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Talk:Horrible Histories (book series)

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2009 interview
If anyone wants to use it... -- can  dle • wicke  15:10, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Some useable sources

 * http://www.thefreelibrary.com/CHILDREN%27S+BOOKS%3B+BOOK+REVIEWS+Horrible+Histories+Handbooks%3A+Knights...-a0154601292 - a review
 * http://www.chelmsford.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=13551
 * http://www.mightyape.com.au/attribute/44/Series/Horrible-Histories/page2/ - list of HH books. Some may be omitted from the current list.
 * http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HorribleHistories - there must be something of use on this page.. do not delete. Although this itself is not a valid source, info here must be somewhere else as well..
 * http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/8554778/Terry-Deary-interview.html
 * http://inmybooks.com/blog1/2006/08/elegant-madness-and-horrible-histories-for-august/
 * http://witchreviews.com/2010/09/h-is-for-horrible-histories/
 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2002/09_september/horrible_histories.shtml
 * http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/Horrible-History-comes-alive-stage-shows/story-12348416-detail/story.html
 * http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-television-horrible-histories-bbc1brprofessor-reganrsquos-diet-clinic-bbc2-1669804.html
 * http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/may/10/booksforchildrenandteenagers%20Horribly%20good%20|%20Books%20|%20The%20Guardian - has brilliant reviews and info. hasn't been fully utilised yet...

Potentially useful pre-cleanup information
If you have read the previous section, you will know that half way through 2011 this article was given a massive cleanup by Spanglej (who did an incredible job by the way!). It was a passing thought at the time that due to the amount of content that was cut, it was very possible that some of it should have been kept in the article. Even if this is not true, I figured I might as well put the sections as they were pre-cleanup in here for easy access if anyone needs anything.--Coin945 (talk) 18:52, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

{{hidden|Potentially useful information|

Development
Terry Deary's background is "very much in theatre". He studied at a drama college and worked as an actor-teacher at the TIE company in Wales. He then became a theatre director and began to write plays for children. Many of his TIE plays were eventually rewritten and adapted into the Horrible Histories book series.

The fifth book in the series was Blitzed Brits. This book was published in 1995, and by chance the date of publication coincided with the 50th anniversary of VE day, which is cited at being responsible for the book reaching no. 1 on the bestseller list. A couple of years later, Deary decided that the book only gave the British viewpoint during World War II, and recognised that this was a bias way of writing such a book. Therefore, Deary wrote Woeful Second World War, because he thought he owed it to his fans to give them an accurate and unbiased account of the war, by writing about it from the European viewpoint as a whole. As the British viewpoint had already been extensively described in the previous book, and as "publishers don't like you covering the same information in new books", this new book focused on the roles of France, Poland, Germany and Russia during the war. The book was published in September 1999, which coincided with the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II

Deary eventually returned to the stage. Mad Millennium was commissioned by director Phillip Clark, who was a fellow TIE participant 25 years before. He said "your [Horrible Histories] books are very successful. Can we turn them into a large-scale theatre production?” Deary was happy to return to writing plays.

Philosophy
Terry Deary gave the following testimony to The Guardian in 2003: "Everything I leant [at school] after 11 was a waste of time...it was boring, badly taoguth and not related to the real world...schools are nothing but a Victorian idea to get people off the street..who decided that that putting 30 kids with only their age in common in a classroom with one teacher was the best way of educating?" This outlook on the education system served as the inspiration for the Horrible Histories series, as a possible alternative. Deary has also said in an interview, "If I had it my way, I wouldn't have schools at all. They don't educate, they just keep kids off the streets. But my books educate, because they prepare kids for life."

Deary has said, "It's outrageous - why don't we start telling children the truth about history? I hope my books do just that."

According to Consuming history: historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture by Jerome De Groot, Horrible Histories books are designed to engage and enthuse the reader about a subject while appearing subversive. QAccording to him, the books are primarily entertainment with educative purpose.

Groot also suggests that Horrible Histories has a sceptical view on the accuracy and validity of history. In an introduction to one of the books in series, it states History can be horrible. Horribly hard to learn. The trouble is it keeps on changing ... In history a 'fact' is sometimes not a fact at all. Really it's just someone's 'opinion'. And opinions can be different for different people ... Teachers will try to tell you there are 'right' and 'wrong' answers even if here aren't.

Deary has many research methods when he is writing his books. He uses researchers for all Horrible Histories books, and sometimes uses researchers in specialised fields, such as a military historian for The Woeful Second War. Deary always "read[s] the most up-to-date books on the period [he's] writing about", although he also uses the internet more and more as time goes by. He also "completely absorb[s] [him]self into a period so [he]'ll know the whole historical context as well as all the events of that time". In cases when he "end[s] up with far more information than [he] need[s]", he tends to exclude all the "boring facts" such as dates because according to Deary himself, "dates don't matter. Human experience matters".

Deary does not want his books to come over as preachy, saying "I'm an adult, I know this and I'm going to tell you". Instead, in his opinion the author's voice is an ignorant person exclaiming "you'll never believe what I found out when I read this book". He thinks that this series is essentially about discovering the wonders of human nature, and questioning whether we could possibly behave how those before us behaved.

Deary does not consider himself "an academic...a teacher...[or] even an adult". Instead, he views himself as kid who wants to share facts with other kids. He thinks that the writer of a non-fiction series such as Horrible Histories has to "entertain first and inform second". Deary does not respect authors who follow each extreme. He believes that "readers are more important than writers and their needs have to come first". He believes that if you engage the reader, and if they are entertained by the substance, they will retain more knowledge from the work.

Deary uses many generic conventions of literature to make his books more accessible to his readers. He will deliberately write his books in a prose style so they follow natural speech cadences, and are therefore more natural to speak. He also uses alliteration and assonance quite frequently. Deary considered poetry to be "just another weapon in the writer's armoury" rather than a specialised form of prose that may only be used in specific circumstances, and is "very comfortable with [using] it" in his non-fiction works. Deary thinks that the impersonal language used in textbooks alienates the reader, and feels that this is a huge drawback in engaging the reader in the work. He therefore uses the second person to talk directly to the reader, the grammatical person he would use if he were talking to the reader in real life. He views Horrible Histories as one of the few non-fiction or fiction series which utilise this "underused style of writing".

