically supports the load better but is hard to seal effectively against dirt and water.

External bearings
Since around the late 2000s, several designs with integrated bottom brackets with outboard bearings have emerged. The sales pitch of these systems have been to enable reduced weight and increased stiffness compared to internal bottom brackets. Because of the relatively small 1.37″ (34.9 mm for ISO, or 36 mm for shells threaded to the Italian standard) diameter shell, designs that place the bearings inside the shell can either have large bearings and a thinner spindle, which lacks stiffness, or smaller bearings and a thicker spindle (such as the original Shimano Octalink), which lacks durability. External bearings allow for a large diameter (hence stiff) and hollow (hence light) spindle. They also offer more distance between the two bearing surfaces, which contributes to stiffness while allowing lighter components (but also may increase the Q factor).

A different approach than to move to threaded external bearings could be to standardize on one of the larger diameter press-fit BMX shell standards for all bicycles, or the press-fit BB30 standard originally introduced by Cannondale.

Several implementations of external bearings have been brought to market.

X-type and Hollowtech II
In one design, the driveside (right) crankarm and the bottom bracket spindle are an integrated unit and the bearing cups are placed outside of the bottom bracket shell, threaded into the bottom bracket shell. There are a number of versions of this design available: Shimano's Hollowtech II, RaceFace's X-type, FSA's MegaExo. The terms 'X-Type' and 'Hollowtech II' are both used to refer to any design of this type, but are in fact trademarks of the corporations marketing the systems. These external bearings are compatible with those from other manufacturers. With this new standard have come several cranksets designed to use the external bearings of other manufacturers, such as DMR's "Ex type" and Charge Bikes "Regular" cranks.

In the early 1990s at Magic Motorcycle, a small USA component manufacturer later purchased by Cannondale, and re-formed into Cannondale's CODA brand (Coda Magic 900 cranks), made a proprietary external bearing bottom bracket, oversized spindle and crank system. The design resembles the external bottom bracket designs marketed by FSA, RaceFace and Shimano. The modern versions used the same sealed bearing size (6805-RS, 25 mm inner diameter, 37 mm outer diameter) and the original mounting tool fits. The crank had intricately CNC machined wide hollow crank arms made of two halves glued together. However, Cannondale moved on from that system and developed the SI cranks and the new BB30 unthreaded press-fit bottom bracket standard. BB30 requires special frames which have a 42 mm diameter unthreaded bottom bracket shell (which is larger than the 34.9 mm threaded ISO standard threads) allowing use of internal sealed bearings while their top level SI crankarms are still two machined aluminum halves glued together.

Another precursor of the current external bearings/through spindle design was developed by Sweet Parts, a micro-manufacturer of high end cranks and stems. Their Sweet Wings cranks from the early 1990s incorporated the through spindle concept by attaching the two half pipes coming off each crank arm and held together with a single bolt that resided within the cavity of the spindle itself. Their bottom bracket bearing arrangement was a hybrid internal/external bottom bracket, with the right-side bearing being internal inside the bottom bracket shell, and the left-side bearing being external (and having the 6805-RS sealed bearing, too).

Giga-X-Pipe

Giga-X-Pipe was Truvativ's (later bought by SRAM in 2004) approach, and is an evolution of the ISIS Drive bottom bracket, but with a longer spindle and the bearings outside the bottom bracket shell. The spindle is permanently pressed into the right crank. The left side spline interface looks similar, but is different so as to prevent installation of older ISIS Drive crankarms—which are no longer compatible because Q-factor and chain line cannot be maintained using these older cranks with an external bearing bottom bracket. Truvativ refer to this design as 'Giga-X-Pipe' or 'GXP.' They also make a heavier duty external bearing bottom bracket called 'Howitzer.' The Howitzer BB is more like a traditional bottom bracket in that the spindle is not permanently pressed into the right crank. Again, the Howitzer spline looks similar to the ISIS Drive standard spline but is actually different, so as to prevent the usage of ISIS Drive cranks on the external bearing bottom bracket, which would affect chainline and Q-factor.

Ultra-Torque

In late 2006, Campagnolo introduced an outboard bearing design called Ultra-Torque, which has both crank arms permanently attached to halves of the spindle (called semi-axles), which then join in the middle of the bottom bracket with a Hirth joint and a bolt.

Pressed bearing standards
Bicycle frames utilizing pressed bearing standards do not have any threads inside the bottom bracket shell. The bottom bracket is pressed directly into the frame. Using pressed in standards allows frame manufacturers greater flexibility in the frame design, and can offer greater stiffness and reduced mass.

A disadvantage is that assembly and disassembly of press-fit bottom bracket bearings require expensive special equipment. Some hobby-mechanics assemble and disassemble themselves using simple hand-tools, but there is a certain risk that the frame may become damaged. Another disadvantage is that many users report that they start to creak after a certain time. A third disadvantage is that there has become a wealth of competing and incompatible press-fit bottom bracket standards introduced by various bicycle manufacturers.

The current pressed-bearing standards (and the manufacturers who developed them) are:
 * BB30 (Cannondale)
 * PF30 (SRAM)
 * BB90 and BB95 (Trek)
 * BB86 and BB92 (Shimano)
 * BB79 (Cervelo's BBRight)
 * BB386EVO (FSA and BH Bicycles)

In the BB30 (Cannondale), BB90 and BB95 (Trek) systems, the bearings are pressed directly into the frame. For PF30 (SRAM), BB86 and BB92 (Shimano), BB79 (Cervelo), and BB386EVO (FSA) the bearing is housed in a nylon plastic cup that is pressed into the frame’s bottom bracket shell. Pressed-in standards usually require two-piece cranksets where the spindle is attached to one of the crankarms, or at least a spindle which can be threaded through after the bearings have been mounted. Due to fixed spindle length and diameter, cranksets designed for one pressed standard may not be compatible with another. For example, a crankset made specifically for BB30 will not fit in a BB86 bottom bracket and frame. There are other instances where third-party adapters can be used to fit a crankset made for one standard into another. For example, a Shimano (two-piece Hollowtech II 24 mm outer diameter spindle) road crankset can fit into a BB30 bottom bracket shell (42 mm inner diameter) using aftermarket adapters.

T47
T47 is a size for bottom-brackets in 47mm with threads. This will account for enough room for an oversized axle, while also having enough room for big ball bearings, this in comparison to the traditional BSA in 34.6mm. A bottom-bracket made for 46mm pressfit can be threaded up to a fit for a 47mm bottom-bracket and will have approximately a 46mm inside diameter. The T47 standard had a shell width of 68mm. The T47a has a width of 77mm. The T47i has a width of 86.5mm.

Other
Lightning Cycle Dynamics, Inc. offers a carbon crank bottom bracket assembly with semi-axles that connect in the middle via a hirth-like joint to form the spindle.

Schlumpf makes a bottom bracket that incorporates a two-speed epicyclic transmission.

Interface between spindle and crankset
As well as the different means to fit the bottom bracket into the frame, there are a number of ways of connecting the crank arms to the bottom bracket spindle. Shimano introduced a proprietary splined interface named "Octalink". Several other manufacturers (King Cycle Group, Truvativ, and Race Face) created an "open" standard called "ISIS Drive" or simply "ISIS", for International Splined Interface Standard.

Cottered
One of the earliest standards of crank interface, 'cottered cranks are now considered obsolete in developed countries, but are still in common use in developing nations. The spindle is a cylinder and has a flat region across it (a land). The crank has a hole through it to fit onto the spindle, with a transverse hole for the cotter pin. The cotter pin is cylindrical with one side flattened at an angle to form a wedge to match the spindle land. When tightened, this produces a simple and effective interface. The problem is that normally the interface cannot be tightened enough without a cotter pin press, a highly specialized type of clamping tool, though still produced and for sale. Cotters can also be installed with an improvised tool designed for another purpose, such as a ball joint splitter or hammer, with mixed results.

All the load is on one very small area of the cotter pin and the crank land, the cotter pin deforms plastically under normal use and must therefore be replaced regularly. If this is not done the crank and the spindle wear and must be replaced. The rider will get a warning through a characteristic creak sound that aging pins cause the cranks to make.

Square taper

Previously referred to as 'cotterless', since this was the design that was introduced after cottered spindles, square taper was once the most popular (and only) style 'cotterless' crank. This interface consists of a spindle with square tapered ends that fit into square tapered holes in each crank. It is still manufactured in great numbers for bicycles and maintains popularity for such applications as bicycles.

Not all square taper crank and bottom bracket combinations are compatible. Although nearly all spindles use a 2-degree taper, there are two competing standards, defined by the measurement across the flat at the end of the spindle. The JIS size is used by Shimano and most other Asian manufacturers. The ISO size is primarily used by Campagnolo and other European manufacturers, in addition to cranks that adhere to the Nihon Jitensha Shinkokai (NJS) keirin standards (Sugino 75). Some manufacturers make cranks and bottom brackets to both specifications.

Some square tapered bottom bracket axles are threaded at the ends and use nuts. Other square tapered bottom brackets are hollow, allowing for crank bolts to thread into the ends.

Titanium has been used in an effort to make bottom brackets lighter, but early attempts were not entirely successful. Several manufacturers have built bottom brackets with titanium spindles and alloy cups but their durability was lower than that of steel. Early Campagnolo Super Record titanium spindles (which were hollow) were replaced by a later version that used solid, nutted spindles for improved reliability.

In recent years Shimano has migrated much of their product line away from square taper to a spline attachment called Octalink and to external bearing types. In late 2006, Campagnolo announced that it was abandoning the square taper interface for double chainsets in favor of an outboard bearing design called Ultra-Torque, which uses a splined interface between spindle halves.

Splined
Several different competing standards for splined interfaces exist. The tool drive for installing and removing these bottom brackets is often also a spline, instead of drives for regular hand tools.

Octalink

The Octalink system uses a spindle with eight splines. The splines provide a contact area between crank and spindle for an interface. Octalink exists in the marketplace in two variants Octalink v1 and Octalink v2, and the two are not compatible with each other. The difference between the two can be seen by the depth of mounting grooves on the bottom bracket spindle. v1 spline grooves are 5 mm long, while v2 grooves are 9 mm long. Shimano 105, Ultegra 6500 and Dura Ace 7700 cranksets mate to v1 spindles, while later mountain bike designs use the deeper-grooved v2. The system is proprietary and protected by Shimano patents and license fees.

ISIS Drive
ISIS Drive, the International Splined Interface Standard, is a non-proprietary splined specification for the interface between a bicycle crankset and the bottom bracket spindle. It was created by King Cycle Group, Truvativ, and Race Face. ISIS Drive is open source and free to the public to be used as seen fit.

Other designs
BMX 3-Piece bottom brackets typically use a spindle either 19 mm or 19.05 mm (3/4″), 22 mm or 22.2 mm (7/8″), or 24 mm in diameter. The majority of newer or Asian parts are made to metric round numbers, and mixes of metric and non-metric (e.g. 19 mm and 19.05 mm) spindles and bearings may not be compatible, and can result in stuck parts. In some cases, the spindles are splined and the number of splines depends on the manufacturer/model of the crankset, or in other cases, the spindle is specific to the crankset.

There are other designs in use that have varying degrees of popularity. One is Truvativ's PowerSpline interface. It is a 12-spline spindle proprietary to Truvativ offered as a lower cost alternative to other spline designs. It is essentially a beefed-up square taper spindle with splines instead of tapers.

Phil Wood uses a similar splined design to the Shimano bottom bracket. The difference is an 18-tooth versus a 20-tooth as per the Shimano design.

Bottom bracket shell sizes
Bottom brackets have several key size parameters: spindle length, shell width, and shell diameter.

Shell width and spindle length
There are a few standard shell widths (68 ,). Road bikes usually use 68 mm; Italian road bikes use 70 mm; Early model mountain bikes use 73 mm. Later models (1995 and newer) use 68 mm more commonly. Some downhill bikes even use an 83 mm bottom bracket shell. Snow bikes use a 100 mm shell.

Spindles come in a wider range of lengths (102 - 140 mm), and are sized to match not only the shell width but also the type of crankset it will support (longer for triple, shorter for single, etc.). Spindle length, along with the crank's shape, determines the Q factor or tread.

Shell diameters and threading
There are a few standard shell diameters (34.798 - 36 mm) with associated thread pitches (24–28 TPI).

Most (except for Italian and French) designs use right-hand (normal) threading for the left side and left-hand (reverse) threading for the right (drive) side. This is opposite of most pedal threading and is done for the same reason: to keep the bottom bracket cup from backing out of the bottom bracket shell due to precession. These have become rare to encounter on newer bikes. As of 2015, bikes with French bottom brackets were very rare to encounter, but there was still some aftermarket support for components. According to an article by Parktool from 2019, the French threading standard is "considered obsolete". As of 2017, bikes with Italian bottom brackets were also rare to encounter, but aftermarket Italian bottom brackets were nonetheless still well-supported by many component manufacturers, including top-end kits from Shimano and Campagnolo.

With the development of external bearing designs, the standard shell diameter has become a considerable constraint, limiting both the diameter of the bottom bracket spindle and the size of the actual bearing balls in the races. Consequently, these external bearing designs can be less durable than older internal bearing designs. To address this problem several designers have promoted new standards for larger diameter bottom bracket shells, the best known of which is BB30 promoted by Cannondale. The name BB30 refers to the 30 mm diameter of the spindle, not of the shell. Most of these larger diameter designs are using bearings that are pressed in. Since about 2015 there is now a T47 standard with a larger shell diameter and also threading. Some manufacturers (like Trek) are starting to implement this into their bicycles, while it is also possible to have threading cut into an existing 46 mm pressfit and have T47 cups fit in there.