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Deary uses the medium of a newspaper to make serious material more accessible to the reader so they approach the piece in "a more relaxed frame of mind than they would a school text", for example in an article about the Massacre at Lidice. Newspapers can also be used to illustrate "mysterious and quite lighthearted" stories, such as those which might appear in a "Sun newspaper". In these circumstances, this medium is used as its subject matter is reminiscent of the other, more recognisable medium. Newspapers extracts, along with letters and diaries are used to tell stories from the perspectives of individual people, to engage the reader into the story. he "[tries] to get away from the objective, and to get [his] readers to view history subjectively".

When writing about events and historical periods that are still in living memory, such as the Second World War, a degree of "sensitivity [needs to be] involved". While the story about an executioner that requires ten hacks to chop someone's head off in Even More Terrible Tudors is comical as contemporary society is so far removed from the event, relatively recent events are controversial to write about as readers may personally know people who died in the war, or may not want to discuss the Holocaust with their children. However, Deary believes that it is important for children to know about these events, and that they cannot be deemed taboo and never spoken of.

The majority of the demographic of Horrible Histories readers are "reluctant readers", who like Deary's series as they can "pick one up, read a small section, and then put it down again". Deary attributes this to the use of short chapters, the fact that one may read the book in a non-linear order, and the varying uses of media in each book, such as quizzes and comic strips. Nikki Gamble writes in her book ICT and literacy that two Year 5 twins appreciated the book's non-linear structure as "you don't have to read [the books] from beginning to end..one of us can, um, read the first chapter and the other one can be reading the last bit...it doesn't really matter about the order, does it?"

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The information in the books is presented in an informal way, and the tone of the books is conversational.

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Controversy and Criticism
The book ‘‘Bloody Scotland'' drew the ire of the tiny Scottish Separatist Group, who claimed it promoted a "UK centric, anti-Scottish viewpoint of Scottish history", using comments like "Cook the haggis until it looks like a hedgehog after the fifteenth lorry has run over it". They reported the book to the Commission for Racial Equality, who rejected their claim.

The National Trust was unhappy with Cruel Kings and Mean Queens because it made jokes about Prince Charles's ears (the prince is the trust's patron) and Queen Elizabeth II.

The book "Slimy Stuarts" has been accused of Anti-Catholic views.

According to Terry Deary's homepage, "Several of the books have been banned in some places."

In the Horrible Histories series, there are two books titled The Horrible History of the World and The Wicked History of the World; however, they are the same book, only with different headings. To confuse things further, compact and mini editions were planned for release at the end of 2007. The same incident occurred with The Horribly Huge Quiz Book and Massive Millennium Quiz Book, and The Mad Millennium and Mad Millennium Play. Also, there were two different covers for Horrible Christmas, as well as new paperback, compact and mini editions.

A major controversy of the series is that many of the "facts” which are proclaimed to be true and interesting are in fact not true, and merely exciting myths and legends. Some of these falsities are listed in the song "It’s Not True" in the CBBC series Horrible Histories. While the books claim that Shakespeare made up all the evil things he accused Richard III of doing; in fact his bad reputation was already established by then. Shakespeare merely based his work on the writings of Tudor historians. The books also present Caligula as being very insane. For instance, they say that he actually tried to make his horse a Senator, when in reality he only threatened to do so as an insult to the Senate. The actual sources generally portray Caligula as having an "Ax Crazy, Complete Monster" madness, routinely having people killed on a whim. This side to Caligula is also explored int he books and the live-action TV series, however it may not be accurate either, and might just be character assasination from his enemies.

Deary's books have been criticised by people who feel they do not provide 'real' information. The book Promoting Reading for Pleasure in the Primary School defends Horrible Histories by saying that the series provides an extensive level of detail for the subject material, and uses authentic sources.

While the books have been complimented on their non-linear structure, this technique has raised the concern that "contemporary school-age readers are encultured more and more into applying short concentration spans to tasks" The solution to this problem, acording to ICT and literacy is for "teachers...to [be] incresingly resourcesful in developing pupils' skills of reading narratives".

Impact of the series
The book Consuming history: historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture by Jerome De Groot explains that the majority of the series is based on historical periods, and are mostly about the history of Great Britain. According to the book, this suggests that "the series' wider popularity is due to their tone and style rather than their content".

The series has been described as a "popular iconoclasm, a challenge to standard narratives, and a pedagogical desire to present information in complex and dynamic ways". The books themselves have been referred to as "history books designed for use in the home [and yet] still focus on imparting the facts of historical knowledge".

In the chapter Bitesize Learning of the book ICT and literacy: information and communications technology, media, reading and writing, the author Nicki Gamble writes: "Which brings me back to Horrible Histories: 'Dark Knights and Dingy Castles'. At the end of the chapter, the reader is asked, 'If you were a freezing, starving peasant and you had your glaive at the end of a rich, fat man in a can, what would you do?' That is what history should be about. People. How did they behave? Why did they behave like that? And what would you have done if you were in their shoes."

While discussing the graphic violence in games such as Counterstrike, Grand Theft Auto and Half Life, the author Judy Arnall points out that these video games are "nowhere near as violent as what children see in many societies and cultures." She cites reading Horrible Histories The Wicked History of the World as an example of why kids shouldn't be exposed to violence like they were hundreds of years ago, and still do in many parts of the world: "I couldn't believe what they used to do to children and what children were exposed to."

Horrible Histories was cited as a non-fiction series which has successfully used a formula to entice young children into reading: "The information here is densely packed, at a suitable level for Key Stages 2 and 3, historically accurate and complete with cautions about history being interpretive, but the success lies in the humorous and varied way that the subjects are presented"

In Words, words, words: teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12, Janet Allen cites Horrible Histories as a series full of illustrated books that are presented as narratives and goes on to say that "Terry Deary's The Rotten Romans and The Measly Middle Ages are delightful combinations or cartoons, graphs and charts, narration, letters and wanted posters that convey a vast amount of information about those periods".

In its guide to planning, preparing and using a book box, or a similar technique to engage kids of diverse texts, Julian Stern's Developing as a teacher of history cites Horrible Histories as one example of popular books that are outside the realm of school textbooks that would work well.

Horrible Histories inspired autistic year 6 student Ben to "study history...[and] write books about history. If I could make a funny sort of history people would buy it because its funny>" He cites the similarities between his books and the series, describing them as "horrible and interesting".