Bottom bracket height
The bottom bracket height is the vertical distance from the center of the bottom bracket to the ground, and it expresses clearance of the frame over obstacles. The height of the bottom bracket is of concern when designing the frame. The height of the bottom bracket is the baseline for the rider's height while riding. Combined with the length of the cranks, it determines the bicycle's ground clearance.

A higher bottom bracket is useful for mountain bikes. In a fixed-gear bicycle, the bottom bracket should be high enough to prevent the pedals from coming in contact with the ground while cornering but is not always achieved.

A lower bottom bracket creates a lower center of gravity and allows for a larger frame without creating an uncomfortable standover height.

Eccentric bottom brackets
An eccentric is a cylindrical plug or bearing cup that fits into an enlarged bottom bracket shell. The plug is machined to accept a typical bottom bracket, but offset from the center of the plug, so that by rotating the plug, the location of the bottom bracket (and hence the chain tension) may be adjusted (fore and aft to tension the chain, the upper or lower eccentric position for a given chain length can be chosen to fine tune bottom bracket height). Once properly adjusted the plug is then fixed in place by a pair of set screws, a clamping bottom bracket shell, an expanding wedge in the plug, or the plug may be manufactured in left and right halves that clamp against the faces of the bottom bracket shell with screws that connect the two halves.

Eccentric bottom bracket shell inner diameters vary between manufacturers from 42mm-55mm (nominally).

Eccentrics are used in applications that require precise chain tension adjustment such as the timing chain of tandem bicycles, the chain that connects the stoker's and captain's cranks. They may also be employed on bicycles that do not have an adjustable rear wheel position, due to vertical dropouts or a rear disc brake, and that do not have an external rear derailleur such as single-speeds or bikes with an internal-geared hub.

Compatibility issues
The bottom bracket shell and bottom bracket assembly as a whole have changed drastically as bike frames and part manufacturing continues to evolve. While the progression in technology has led to many new standards which is great for the consumer, it has proven to play a challenging role in frame design and aftermarket parts, as well as servicing and changing of parts. Around 2001, Shimano was manufacturing proprietary bottom bracket components with patents. Bike frame manufacturers would then create bikes with the patented bottom brackets as a guiding light around the shell area. This caused aftermarket brands to struggle in creating a bottom bracket that would fit into bikes that came with OEM Shimano parts. Companies such as RaceFace, Chris King, and Truvativ (SRAM Corporation) sat down in 1998 and collaborated on a standard bottom bracket specification. In August 2001, the ISIS Drive Standard was published and made into open source for anyone to create products using the designated specifications. Frame manufacturers took to the idea and created bikes that accepted the standard, allowing for a broader market. This success would prove to be short-lived due to failures and need for the industry to continue progressing and creating better specifications. Now in 2019, Shimano creates non-proprietary as well as proprietary bottom bracket designs such as HollowTech II and BBR60. Many "non OEM" part manufacturers have created bottom bracket conversion kits, giving consumers the ability to install crank sets designed for one standard into another (Example BB/PF30 cranks into a 22/24mm spindle).

Standards

 * ISO 6695: Cycles – Pedal axle and crank assembly with square end fittings – Assembly dimensions. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 1991. (also: British Standard BS 6102-14)
 * ISO 6696: Cycles – Screw threads used in bottom bracket assemblies. 1989. (also: British Standard BS 6102-9)
 * ISIS drive

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

title: Bottom bracket


text:
The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game

The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (a.k.a. LOTR TCG) is an out-of-print collectible card game produced by Decipher, Inc. Released November 2001, it is based on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and the J. R. R. Tolkien novel on which the films were based. Decipher also had the rights to The Hobbit novel but did not release any cards based on it. In addition to images taken from the films, in 2004 Weta Workshop produced artwork depicting characters and items from the novel absent from the films for use on cards. In 2002, LOTR TCG won the Origins Awards for Best Trading Card Game of 2001 and Best Graphic Presentation of a Card Game 2001. Decipher's license to The Lord of the Rings expired on July 30, 2007, after which all official promotion and distribution of the game stopped.

The game also had an online version that maintained identical gameplay as well as a market economy. However, since the game's print run has ended, sales for online cards have been stopped and the servers closed in June 2010.

Game concept
The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game is a game for two or more players, each of who uses his or her own deck consisting of equal numbers of Free Peoples and Shadow cards, with a minimum of 30 of each. On a player's turn they are considered to be the Free Peoples player and their Fellowship and Free Peoples cards both in their Support Area and on their characters are active. A player uses his Free Peoples cards to attempt to traverse the site-path and destroy the One Ring by reaching the ninth site. Each of his or her opponents, the Shadow Players, use their Shadow cards to prevent this by attempting to kill or corrupt the ring-bearer, or by forcing the Fellowship to slow down long enough for their Fellowship to race to victory. At the end of each turn the position of Free Peoples player rotates to the next player in turn. The game is won by the first Free Peoples player to survive to the ninth, and final, site or the last player whose Fellowship is left alive or when you corrupt the opposing fellowships ring-bearer.

An innovative mechanic called the twilight pool is used as a costing mechanism for cards. Each card has a numerical cost (which can be zero). When the Free Peoples player plays a card, tokens are added to the twilight pool equal to the cost of that card. The Shadow players, however, remove twilight tokens equal to the twilight cost of their cards in order to play their cards. Thus the more powerful cards the Fellowship the Free Peoples player plays, the greater the threat from the Shadow players. Each Free People and Shadow card belonged to a specific culture such as Gondor, Gollum or Isengard with cards within a culture complementing or even requiring one another, but players were free to construct their decks with a mix of cards from any culture.

Throughout a game, a player will play companions (or Free People characters) to help defend the ring-bearer. When it is his turn to play as the Shadow player, he then can play minions (or Shadow characters) to attack the opponent's companions. The Free People's player (the defender) has the opportunity to choose which of his companions will fight in one-to-one duels, called skirmishes, with the opponent's minions. This is called assignment. Since the Free Peoples player wants to defend his ring-bearer, the only way a Shadow player can attack the Free Peoples player is by playing more minions than the Free Peoples player has companions, thus allowing the Shadow player to assign extra minions to any companion he chooses, including the ring-bearer, or by using minions whose game text allows the Shadow player to assign them to the ring-bearer. The character in a skirmish with less strength takes a wound, but if the total difference in strength is double or higher, the losing character is killed immediately instead. Other types of cards are possessions that character can bear to gain additional bonuses, conditions that retain their effect until they are discarded and events, which are discarded immediately after being used.

However, the Ring-bearer does not only face minions on his journey to destroy the Ring. The Ring-bearer has to resist the temptation of the Ring. In the trading card game, when the ring-bearer succumbs to the temptation of the Ring, burdens are added and most versions of the One Ring enable the Ring-bearer to take burdens instead of impending wounds. Each companion has a given resistance stat, and whenever a burden is added, each companion's resistance is lowered by one. Once the ring-bearer's resistance reaches zero, he is corrupted by the power of the ring and the player is eliminated from the game.

Game sets and distribution
When the game's run had ended in mid-2007, nineteen sets in total had been released. Three of expansions (Expanded Middle-earth Deluxe Draft Box, The Wraith Collection, and Age's End) were not available in booster packs.

The movie years
For the first three years the game's releases followed the movies. A 365 "base set" was released each November containing material from the upcoming movie. These were followed by two 122 card expansions at four-month intervals. Each base set and the following two expansions formed a "block" named for that base set.

Cards were sold in eleven card booster packs consisting of one rare, three uncommon and seven common cards. In approximately one in six packs a common was replaced by a foiled version of a random card from that set. Each set also had two sixty-three card starter decks containing two copies of a promotional face card, three random rares and sixty fixed commons/uncommons (sets 5 and 6 had sixty card starters with three alternate image rares in place of the random rares).

Between the second and third expansions of The Return of the King block an extra set, Reflections, was released. This consisted of 52 new cards, all foiled, half of which were designated rare plus and half rare. The new cards took material from all three films and material produced by Weta specifically for the game and did not belong to any block. Reflections boosters contained two of the new cards (with one R+ every 2.4 packs) and sixteen repackaged random cards from the first six sets. One of these old cards was always non-English.

Shadows and beyond
In November 2004 the new base set, Shadows, marked an overhaul to the game. All sets would contain sixty rare, uncommon, and common cards each, in addition to a varying amount of fixed cards, only available in Starter Decks. Instead of foiling every card, each expansion would only have eighteen pre-selected rare foil cards that would be randomly inserted into one out of every seven booster packs. Shadows also had four, rather than two, different starter decks. The material used for the cards would also cover the entire trilogy instead of being tied to the films' releases.

Additionally, a system of rotation was announced to be introduced to the game. Starting in March 2005, the entire Fellowship block ceased to be legal for use in the Standard tournament format. Then, each November, the oldest block remaining would also be "rotated out". Decipher claimed this helped keep the card pool down to a manageable size and would keep established players buying new cards. Detractors claimed it was a money grab and did not like being forced to purchase what they felt were inferior cards.

Set list
Where two dates are listed, the first date refers to starter decks and the second to booster packs:

 * 1) The Fellowship of the Ring (November 6, 2001) - The first base set that introduced the core mechanics of the game. The cards were divided between [Dwarves], [Elves], [Gandalf], [Gondor] and [Shire] cultures on the Free People sides and [Isengard], [Moria], [Ringwraith] and [Sauron] cultures on the Shadow side. The set is notable for having the largest number of Ally type of cards, characters who did not travel with the Fellowship and only provided aid through special abilities. Each subsequent set would see increasingly fewer Ally cards released, until they were completely phased out. It was sold in 50-card starter decks and 11-card booster packs.
 * 2) Mines of Moria (March 6 & 13, 2002) - The first game expansion introduces the Artifact type of cards, which functioned similarly to possessions, but did not suffer penalties from cards directly targeting them. This expansion significantly boosted the [Dwarves] and [Moria] faction, most notably featuring the Balrog, which posed a significant danger to the Free People at the unavoidable "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm" site.
 * 3) Realms of the Elf-lords (June 19 & July 3, 2002) - This set significantly boosted the [Elves] and [Isengard] cultures by adding a large number of Elven allies, introducing Isengard orcs in addition to the Uruk-hai and featuring the first playable versions of Saruman.
 * 4) The Two Towers (November 6, 2002) - The second base set brought the first significant overhaul of the game scene. The set contained no cards of [Moria], [Ringwraith] and [Sauron] cultures; instead new Shadow cultures of [Dunland] and [Raiders] (which combined the Southrons and the Easterlings) were added along with the [Rohan] Free People culture, and each culture now contained cards which could contain a number of that culture's tokens. The site path from The Fellowship of the Ring was completely replaced with the new sites from The Two Towers, and sites could now be controlled by Shadow Players and liberated by the Free Peoples.
 * 5) Battle of Helm's Deep (March 12, 2003) - This set brought back the [Sauron] culture and also introduced the new [Gollum] culture, which reflecting the character's duality consisted of both Free People and Shadow cards, which could alternatively reinforce or combat one another.
 * 6) Ents of Fangorn (July 2, 2003) - This set brought back the [Ringwraith] culture and introduced new versions of the Ents which were more pro-active in combat than the previous versions, which had specific requirements to be allowed to skirmish. It also contained new cards of the [Moria] culture, including a version of the Balrog who could be played on sites other than Underground.
 * 7) The Return of the King (November 5, 2003) - In addition to completely replacing the site path once again, the third base set added the new mechanics of threats (tokens that had to be assigned as wounds when a companion or ally was killed) and initiative, which either Free Peoples or Shadow player had based on the number of cards in their hands. This set contained no cards of [Dunland], [Isengard] and [Moria] cultures, but added Minas Morgul orcs to the previously Nazgûl-only [Ringwraith] culture.
 * 8) Siege of Gondor (March 10, 2004) - This set significantly boosted the [Raiders] culture by enhancing it with the Corsairs of Umbar and added the Dead Men of Dunharrow to the [Gondor] culture. It also introduces Shelob as the only other minion for the [Gollum] culture and featured characters with the powerful keyword enduring, who increased in strength after gaining each subsequent wound.
 * 9) Reflections (May 12, 2004) - Released in between two expansions of The Return of the King block, this special set was the most innovative at the time. Characters from the Prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring such as Elendil and Gil-Galad were introduced for the first time and characters from the books that were abscent from the movies such as Glorfindel and Tom Bombadil were added through the designs created by Weta Workshop specifically for the game. Most importantly, characters other than Frodo were allowed to be the Ringbearer for the first time, featuring versions of Galadriel, Boromir, Smeagol and others who could bear the One Ring instead. More alternative Ringbearers would be added in later sets.
 * 10) Mount Doom (July 14, 2004) - The final set of the "movie" release era introduced new powerful versions of several characters such as Éowyn, Arwen and Sam that would remain the preferred choices for many of the deck strategies.
 * 11) Shadows (November 3, 2004) - The release of the new "base set" saw the most significant overhaul of the game, which would remain to be seen unfavorably by many players. Existing faction-based Shadow cultures of [Dunland], [Isengard], [Moria], [Raiders] and [Sauron] were replaced with more generic [Orcs], [Uruk-Hai] and [Evil Men], leaving only [Ringwraith] and [Gollum] unchanged and making the majority of the old cards incompatible with the new cultures. Companions other than the Ring-Bearer now also had Resistance, which was affected by both Free People and Shadow cards. Most importantly, instead of a numbered site path based on an individual movie, the nine sites from all three films could now be played in any order and replaced continuously by both Free People and Shadow cards. While this allowed for new gameplay strategies, many felt that the core aspect of the game no longer made sense story-wise.
 * 12) Black Rider (March 18, 2005) - The first post-"Shadows" expansion was notable for reprinting many prominent cards from The Fellowship of the Ring block, which because of the recently introduced block rotation were no longer legal in the Standard tournament format.
 * 13) Bloodlines (August 12, 2005) - This set introduced the new Follower card type - minor characters who could provide their Aid to the Fellowship for a cost that must be paid each turn. It also included the only cards that could change their card type in the form of conditions that could turn into minions and back.
 * 14) Expanded Middle-earth Deluxe Draft Box (February 17, 2006) - Similar to "Reflections", this 15-card set used artwork by Weta Workshop to represent characters from the books not included in the films, such as Halbarad, Grimbeorn and Dáin Ironfoot.
 * 15) The Hunters (June 9, 2006) - Released after a significant delay due to the financial problems experienced by Decipher, Inc., this new base set introduced a new powerful keyword Hunter and doubled the amount of available Followers.
 * 16) The Wraith Collection (August 26, 2006) - This Deluxe set had only six cards and consisted entirely of Minions of the [Ringwraith] culture, half of whom used artwork by Weta Workshop to represent the Barrow-wights.
 * 17) Rise of Saruman (March 1, 2007) - Released after another long delay, this set featured the only Free People character to be represented by more than one culture by introducing the [Rohan] version of Aragorn. It also contained no less than five different versions of Saruman, one for each culture, including the only Shadow follower in the game.
 * 18) Treachery and Deceit (May 2007) - Rushed to release before the impending expiration of the license, this set suffered from a lack of playtesting and contained the largest number of overpowered or "broken" cards, for which official errata had to be released almost immediately. This set also received the smallest printing of all and remains incredibly hard to find in circulation.
 * 19) Age's End (June 2007) - Released mere weeks before Decipher's license expired, this final "farewell" set consisted of 40 Promo-rarity cards available in a single Deluxe box. It featured the final versions of many prominent characters, some of which have been noted to be more powerful than any of those that came before.