Margaret Mallett in her guide Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11 explains that the days of "unvaried vocabulary, unwelcome stereotyping, [and] unexciting text" for non-fiction are over, and also explains that in modern times as opposed to the past, that teacher now do remember the name of more than a few non-fiction authors. Horrible Histories is cited as one example, such as Marc Brown's illustrations of some of the series uses a "popular culture approach like cartoons" Horrible Histories is also cited as being a series which utilises varying text types, such as the use of 'recipes' and quizzes in Terrible Tudors, as well as being a print book series which is a rather effective trigger for debates in English lessons.

In The Oxford encyclopedia of children's literature, Terry Deary's "best selling series" is described as one which is full of "recreational information books to amuse and entertain [which] are more common [today]...and fall into the category of narrative nonfiction and often treat their subjects with humour"

The book Creating Writers: A Creative Writing Manual for Schools cites Horrible Histories, as well as fellow Horrible series Horrible Science as a non-fiction series that has the ability to tell stories as well as any fiction series. It explains that "in any book [of the Horrible Histories series] you will find tales of human experience, endeavours and achievements". This is used to explain that "fiction and nonfiction actually have a great deal in common and the boundaries between the two are often blurred".

The book Consuming history: historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture  by Jerome De Groot cites Horrible Histories as a series which demonstrates the "flexibility and dynamism of the 'historical' form" in children's books, another possible market for those types of books. It explains that the books "play on children's fascination with goriness, selling themselves as 'history with the nasty bits left in'", and that they are "mischievous, irreverent and iconoclastic, appealing to a child audience's desire for silly jokes, presenting history as something tactile and simple". The book comments favourably on the use of illustrations and on the use of different media such as "lists, paragraphs, letter, images, maps" to convey information. Interactivity is attributed to the reprintable recipes and "what would you do" multiple choice sections. Groot compares Horrible Histories’ use of illustration in education to Glen Thompson's For Beginners comic books of the mid '80s.

The series has received criticism due to its "deliberate attempt to provide alternate readings" which serves as a challenge to traditional forms of knowledge. Teachers are undermined in sections such as 'Test Your Teacher', which says "Your teachers will tell you all about the legions and what they wore and how they lived. But they don't know everything." It follows that Horrible Histories suggests that formal education provides an abridged version of history, one which leaves out "all the gory bits".

Horrible Histories addresses the needs of the students, which allows then to engage with the material very easily. Students are given an actually sense of the period of history, rather than merely rote-learning facts and figures. In the case of events still in living memory, this empathy can sometimes serves as equivocation, by avoiding the truth and making general statements about the feelings towards the event. When referring to the Holocaust, Deary writes "[Hitler's blaming of the Jews for all of Germany's problems was] rubbish of course, but sadly most people at that time believed his big lie and millions died". In this circumstance, the book appears to be dismissive towards the issue, never referring to the Holocaust directly.

A series of interviews conducted with Year 7 students from a secondary school in Cambridge revealed that for pleasure they read Horrible Histories books alongside other works such as Roal Dahl's novels and Famous Five. This was contradictory to the school's Ofsted report which noted that "pupils to not ususally read for pleasureor elect to tackle challenging texts". The conclusion was that "if [the school does] not find out about, or pay attentin to, the whole picture of young poeple's reading, then [the school's] conclusions about their readsing experiences, capabilities and the curriculum we provide for them are going to be simplistic and lacking in precision.

Whe writing his book Napoleon the novelist, author Andrew Martin contrasts his work to the Horrible Histories series, which "leave all the boring bits out". He is anxious because in playing down the spectacular aspects of Napoleon's career, he has by default "put the boring bits back in and left all the interesting bits out".

In the book Promoting Reading for Pleasure in the Primary School by M. J. and Michael Lockwood, Horrible Histories has been cited as the series which pioneered the use of humour and a comic-strip format to engage children's interest. This technique has been widely imitation across to many other curriculum subjects such as geography, science and maths. According to the book, Deary's rational for writing the books was to get children interested in reading non-fiction by using the "verbal; and visual devices of a genre they already did read from pleasure and from choice, the comic book". It continues to say that "Deary has achieved his aim of getting children to realize that non-fiction reading need not be dull and boring".

While the series' direct address to its child audience gives the children the parts of history that "adults don't want you to read", and makes the series a popular choice for independent reading, it makes the books ineffective as read-aloud books due to their personalized style of writing and the visual aspects of the books. However, some teachers have reported as using these books in a read-aloud manner.

In the resource section for non-fiction in the book Teen life in Europe by Shirley R. Steinberg, Horrible Histories is cited as having "come of the best history books for younger teenagers".

In the book Archaeology is a brand!, Cornelius Holtorf talks about how after reading a section from The Savage Stone Age entitled "awful archaeologists", he likened the story about the "(fictitious) Austrian archaeologist Garhardt Katzwho in 1957 commented suicide because the advent of radiocarbon dating had proved his radiocarbon theories wrong" to Mitchell 1977, coming to the conclusion that "this dating method threatens people's confidence in themselves".

The book Current archaeology says "without question the success story of recent years has been Terry Deary's Horrible Histories series".

The book Reading Stephen King describes Horrible Histories as a nonfiction series that retains an "interest in horror and the macabre". The book addes that by writing about "history with the nasty bits left in", the books cover "topics [that] teachers usually avoid"

According to the book Writing in context(s) by Triantafillia Kostuli, the series "makes heavy use of visual and verbal textual interplay".

The book The northern conquest: Vikings in Britain and Ireland explains that the view towards the Vikings as being "brutal barbarians" who "burn down villages and towns" and "slaughter whoever got in their way" is the "traditional picture that people of [the author's] generation were brought up with in [their] history books at...school". It continues to say that "today, schoolchildren are presented with a more balanced, if considerably less dramatic, picture of the Vikings...based upon new archaeological evidence from Scandinavia and the British Isles". The book concedes that the Horrible Histories title Vicious Vikings, while having "the nasty bits left in", admits that "not all Vikings were vicious...the ones who were, weren't vicious all the time..the Vikings were no more vicious than the rest of world at that time"

In the book Help Your Talented Child: An Essential Guide for Parents by Barry Teare, one piece of advice given is to "obtain copies of the Horrible Histories series" because according to the book, "they play to the particular sense of humour posessed by many able children".

The book Words, words, words: teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12 says that the "highly successful...series[']" titles "The Rotten Romans and The Measly Middle Ages are delightful combinations of cartoons, graphs and charts, narration, letters and wanted posters that convey a vast amount of information about those periods".

Critical response
The book series has been generally well received.