In addition, a number of boutique products have been released:
 * Oversized Cards (August 2001 - Summer 2003)
 * Promotional Cards (Spring 2002 - Summer 2007)
 * The Fellowship of the Ring Anthology (July 23, 2003)
 * The Two Towers Anthology (February 25, 2004)
 * The Return of the King Anthology (September 2004)
 * The War of the Ring Anthology (September 2005)

The seven-month delay of The Hunters expansion release (from November 2005 to June 2006) made the game suffer a significant drop in popularity amongst its players as well as eventually force Decipher Inc. to remove the expansions The Great Eye and Shelob's Lair from its intended expansion since Decipher's license for Lord of the Rings related material was scheduled to expire on June 30, 2007. Following the release of the final expansion Age's End in June 2007 the game was discontinued and Decipher was forced to stop all production, distribution, and advertising.

Deck strategies
As the game expanded beyond the first base set, several basic deck strategies were identified and developed. As decks are separated into Shadow and Free People sides, the two sides are to some extent interchangeable, but the best decks usually contain some synergy between both types of cards. Later sets have introduced multiple additional keywords and mechanics and greatly increased the pool of available cards, massively expanding the possibilities for unique strategies, often depending on a specific card.

For the Free Peoples side, the common basic strategies are tank, choke, minion wounding and mass healing.

 * Tank: Tank decks try to play as many companions as possible to combat the opponent's Shadow side with force.
 * Choke: Choke decks, the opposite of tank decks, try to put out as little twilight as possible, denying the opponent resources to play their minions, and clogging their hand with unplayable Shadow cards, thus hampering the set up of their Fellowship.
 * Archery/Wounding: Minion wounding decks try to use "archery fire" and direct wounding to destroy the minions before they even have a chance to attack.
 * Mass Healing: Mass healing decks rely on the cards that heal companions, with the expectation that if the Free People's removal of wounds can out-pace the Shadow player's placement of wounds, the Fellowship will be unkillable.

For the Shadow side, the common basic strategies are beat-down, swarm, bomb,  companion wounding and corruption.

 * Beat-down: Beat down decks focus on making one or two minions very powerful with big damage bonuses, with the intention of killing all of the companions one by one; eventually killing the ring-bearer.
 * Swarm: Swarm decks have an opposite strategy of a beat-down: their goal is to play as many minions as possible as cheaply as possible. While one swarm minion might not be very powerful by itself, each minion is very cheap which allows many to be played, easily outnumbering the companions and assigning themselves to the Ring-bearer.
 * Bomb: A bomb deck combines the strategies of both beat-down decks and swarm decks. Instead of focusing on one or two powerful minions, they play several minions of medium strength. The goal of a bomb deck is to destroy the weaker companions, and then swarm the Free Peoples player.
 * Archery/Wounding: Archery and wounding decks rely on wounding companions outside of the skirmish so much that they die from their wounds. A variation of this strategy focuses on wounding the ring-bearer and killing him.
 * Corruption: Corruption decks focus on adding enough burdens to corrupt the ring-bearer, or playing cards that require certain conditions to be met to corrupt the ring-bearer outright.

 * Discard: Used by both Free People and Shadow sides, discard decks focus on discarding cards from either your opponent's hand or their draw deck, disrupting their strategy and eventually leaving them with no cards to oppose you in later turns.

Lord of the Rings Online TCG
In 2003 Worlds Apart partnered with Decipher to produce an online version of the Lord of the Rings TCG. The online game's rules matched the physical game's rules, but utilized tradeable virtual cards that could be purchased through the system via starter decks, booster packs, or in draft. In addition to casual play, the online LOTR TCG system supported tournament play, league play, and sealed play including draft. The online system introduced a number of cards and formats that were online-only (for example, King-block draft packs), and offered players exclusive physical promotional cards and online avatars and movement tokens for participating in online events. The LOTR Online TCG software included collection management and robust deckbuilding features. For this reason alone many players have used the software to construct decks and print decklists.

In 2005 Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) bought Worlds Apart, but continued to support LOTR Online TCG. On May 22, 2007 SOE-Decipher announced the closure of all support for the Online gaming system. The LOTR Online TCG software was available and the SOE servers ran until June 30, 2010 when they were shut down for good, though no new cards could be purchased after May 2007.