A review by Tammy McQuoid at states that "While the book is quite irreverent at times, it does have plenty of historical information in it." citing an example as "the fact that they say the Normans brought the feudal system to England and that Henry II of England said that he wished he could be rid of Thomas a Becket. And then some of Henry's knights took it upon themselves to kill Thomas a Becket, an archbishop." She however does compliment the series, stating "There's plenty more of good, factual history included...I think it's a good idea to mix up unit studies a bit with some educational fun and games." Carole Green of the BBC did a review on the Terrible Tudors play at the Grand Opera House, 2006. She gave a very positive review stating "It was a wonderful evening, very funny and educational without realising it." The Guardian gave a review about the series as a whole, cites comments from a variety of distinguished people including Angela Marks, the history co-ordinator and teacher at St Luke's Church of England Primary School who said that the books "...are very cleverly done...children feel that they shouldn't be reading them, that there is something slightly naughty about them. That immediately engages them." Julian Pooley, an archivist said "I wish there had been books like this around when I was at school, when history was all facts and no life. I made do with Ladybird guides." Joseph Allen McCullough of Suite101 offered a review on the city-themed book Oxford: Not only is this new little book a great read for anyone (child or adult) with a passing interest in history, it is also a necessary book for any tourist to the city of Dreaming Spires. Any tourist guide will likely tell you who got killed where in Oxford, but Deary's book will do the same thing and entertain you at the same time." (http://britishhistory.suite101.co m/article.cfm/horrible_histories_oxford_review) The Mail on Sunday said: "Terry Deary's hit series of children's history books revel in a combination of gruesome black humour and weird and wonderful moments from the past. This winning formula is transferred to TV for this amusingly instructive sketch show... for once, parents can't complain that their kids are watching rubbish." Sunday Express said: "History isn't all murder, mayhem and maggots, but those are the good bits - and Terry Deary's gloriously gruesome books certainly grabs kids' attention." Daily Telegraph said "Terry Deary is the most influential historian in Britain today." Dan Snow of the Independent said: "In the publishing world it's understood that you have to have the Horrible Histories series for a kid, then maybe illustrated history, before you might progress to a tome based on someone's PhD thesis." Carousel said: "A terrific romp through history, which, at the same time, makes one stop to laugh and think." Jenny Knott of The Times said: "Why weren’t history books like this when I was a child?" Katie Law of The Evening Standard said: "It's not hard to see why school children prefer Horrible Histories to the National Curriculum. Terry Deary's mischievous mix of humour, sadistic statistics and corny jokes, padded out by Martin Brown's wry comic cartoons, has proved irresistible bedtime reading for millions since the first, Terrible Tudors, was published 12 years ago." Books for Keeps said: "History as spot on as this is not so much an account as an enactment." Books Magazine said: "If you haven’t come across ‘Horrible Histories’ before you’ve missed a true publishing phenomenon - Terry Deary seems to have invented a whole new genre with his series of books looking at history in an entirely different way." The Sunday Herald said: "Kids love the Horrible Histories series because of Terry Deary's unstuffy approach and the amount of carnage featured."

The website Fun Books, which had been selling the books of the series for a while, said of the two-books-in-one pack The Frightful First World War and The Woeful Second World War: "We've been selling this book at conferences and have had terrific feedback. Several young people have gotten hooked on history after reading this compilation and have special-ordered more Horrible Histories"

A review by Daphne Hamilton-Nagorsen for the Manitoba Library Association said of the handbook title Trenches: "Overall, Trenches provides a brief but humorous and informative look at trench life and warfare during World War I". She also notes that "In addition, Trenches moves quickly from one topic to another. This will help keep more reluctant readers interested and also allows Terry Deary to cover a greater variety of information." She gave the book a rating of 2/4 stars.

A review by Val Ken Lem for the Manitoba Library Association said of the title Measly Middle Ages: "Together, these tidbits provide a fair amount of information and succeed in conveying a sense of the challenges of life in the Middle Ages. However, the work is most valuable as a fun recreational read rather than a resource for research projects. The index is heavily weighted toward personal names and is far from complete, lacking such basic entries as women, children or childhood. A timeline curiously includes almost a page of entries dating from 410 to 1017, a period called the Early Middle Ages or Dark Ages; yet this period is not developed further in the book. The book does not include a bibliography or suggestions for further reading." He gave the book a rating of 2½/4 stars. A review of The Horrible Histories Collection (the magazine version of the series) by tammy2dx at SmartGirl said: "If you like history you should get this. I think this magazine is more suitable for people over 8 years as some of the contents are a bit horrible." She gave the magazine series a rating of four stars (incredible).

A review at The Free Library describes Deary's style as "unique: the books are chocablock with historical facts and anecdotes and pitched in such a way that all children love to get to the gory bits. You know where you are with a book from this series". It explains that the handbook Knights is "a thoroughly brilliant addition to the Horrible Histories series and will be devoured by gory girls and boys alike. The illustrations by Martin Brown are spot on, too."

On the site In My Books, the 2005 book The Gorgeous Georgians and The Vile Victorians is described as having a "funny cover" and exaplins the reviewer's newly discovered "morbid side to [their] fascination with history" from reading the book. The review continues by describing how "the authors have absolutely no qualms about exposing the gruesome and the macabre truth of Georgians and Victorians lacking in personal hygiene, and the appalling conditions of the pitiful poor. The wealth divide is simply too horrendous!!" The review also comments that "there were fun quizzes, rotten recipes, weird and often gruesome, vicious villains and unbelievably revolting events to keep you entertained. I sometimes find myself having to suspend belief, and resist cross checking it against the other book I was reading … but I did anyway". It adds that "even though this book is aimed at younger readers, I couldn’t resist."

A review at Witch Reviews explains that "when you want to read about the past, it’s the juicy bits which get your attention. Nobody really wants to read about peace treaties and times when everything was hunky dory.  That’s just boring." It cites Horrible Histories as a possible solution, explaining "luckily the Horrible History series has all the gruesome, gory stories of the past – the bits you wanted to know but your History teacher was too afraid to tell". The review continues to explain that "the author, Terry Deary, sprinkles the pages with bad jokes and illustrations. That part really isn’t me but my kids love it.  They’ve enjoyed their introduction into history and hopefully they’ll want to learn more.  As an adult I can’t resist reading the books – the Terrible Tudors and Witches (of course) were my favourites. I’d like to get my hands on the Angry Aztecs next." The review concludes by stressing the series' accessibility to all ages, "if you’ve always thought history was boring then pick up a Horrible History book. Pretend it’s for your kids if the librarian is giving you strange looks.  It’s history how it should be."

The guide book France by The Green Guide describes the Horrible Histories title of the same name as "A comical cartoon summary of French history".

Amazing new sources
This article hasnt been substantially added to for a long time now, and so after a bit of research I've uncovered some amazing new sources for us to use. :)--Coin945 (talk) 15:05, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

 * Translating Educational Children’s Books: A translation and analysis of Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories series
 * Horrible history teaching
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Streamlining this article
Hello! I'm starting work on editing this article, as part of a Technical Editing class at Texas A&M University. I wanted to share what I am looking at working on, before making any major edits.

 * Any copyediting required – grammar, spelling, style, tone, and similar errors (WP:COPYEDIT).
 * The organization of the article, which has led to a messy and confusing layout (WP:CLEANUP).
 * Condensing the "Reception" section, which Wikipedia has marked (WP:UNDUE).
 * The "personal reflection/opinion essay" writing style and subjective tones, which Wikipedia has also marked (WP:NOT and WP:PEACOCK).

I wanted to post this since it appears multiple editors have worked on this article previously. Please respond if you feel that there is anything I need to know about this article, before starting work on it. Thanks!

Sewinginthepast (talk) 18:24, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

 * Hi, this is fantastic news! As someone who has worked ont his article in the past, I know that while there is some good content presently, it's all a bit muddled and jumbled up, with too many lists of books, too many quotations, too much POV, and not using the breadth of coverage in third party realible sources to creative a comprehensive overview. I've since moved into other projects so I was very excited to see this message and look forward to seeing what you do here. Yay Texas A&M University.--Coin945 (talk) 00:07, 27 February 2018 (UTC)

 * Hi, that is great information! I'm thinking of moving the expansive list of books onto its own list page. What do you think about that? Sewinginthepast (talk) 20:25, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

 * There are a few options.

 * One would be to have a List of Horrible Histories books page, which would basically be a place to dump the book list and would struggle to notable in and of itself.
 * Secondly you could dump them into the Horrible Histories (franchise) page. It may make the page unwieldy, but at least there's less issues with the page being non-notable, as it's being added to the franchise article.
 * The content could remain here.

Now, if you choose option 2 or 3, I would highly recommend using a template that "collapses" information into a small bar. See Template:Collapse for more information. --Coin945 (talk) 23:57, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

You can also increase the number of colomns, thereby reducing the amount of space the list takes up:

• Savage Stone Age (1999 – present) (Stone age)

• Awesome Egyptians (1993 – present) (Ancient Egypt)

• Awful Egyptians (2006 – present) (Ancient Egypt)

• Groovy Greeks (1996 – present) (Ancient Greece)

• Rotten Romans (1999 – present) (Ancient Rome)

• Ruthless Romans (2003 – present) (Ancient Rome)

• Cut Throat Celts (1997 – present) (Celts)

• Smashing Saxons (2000 – present) (Saxons)

• Vicious Vikings (1994) (Vikings)

• Stormin' Normans (2001) (Normans)

• Measly Middle Ages (1996 – present) (Middle Ages)

• Angry Aztecs (1997 – present) (Aztecs)

• Incredible Incas (2000, 2010 only) (Inca Empire)

• Terrible Tudors (1993) (Tudor dynasty)

• Terrifying Tudors, formerly Even More Terrible Tudors (1998) (Tudor dynasty)

• Slimy Stuarts (1996–2000) (House of Stuart)

• Gorgeous Georgians (1998 – present) (Georgian era)

• Vile Victorians (1994) (Victorian era)

• Villainous Victorians (2004) (Victorian era)

• Barmy British Empire (2002 only) (British Empire)

• Frightful First World War (1998–2009) (World War I)

• Woeful Second World War (1999) (World War II)

• Blitzed Brits (1994 – present) (The Blitz)

Hi everyone, I have removed the list of books and created a new page (List of Horrible Histories books). If any of the misplaced information needs to be revisited, here is the permanent link: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horrible_Histories_(book_series)&oldid=830621967

Organization
I have reorganized this article substantially. The topics are now grouped together in a more cohesive manner. (Here is a link to the original article with the old layout: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horrible_Histories_(book_series)&oldid=830690729). The article now looks like other similar children's book series, as far as layout goes.

The next steps, I believe, need to be in shortening the Concept & creation section. There is quite a bit of information that doesn't seem particularly relevant to the book series page and is more to do with the author. Additionally, the Criticism section could also use some editing. I would love any thoughts or suggestions on the new layout of information, etc. Thanks! Sewinginthepast (talk) 00:18, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Spin-offs
The section headed "Spin-offs" includes some book series from the same publisher, but other series whose only relationship to Horrible Histories is that they adopt a similar format/style. I'm not sure this is a true or fair definition of "spin-off"... should there not be two categories, "Spin-offs", and, say, "Similar series"? (Though I'm not sure the latter even belongs on the page at all) Kinders (talk) 09:06, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Horrible Histories (book series)


text:
Somersault

A somersault (also flip, heli, and in gymnastics salto) is an acrobatic exercise in which a person's body rotates 360° around a horizontal axis with the feet passing over the head. A somersault can be performed forwards, backwards or sideways and can be executed in the air or on the ground. When performed on the ground, it is typically called a roll.

Body positions
Somersault may be performed with different positions, including tucked, piked (bent at the hips), straddled, and layout (straight body).

Direction
The sport of tumbling does not require participants to combine both front and back elements, and most tumblers prefer back tumbling as it is easier to build momentum.

Arabian saltos begin backwards, continue with a half twist to forwards, and end with one or more saltos forwards. They can be trained by beginning with an Arabian dive roll and adding a front salto to it. They are counted as front tumbling in women's artistic gymnastics and back tumbling in men's artistic gymnastics.

Twists
Somersaults are often completed with twists.

Multiple rotations
By 2003, the tucked double back salto had become common in women's gymnastics. The triple back salto exists in men's gymnastics but was rarely competed until 2017.

In 2019, American gymnast Simone Biles was the first woman to compete a back triple double: two saltos backwards with three twists in a tucked position.

title: Somersault


text:
Talk:NTLDR

Under construction
I'm in the midst of updating and rewriting many of the articles related to the Windows NT Startup Process, including this one; I plan to be finished by EOD Sat Jan 28. Warrens 02:43, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Archive
What is ARC??. I believe it stands for "Advanced RISC Computing". A file system used by UNIX and LINUX.