Though not sanctioned or approved by Decipher, various alternate ways to play the game online have at various points been developed by players.

Pro tour events
In July 2002, the first pro tour event was held at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio and it was won by John Lolli. 212 players participated in the event, and first place was $2,500. Christopher Schaut finished in 2nd place winning $1,000. Lolli used a unique deck designed to pass the ring from Frodo to Sam, and deny twilight to its opponent. Almost all of the top players were using later banned card called The Mirror of Galadriel, and Lolli used that strategy against his opponents designing a Minion half of the deck to counteract it.

2007 World Championship controversy
There has been much debate as to the legitimacy of the 2007 World Champions (Vince Accetturo & Chris Thompson). Since the rights to produce the Lord of the Rings TCG was not renewed by Decipher, there was no legal way for the company to promote a World Championship, but they did still hold an unofficial event where the 2007 World Champions were crowned. The event was still held in Indianapolis, IN at GenCon on Friday, August 17, 2007 at 11:00 AM. The field was bested by Vince Accetturo and Chris Thompson, both members of the player group Team Bison Bucks. They decided to split the championship in the finals.

2010 World Championship
With no official governing body for the game existing for years after 2007, no official World Championships could be held. No group stepped up to attempt an unofficial World Championship event until 2010 when the Star Wars CCG Players Committee decided to run a de facto World Championship for Lord of the Rings at their annual Worlds Weekend event. Brian Fred was crowned champion as the only undefeated player at the event, in which close to 20 players participated.

2023 World Championship
With the establishment of the Player's Council in 2020 (see below), an organization finally existed that could claim the right to once again crown a World Champion. In 2023 the first all-digital World Championship was held on the Gemp platform over weekends in October of that year. 30 players competed worldwide, ultimately leading to basmelis being declared the World Champion, with the runner-up thefaker being dubbed the World Challenger.

The Player's Council
On May 22, 2007, Decipher announced that the game's official lifetime would be expiring later that year, with no further product to be produced or sold after the end of June 2007. Fans were eager to establish a "Players Committee" to continue managing the game (which would mirror the official group established for the Star Wars CCG or the unofficial one made by fans for the Star Trek CCG), but that conflict over whether to pursue an "official" or "unofficial" avenue stymied every attempt to organize for many years.

The mass quarantines during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a resurgence of interest in the game (as it did for many others during that time), and riding that wave a group in the "unofficial" camp finally overcame the historical friction and organized under the name of the "Player's Council" in 2020. The PC quickly subsumed the various scattered community websites dedicated to the LOTR-TCG, and took on the upkeep and maintenance of the card database, the dedicated wiki, and other tools and platforms.

In 2023, the PC ran the first World Championship in 13 years on the digital platform Gemp, crowning basmelis as the new World Champion.

title: The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game


text:
George Medal

The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI, is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically by civilians, or in circumstances where military honours are not appropriate.

History
In 1940, at the height of the Blitz, there was a strong desire to reward many acts of civilian courage. Existing awards open to civilians were not considered suitable to meet the new situation, so the George Cross and the George Medal were instituted to recognise civilian gallantry in the face of enemy bombing, and brave deeds more generally.

Announcing the new awards, the King said

"In order that they should be worthily and promptly recognised, I have decided to create, at once, a new mark of honour for men and women in all walks of civilian life. I propose to give my name to this new distinction, which will consist of the George Cross, which will rank next to the Victoria Cross, and the George Medal for wider distribution."

The warrant for the GM (along with that of the GC), dated 24 January 1941, was published in The London Gazette on 31 January 1941.

Criteria
The medal is granted in recognition of "acts of great bravery". The original warrant for the George Medal did not explicitly permit it to be awarded posthumously. The position was clarified in December 1977 expressly to allow posthumous awards, several of which have subsequently been made.

The medal is primarily a civilian award, but it may be awarded to military personnel for gallant conduct that is not in the face of the enemy. As the warrant states:

"The Medal is intended primarily for civilians and award in Our military services is to be confined to actions for which purely military Honours are not normally granted."

Recipients are entitled to the post-nominal letters GM.

Bars to the GM may be awarded in recognition of further acts of bravery meriting the award. In undress uniform or on occasions when the medal ribbon alone is worn, a silver rosette is worn on the ribbon to indicate each bar.

Details of all awards to British and Commonwealth recipients are published in The London Gazette. Approximately 2,122 medals have been awarded since inception in 1940, with 27 second-award bars.

Description
The GM is a circular silver medal 36 mm in diameter, with the ribbon suspended from a ring. It has the following design.

The obverse depicts the crowned effigy of the reigning monarch. To date, there have been four types:

The reverse shows Saint George on horseback slaying the dragon on the coast of England, with the legend THE GEORGE MEDAL around the top edge of the medal.

The medal was designed by George Kruger Gray based on a bookplate designed by Stephen Gooden for the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

The ribbon is 31.7 mm wide, crimson with five narrow blue stripes. The blue colour is taken from the George Cross ribbon. The medal is worn on the left chest by men; women not in uniform wear the medal on the left shoulder, with the ribbon fashioned into a bow.

The name of the recipient is engraved on the rim of the medal, although some Army awards have impressed naming.

Recipients

The first recipients, listed in The London Gazette of 30 September 1940, were Chief Officer Ernest Herbert Harmer and Second Officer Cyril William Arthur Brown of the Dover Fire Brigade, and Section Officer Alexander Edmund Campbell of the Dover Auxiliary Fire Service, who on 29 July had volunteered to return to a ship loaded with explosives in Dover Harbour to fight fires aboard while an air raid was in progress. Seven other people were also awarded the medal, including the first women; Ambulance Driver Dorothy Clarke and Ambulance Attendant Bessie Jane Hepburn of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, for rescuing a man badly injured in an explosion.

The first recipient chronologically was Coxswain Robert Cross, commander of the RNLI lifeboat City of Bradford, based at Spurn Point, whose award was gazetted on 7 February 1941. It was awarded for an incident on 2 February 1940 when Cross took the lifeboat out in gale force winds, snow squalls, and very rough seas to rescue the crew of a steam trawler.

The youngest recipient was Charity Anne Bick, who lied about her age to join the ARP service at 14 years old, and who delivered several messages by bicycle during a heavy air raid in West Bromwich in late 1940.

The first person to receive a second award was George Samuel Sewell, an engineer working for Shell-Mex and BP Ltd., based at the oil terminal at Salt End, near Hull, for his actions during an air raid. Having been one of the first recipients (in September 1940) his bar to the George Medal was gazetted on 4 July 1941.