Must be some processor.

What about ntdetect.com? Delete it and NT no boot.

Switches
How about a description for each of the switches?

I would put the "example" in an image on the right, but I don't know how to go about it. - Evil saltine 29 June 2005 00:10 (UTC)

 * I used Virtual PC to get a copy of the Advanced Options screen, but I don't have any virtual PC's running multiple O/S's. Otherwise I would of replaced the example box with an actual image. - Nidonocu 29 June 2005 10:34 (UTC)

It would be great if someone would add details on how to use NTLDR to boot multiple systems on one machine. e.g. Windows XP Pro, Windows Server 2003, and Xandros Linux (my current configuration). I'd add this, but I don't feel comfortable enough with my limited knowledge of NTLDR to attempt to tell others how to do this.

NTLDR's can differ
Windows 2003 SP1 NTLDR can boot into a ramdrive. From the Win2k3 Service Pack 1.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?amp;displaylang=en&familyid=22CFC239-337C-4D81-8354-72593B1C1F43&displaylang=en Extract the files, to get the NTLDR

From there you can use: SNIa 14:08, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

MD5
Maybe we could post the MD5's of different versions of the NTLDR? Would be nice to have this resource in a system audit.

SNIa 14:09, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

NTLDR Can also be loaded:
From PXE Boot. Yes Sir. SNIa 02:45, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

/TUTAG=
What is the switch /TUTAG= for? --84.161.143.48 16:39, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:NTLDR selection menu.png
Image:NTLDR selection menu.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 16:33, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Windows 7 and Windows 2008
NTLDR (abbreviation of NT Loader) is the boot loader for all releases of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system up to and including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Should be:

NTLDR (abbreviation of NT Loader) is the boot loader for all releases of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system up to and including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.80.134.2 (talk) 05:34, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

 * NO - Versions of Windows after XP/2003 don't use NTLDR, they use BOOTMGR.EXE —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.249.240.184 (talk) 12:29, 8 July 2009 (UTC)
 * ^^^^ GSMR (talk) 23:27, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:NTLDR


text:
Sam Moskowitz

Sam Moskowitz (June 30, 1920 – April 15, 1997) was an American writer, critic, and historian of science fiction.

Biography
As a child, Moskowitz greatly enjoyed reading science fiction pulp magazines. As a teenager, he organized a branch of the Science Fiction League. While still in his teens, Moskowitz became chairman of the first World Science Fiction Convention held in New York City in 1939. He barred several members of the rival Futurians club from the convention because they threatened to disrupt it. This event is referred to by historians of fandom as the "Great Exclusion Act".

In the mid-1940s, Moskovitz founded the Eastern Science Fiction Association (ESFA), a science-fiction fandom organization based in Newark, New Jersey which held conventions. By the early 1950s, he began working professionally in the science fiction field. He edited Science-Fiction Plus, a short-lived genre magazine owned by Hugo Gernsback, in 1953. He compiled about two dozen anthologies, and a few single-author collections, most published in the 1960s and early 1970s. Moskowitz also wrote a handful of short stories (three published in 1941, one in 1953, three in 1956). His most enduring work is likely to be his writing on the history of science fiction, in particular two collections of short author biographies, Explorers of the Infinite and Seekers of Tomorrow, as well as the highly regarded Under the Moons of Mars: A History and Anthology of "The Scientific Romance" in the Munsey Magazines, 1912–1920. His exhaustive cataloging of early sf magazine stories by important genre authors remains the best resource for nonspecialists.

He also taught a course with Robert Frazier.

Theodore Sturgeon, although noting the book's many imperfections, praised Explorers of the Infinite, saying "no one has surveyed the roots of SF as well as Mr. M.; probably no one ever will; prossibly [sic], no one else can."

Reviewing Seekers of Tomorrow, Algis Budrys wryly noted that "Moskowitz is a master of denotation. He wouldn't know a connotation if it snapped at his ankle, which is something that happens quite often." He added, however, that "Moskowitz knows and transmits, at least as much about the history of science fiction and its evolution, as anyone possibly could."

Moskowitz's works include also The Immortal Storm, a historical review of internecine strife within fandom. Moskowitz wrote it in a bombastic style that made the events he described seem so important that, as fan historian Harry Warner Jr. quipped, "If read directly after a history of World War II, it does not seem like an anticlimax." Floyd C. Gale wrote in his review of the book that "[f]ortunately, most of these petulant warriors have since grown up—but their historian is still leading their ghostly legions that are more real than today to him. The miracle is that S-F survived even the love of its most rabid fans". Anthony Boucher noted that "never has so much been written about so little," but added that the book was "a unique document not without a good deal of social and psychological value."

Moskowitz was also renowned as a science fiction book collector, with a tremendous number of important early works and rarities. His book collection was auctioned off after his death.

As "Sam Martin", he was also editor of the trade publications Quick Frozen Foods and Quick Frozen Foods International for many years.

First Fandom, an organization of science fiction fans active before 1940, gives an award in Moskowitz' memory each year at the World Science Fiction Convention.

Moskowitz smoked cigarettes frequently throughout his adult life. A few years before his death, throat cancer required the surgical removal of his larynx. He continued to speak at science fiction conventions, using an electronic voice-box held against his throat. Throughout his later years, although his controversial opinions were often disputed by others, he was recognized as a leading authority on the history of science fiction.

Nonfiction

 * The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom (1954)
 * Explorers of the Infinite: Shapers of Science Fiction (Cleveland: World Pub. Co, 1963)
 * Seekers of Tomorrow: Masters of Modern Science Fiction (Westport, Conn: Hyperion Press, 1974, ISBN 0883551292)
 * A Canticle for P. Schuyler Miller (1975)
 * Science Fiction Calendar 1976 (1975)
 * Strange Horizons: The Spectrum of Science Fiction (1976)
 * Charles Fort: A Radical Corpuscle (1976)
 * Science Fiction in Old San Francisco: History of the Movement, From 1854 to 1890 (1980)
 * A. Merritt: Reflections in the Moon Pool (1985) with A. Merritt
 * Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Nils Helmer Frome: A Recollection of One of Canada's Earliest Science Fiction Fans (1989)
 * After All These Years... (1991)

Edited anthologies

 * Editor's Choice in Science Fiction (1954)
 * The Coming of the Robots (1963)
 * Exploring Other Worlds (1963)
 * Modern Masterpieces of Science Fiction (1965)
 * Strange Signposts (with Roger Elwood) (1966)
 * Doorway Into Time (1966)
 * Masterpieces of Science Fiction (1966)
 * Three Stories (1967) (a.k.a. A Sense of Wonder, The Moon Era)
 * The Human Zero and Other Science-Fiction Masterpieces (with Roger Elwood) (1967)
 * Microcosmic God (1968) (a.k.a. The Microcosmic God)
 * Science Fiction by Gaslight: A History and Anthology of Science Fiction in the Popular Magazines, 1891–1911 (Cleveland: World Pub. Co., 1968)
 * The Vortex Blasters (1968)
 * The Time Curve (with Roger Elwood) (1968)
 * Alien Earth and Other Stories (with Roger Elwood) (1969)
 * Other Worlds, Other Times (with Roger Elwood) (1969)
 * The Man Who Called Himself Poe (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969; a.k.a. A Man Called Poe: Stories in the Vein of Edgar Allan Poe)
 * Great Untold Stories of Fantasy and Horror (with Alden H. Norton) (1969)
 * Under the Moons of Mars; A History and Anthology of "the Scientific Romance" in the Munsey Magazines, 1912–1920 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970)
 * Futures to Infinity (1970)
 * Horrors Unknown (1971)
 * The Space Magicians (with Alden H. Norton) (1971)
 * Ghostly By Gaslight (with Alden H. Norton) (1971)
 * When Women Rule (1972)
 * Horrors in Hiding (with Alden H. Norton) (1973)
 * The Crystal Man: Stories by Edward Page Mitchell (1973)
 * Horrors Unseen (1974)

title: Sam Moskowitz


text:
Republicrat

Republicrat or Demopublican (also Repubocrat,  Demican, Democan, and Republocrat ) are portmanteau names for both of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, collectively. These derogatory names first appeared in the 1872 U.S. presidential election.

The terms have several meanings. One use is to insult politicians that the speaker believes are too moderate or centrist. This use is similar to saying that a Republican is a "Republican in Name Only" (RINO) or a Democrat is a "Democrat in Name Only" (DINO). Another use is to indicate that the two major parties are essentially interchangeable from the speaker's perspective because neither major party supports the changes that the speaker wants to see. This often carries an unspoken implication that the U.S. is in spirit a dominant-party system.

Insult towards moderates
Republicans have often portrayed themselves to be pro-business and aggressive on foreign policy; Democrats have tended to campaign on more liberal social policies and a more important role for government-funded social programs. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as "a member of the Democratic party esp. in the southern states who supports to a large extent the policy and measures of the Republican party". Oxford Dictionaries defines the term as "[a] person whose political philosophy is a blend of policies and principles from both the Republican and Democratic parties".

The term is sometimes used in a pejorative sense by members of one party to attack members of their party who are either centrist or who have what they perceive to be the wrong ideology. The term Republicrat is commonly used by liberal Democrats to attack conservative and centrist members of the party, such as Senator Joe Lieberman. On the Republican side, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich are common examples of Republicrats due to their liberal stances on various political issues. Another term used by liberal Democrats to describe conservative and centrist members of their party is "Democrat in Name Only" or "DINO"; a conservative Republican term for liberal and centrist Republicans is "Republican in Name Only" or "RINO".

Argument that Democrats and Republicans are interchangeable
Another usage of the term puts the words together in order to voice the opinion that the two mainstream American political parties are so ideologically similar as to be interchangeable. This usage often expresses the sentiment of ordinary citizens who see all politicians as serving the same special interests and make little distinction between the two parties. Earl Killian's U.S. political glossary defines the term as "a portmanteau of the words 'Republican' and 'Democrat' ... used to symbolize the one-party nature of U.S. politics, when it comes to issues on which the dominant parties of the two-party system agree ... . In this view ... Republicrats is then the name of the single U.S. political party, and the Republicans and Democrats are seen as factions of this one-party system, rather than as true independent parties."

Some commentators, such as right-wing radio talk-show host Michael Savage and left-wing activist Ralph Nader, who have both used the terms, have opined on how it is often hard to tell the parties apart, leading to the term's popularity. This was a view shared on the left by the Green Party during the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, whose bumper stickers read: "Bush and Gore make me want to Ralph." Former Dead Kennedys vocalist and Green Party member Jello Biafra has used the term during interviews. In 2004, boxing promoter Don King told Larry King he was a Republicrat. He defined it as being for "whoever's going to be doing something or the upward mobility of America, black and white alike".

Equivalent terms in other countries
An equivalent term used in the United Kingdom is Lib-Lab-Con or LibLabCon, a pejorative portmanteau referring to the three main political parties (the Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party, and the Conservative Party), suggesting that there are no real differences between the three and that the UK is effectively a single-party system.

An equivalent term used in Canada is Lib-NDP-Con or LibNDPCon, a pejorative portmanteau referring to the three main political parties (the Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Conservative Party), suggesting that there are no real differences between the three and that Canada is effectively a single-party system.

An equivalent term used in Australia is Lib-Lab-Nat, a pejorative portmanteau referring to the three main political parties (the Liberal Party, the Labor Party and the National Party), suggesting that there are no real differences between the three and that Australia is effectively a single-party system.

title: Republicrat


text:
Avram Davidson

Avram Davidson (April 23, 1923 – May 8, 1993) was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and three World Fantasy Awards in the science fiction and fantasy genre, a World Fantasy Life Achievement award, and an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine short story award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novel The Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed by Grania Davis and was a Nebula Award finalist in 1998. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he is perhaps sf's most explicitly literary author".

Biography
Davidson was born in 1923 in Yonkers, New York, to Jewish parents. He served as a Navy hospital corpsman (medic) with the Marine Corps in the Pacific during World War II, and began his writing career as a Talmudic scholar around 1950. As reported at the time in the February 20, 1962, Yonkers daily, the Herald Statesman, Rabbi Arnold Weinberger officiated at his wedding to Miss Grania Kaiman, which took place at the home of Damon Knight.

This made his conversion to Tenrikyo in the 1970s unexpected. Although he had a reputation for being quick to anger, Davidson was known among his friends for his generosity. His peripatetic life and career may have been due to a disinclination to finish what he began. His reputation among science fiction and fantasy readers peaked in the 1960s, after which he had a coterie of fans who (as with R. A. Lafferty) kept his reputation alive, especially after his death.