The year 2015 included the 75th anniversary of the creation of the award, and was marked by a ceremony in London.

title: George Medal


text:
The Bourne Identity (novel)

The Bourne Identity is a 1980 spy fiction thriller by Robert Ludlum that tells the story of Jason Bourne, a man with remarkable survival abilities who has retrograde amnesia, and must seek to discover his true identity. In the process, he must also determine why several shadowy groups, a professional assassin, and the CIA want him dead. It is the first novel of the original Bourne Trilogy, which also includes The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Peter Cannon of Publishers Weekly named The Bourne Identity among the best spy novels of all time, after John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

The novel was the basis for the scripts of the 1988 television movie of the same name starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith, and the 2002 film of the same name, starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente, and Chris Cooper.

Plot
The preface of the novel consists of two real-life newspaper articles from 1975 about terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as "Carlos the Jackal."

The story opens with gunfire on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea. One man is cast into the waves before the boat explodes, and is later picked up by fishermen, who find him clinging to debris. They also find he has amnesia, apparently as a result of a traumatic head injury, with occasional erratic intrusions or flashbacks to the past, but is unable to make sense of them. The only definite evidence of his former life is a small film negative found embedded in his hip containing the information required to access a bank account in Zurich.

After being nursed back to health by a local doctor, he goes to Zurich to gain access to the bank, where a clerk recognizes him. The man determines that his name is "Jason Charles Bourne", that he has relations with a firm called Treadstone Seventy-One Corporation, and that his account holds 7.5 million Swiss francs (equivalent to $5 million in the novel). Circumstantial evidence leads Bourne to suspect that he should go to Paris, so he wires most of the money there. At the bank and his hotel, men try to kill Bourne, so he quickly takes another hotel guest, Canadian government economist Marie St. Jacques, as a hostage in order to escape. After escaping from Bourne, St. Jacques reports his whereabouts to men she thinks are police, but they turn out to be Bourne's pursuers and professional killers who try to rape and kill her. When Bourne rescues her at the risk of his own life, St. Jacques decides to help him.

They head to Paris to find clues about Bourne's past. Once in Paris, Bourne learns that his attackers' leader may be "Carlos," who is described as the most dangerous terrorist of his time, responsible for numerous killings in many countries and well connected in the highest government circles. For reasons only partly comprehensible to himself, Bourne develops a compulsion to hunt Carlos. As the story develops, Bourne follows clues that bring him closer to Carlos, leading him to places such as a designer clothing store used as a relay for Carlos. Though Bourne twice briefly sees Carlos, he does not manage to catch or kill him. To his distress, Bourne also finds mounting evidence that he himself is a rival assassin called "Cain". Meanwhile, he and St. Jacques fall in love. Marie tries to convince Bourne that he is not the killer he thinks he was.

It turns out that Cain is an alias that had been assumed by Bourne to hunt down Carlos; Cain took credit for kills as a way of challenging Carlos as part of a top-secret American plot. The plot is called Treadstone Seventy-One, and the truth is known only to eight men selected by covert agencies of the U.S. government; everyone else assumes Cain to be a real person. Due to Bourne's six-month silence (while he was recuperating) and the unauthorized diversion of millions of dollars from the Zurich account, the Treadstone men start to believe that Bourne has become a traitor. They are entirely convinced of his guilt when Carlos has two of his operatives storm the building in which Treadstone is based and kill those inside, and then frame Bourne for the murders. The man now responsible for Treadstone, Alexander Conklin, attempts to lure Bourne into a meeting outside of Paris to kill him. Bourne escapes the trap, but does not succeed in proving his innocence.

In Paris, Bourne has managed to convince a French general named Villiers to help him. Bourne realizes that Villiers' wife is a mole for Carlos. When the General hears about it, he kills his wife, but Bourne takes the blame in order to bait Carlos into following him to the United States. Only after Bourne has left do St. Jacques and Villiers manage to convince Treadstone members that Bourne is innocent, and is continuing to hunt Carlos. In New York, Bourne is confronted by Carlos. They wound each other, but when Carlos is on the verge of killing Bourne, some of the remaining Treadstone members arrive at the scene and force Carlos to retreat.

The epilogue sees St. Jacques being told about Bourne's past, most of which had been revealed in fragments already: He had been an American Foreign Service officer stationed in Asia during the Vietnam War as part of an operation codenamed Medusa. When his wife and two children were killed, he joined a paramilitary Special Forces unit in Vietnam. During a mission, he discovered and executed the double agent Jason Bourne. He took the name years later when he was recruited for Treadstone.

At the novel's end, it is revealed that "Bourne" has recovered from the encounter with Carlos and presumably lives together with St. Jacques. He remains the only one to ever have seen the face of Carlos and may be able to recognize him, but is unable to do so due to his erratic memory. As a consequence, he is protected day and night by armed watchmen, in the hope he will one day recover enough to identify Carlos. The plot closes with him remembering his first name, David.

Concept
Robert Ludlum gave two interviews to Don Swaim of CBS: in 1984 and then two years later in 1986. Ludlum discusses how he came up with the first two novels in the Jason Bourne trilogy—The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. The idea behind the Bourne trilogy came after he had a bout of temporary amnesia. After his first book, The Scarlatti Inheritance, was published, he could not remember 12 hours of his life. This event, combined with thrilling real-life spy stories, inspired him to write the Jason Bourne trilogy.

The name "Bourne"
ABC News speculated that the name was actually "most likely" inspired by Ansel Bourne, a famous 19th-century psychology case due to his experience of a probable dissociative fugue. Ansel Bourne one day left his previous life and built himself a new life with a new profession elsewhere under a new name ("A. J. Brown"); after two months, he woke up with no memories of this new life, but with memories recovered up to this time and returned to his old life. The rare and controversial dissociative fugue has been described "a state in which an individual has lost their identity" by Harvard psychologist Daniel Schacter. "They don't know who they are, and they've lost all information about their past. They go on functioning automatically."

Publication history

 * 1980, US, Richard Marek ISBN 0-399-90070-5, Pub date February 1980, Hardback.
 * 1982, US, Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-24296-2, Pub date April 1, 1982, Paperback.
 * 1984, US, Bantam Books ISBN 978-0553260113, Pub date February 1, 1984, Paperback.
 * 1986, UK, Grafton ISBN 0-246-11121-6 Pub date June 19, 1986, Hardback.
 * 1997, UK, HarperCollins ISBN 0-586-04934-7, Pub date December 1, 1997, Paperback
 * 2004, UK, Orion Publishing Group ISBN 978-0752858548, Pub date May 6, 2004, Paperback.
 * 2010, UK, Orion Publishing Group ISBN 978-1409117698, Pub date February 4, 2010, Paperback.

Sequels
Ludlum wrote two sequels to The Bourne Identity: The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, forming the Bourne Trilogy. After Ludlum's death, author Eric Van Lustbader continued the story of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Legacy (2004), The Bourne Betrayal (2007), The Bourne Sanction (2008), The Bourne Deception (2009), The Bourne Objective (2010), The Bourne Dominion (2011), The Bourne Imperative (2012), The Bourne Retribution (2013), The Bourne Ascendancy (2014), The Bourne Enigma (2016), and The Bourne Initiative (2017).

Adaptations
The novel has been adapted as The Bourne Identity, a 1988 television movie starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith. The story was also partially adapted in the 1989 Tamil language film Vetri Vizha starring Kamal Haasan.

The 2002 film The Bourne Identity starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente and Chris Cooper has largely modernized the material and is only very loosely based on the central premise of the novel.

title: The Bourne Identity (novel)


text:
User:Jeronim

meta:User:Jeronim

title: User:Jeronim


text:
User talk:Jeronim

Please see my comment on the meta-Wikipedia about your cool picture... --- Dwheeler 03:39, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)~

 * Yep, I'll rearrange things to make it less confusing, pretty soon when I make the next version. - Jeronim 21:48, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * Can't wait for the next version. Indeed DWheeler is right. What tools did you use to make this image? --NightMonkey 10:39, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

 * Ok, "pretty soon" was a little inaccurate :) . I made it with OpenOffice's drawing tool, and if you like you can fetch the original file from . At some point when I have a couple of hours to spare I'll make another one, but please feel free to make one yourself. -- Jeronim 13:07, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Re: Slovene language

Go ahead: I'll wait. :) (Oh, and it really should be "Slovene grammar", and "Slovene language", at least per the Wikipedia policy of the first person using one form, that that form should be used further on, since the article was originally at Slovene language and someone moved it for whichever reason) Sinuhe 21:00, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Wow. I have to say you are a dedicated contributor. I often need to use these sorts of reference pages to assist in making sense of languages I don't speak. I've bookmarked your Slovene grammar page. Thanks.Pavlvsrex

bot
Nope. Not my bot... but I edit lots of things that bot edits, so I follow behind it to see what I can see. - UtherSRG

XChat Script
Hi. I've changed the script wmlinksubber.py on Scripts a little, please have a look at it and maybe you like to comment it. --Andre Riemann 17:39, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Login Problems
Thanks again Jeronim, I appreciate your help with fixing my login problems. Misterrick 17:36, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC).

Vandal
Some anon vandal hit your userpage. His damage was reverted. -- Grunt (talk) 00:52, 2004 Aug 22 (UTC)

MediaWiki talk:Loginend
Hello, Jeronim: I don't know if you're watching this page, as no one has responded there for a long time, but I came across your comment regarding the statement "We won't reveal your address to anyone" and concurred. Just thought I'd mention that there's some life over there. Take care, Blackcap | talk 01:24, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image (Image:MainPage-telnet-linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r6.png)
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Thanks for uploading Image:MainPage-w3m-with-images-0.4.2-gentoo-linux.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. BetacommandBot 06:43, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Notification: changes to "Mark my edits as minor by default" preference
Hello there. This is an automated message to tell you about the gradual phasing out of the preference entitled "Mark all edits minor by default", which you currently have (or very recently had) enabled.

On 13 March 2011, this preference was hidden from the user preferences screen as part of efforts to prevent its accidental misuse (consensus discussion). This had the effect of locking users in to their existing preference, which, in your case, was. To complete the process, your preference will automatically be changed to  in the next few days. This does not require any intervention on your part and you will still be able to manually mark your edits as being 'minor'. The only thing that's changed is that you will no longer have them marked as minor by default.

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Thank you for your understanding and happy editing :) Editing on behalf of User:Jarry1250, LivingBot (talk) 19:26, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Language-population update project
Hi. The 18th edition of Ethnologue just came out, and if we divide up our language articles among us, it won't take long to update them. I would appreciate it if you could help out, even if it's just a few articles (5,000 articles is a lot for just me), but I won't be insulted if you delete this request.

A largely complete list of articles to be updated is at Category:Language articles citing Ethnologue 17. The priority articles are in Category:Language articles with old Ethnologue 17 speaker data. These are the 10% that have population figures at least 25 years old.

Probably 90% of the time, Ethnologue has not changed their figures between the 17th and 18th editions, so all we need to do is change "e17" to "e18" in the reference (ref) field of the language info box. That will change the citation for the artcle to the current edition. Please put the data in the proper fields, or the info box will flag it as needing editorial review. The other relevant fields are "speakers" (the number of native speakers in all countries), "date" (the date of the reference or census that Ethnologue uses, not the date of Ethnologue!), and sometimes "speakers2". Our convention has been to enter e.g. "1990 census" when a census is used, as other data can be much older than the publication date. Sometimes a citation elsewhere in the article depends on the e17 entry, in which case you will need to change "name=e17" to "name=e18" in the reference tag (assuming the 18th edition still supports the cited claim).

Remember, we want the *total* number of native speakers, which is often not the first figure given by Ethnologue. Sometimes the data is too incompatible to add together (e.g. a figure from the 1950s for one country, and a figure from 2006 for another), in which case it should be presented that way. That's one use for the "speakers2" field. If you're not sure, just ask, or skip that article.

Data should not be displayed with more than two, or at most three, significant figures. Sometimes it should be rounded off to just one significant figure, e.g. when some of the component data used by Ethnologue has been approximated with one figure (200,000, 3 million, etc.) and the other data has greater precision. For example, a figure of 200,000 for one country and 4,230 for another is really just 200,000 in total, as the 4,230 is within the margin of rounding off in the 200,000. If you want to retain the spurious precision of the number in Ethnologue, you might want to use the sigfig template. (First parameter in this template is for the data, second is for the number of figures to round it off to.)

Dates will often need to be a range of all the country data in the Ethnologue article. When entering the date range, I often ignore dates from countries that have only a few percent of the population, as often 10% or so of the population isn't even separately listed by Ethnologue and so is undated anyway.

If Ethnologue does not provide a date for the bulk of the population, just enter "no date" in the date field. But if the population figure is undated, and hasn't changed between the 17th & 18th editions of Ethnologue, please leave the ref field set to "e17", and maybe add a comment to keep it so that other editors don't change it. In cases like this, the edition of Ethnologue that the data first appeared in may be our only indication of how old it is. We still cite the 14th edition in a couple dozen articles, so our readers can see that the data is getting old.

The articles in the categories linked above are over 90% of the job. There are probably also articles that do not currently cite Ethnologue, but which we might want to update with the 18th edition. I'll need to generate another category to capture those, probably after most of the Ethnologue 17 citations are taken care of.

Jump in at the WP:LANG talk page if you have any comments or concerns. Thanks for any help you can give!

— kwami (talk) 02:40, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
Hi, You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:12, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jeronim