He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies.

While editing The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction he lived in Mexico, and later in British Honduras (now renamed Belize). He lived in a rural district of Novato, in northern Marin County, California, in 1970, but later moved closer to San Francisco. He lived in a small house in Sausalito, at the southern end of Marin County next to San Francisco in 1971 and 1972, and it was there fans and friends were welcomed. He worked for a short time in the late 1970s as a creative writing instructor at the University of Texas at El Paso. In his later years, he lived in Washington state, including a brief stay in the Veterans' Home in Bremerton. He died in his tiny apartment in Bremerton on May 8, 1993, aged 70. A memorial service was held in Gasworks Park in Seattle.

He was survived by his son Ethan and his ex-wife Grania Davis, who continued to edit and release his unpublished works until her own death.

Fiction and articles
Davidson wrote many stories for fiction magazines beginning in the 1950s, after publishing his first fiction in Commentary and other Jewish intellectual magazines.

Davidson was active in science fiction fandom from his teens. Two of his novels were nominated for a Nebula Award: Rogue Dragon (1965) and Virgil in Averno (1987). The latter follows The Phoenix and the Mirror (1969), a sequence about Vergil Magus, the magician that medieval legend made out of the Roman poet Virgil. Other speculative fiction includes the Peregrine novels, comic views of Europe shortly after the fall of Rome; the Jack Limekiller stories, about a Canadian living in an imaginary Central American country modelled after Belize during the 1960s; and the stories of Dr. Eszterhazy, an erudite Sherlock Holmesian figure living in the mythical Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, the waning fourth-largest empire in Europe.

Lesser known and uncollected during his lifetime are his mystery stories, which were assembled after his death as The Investigations of Avram Davidson. These mystery stories frequently have a historical setting, and are intricately plotted. In addition, Davidson ghosted two Ellery Queen mysteries, And on the Eighth Day and The Fourth Side of the Triangle, and a true crime collection, Crimes and Chaos.

Other noteworthy works are his collaborations. In Joyleg, A Folly, written in collaboration with Ward Moore, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War (and of the Whiskey Rebellion) is found alive and very well in the Tennessee backwoods, having survived over the centuries by daily soaks in whisky of his own making to hilariously face the world of the 1960s. In Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty, co-written with Grania Davis, the background of Marco Polo's travels in the Mongol Empire is borrowed for an original story. After Davidson's death, Grania Davis also finished The Boss in the Wall, a claustrophobic horror novel that bears little resemblance to the work of any other writer.

Davidson also wrote dozens of short stories that defy classification, and the Adventures in Unhistory essays, which delve into puzzles such as the identity of Prester John and suggest solutions to them. His earlier historical essays were scrupulously researched, even when published by magazines just as happy to offer fiction as fact. Later essays were handicapped by a lack of resources in the libraries of the small towns where Davidson lived in the pre-Internet era, but are enlivened by the style and bold speculation.

Davidson's work is marked by a strong interest in history, with his plots often turning on what at first might seem like minor events. His characterization is also unusually in-depth for fantasy, and is often enriched by his ear for unusual accents.

Davidson's most obvious characteristics are his plotting and style. Very little may happen in a Davidson story, but he described it in detail. Hidden among the detail are facts or omissions that later become important to the outcome of the story. Especially in his later works, Davidson included elements that beginning writers are told to avoid, such as page-long sentences with half a dozen colons and semi-colons, or an apparently irrelevant digression in the opening pages of a story. He expects much from his readers, but delivers much to them.

Books

 * Kar-Chee series
 * Rogue Dragon, Ace, 1965
 * The Kar-Chee Reign, Ace Double, 1966
 * Vergil Magus series (a fantasy series set an alternate ancient Mediterranean world in which harpies, basilisks, and satyrs exist during the Punic Wars)
 * The Phoenix and the Mirror, Doubleday, 1969; issued in 1970 as The Phoenix and the Mirror or, The Enigmatic Speculum in the Ace Science Fiction Specials series
 * Vergil in Averno, Doubleday, 1987
 * The Scarlet Fig; or Slowly through a Land of Stone; Rose Press, 2005
 * Peregrine series
 * Peregrine: Primus, Walker, 1971
 * Peregrine: Secundus, Berkley, 1981
 * Solo novels not part of a series
 * Mutiny in Space, Pyramid, 1964
 * Rork!, Berkley, 1965
 * Masters of the Maze, Pyramid, 1965
 * Clash of Star-Kings, Ace Double, 1966
 * The Enemy of My Enemy, Berkley, 1966
 * The Island Under the Earth, original to the Ace Science Fiction Specials series, 1969
 * Ursus of Ultima Thule, Avon, 1973
 * With Ward Moore
 * Joyleg, Pyramid, 1962
 * With Grania Davis
 * Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty, Baen, 1987
 * The Boss in the Wall, A Treatise on the House Devil, Tachyon Publications, 1998
 * Collections
 * Or All the Seas with Oysters, Berkley, 1962
 * ''Crimes and Chaos, Regency, 1962
 * What Strange Stars and Skies, Ace, 1965
 * Strange Seas and Shores, Doubleday, 1971
 * The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy, Warner, 1975
 * The Redward Edward Papers, Doubleday, 1978
 * The Best of Avram Davidson, Doubleday, 1979
 * Collected Fantasies, Berkley, 1982
 * The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy, Owlswick, 1990
 * Adventures in Unhistory, Owlswick, 1993
 * The Avram Davidson Treasury, Tor, 1998
 * The Investigations of Avram Davidson, Owlswick, 1999 [collected mystery stories]
 * Everybody Has Somebody in Heaven, Devora, 2000
 * The Other Nineteenth Century, Tor, 2001
 * ¡Limekiller!, Old Earth Books, 2003
 * Ellery Queen books: mysteries written under the Ellery Queen name
 * And on the Eighth Day, Random House, 1964
 * The Fourth Side of the Triangle, Random House, 1965

title: Avram Davidson


text:
Keiko (orca)

Keiko (c. 1976 – 12 December 2003) was a male orca captured in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland in 1979. He was best known for his portrayal of Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy. In 1996, Warner Bros. and the International Marine Mammal Project collaborated to return Keiko to the wild. After years of preparing Keiko for reintegration, Keiko was flown to Iceland in 1998 and in 2002, became the first captive orca to be fully released back into the ocean. On 12 December 2003, he died of pneumonia in a bay in Norway at the age of 27.

Life
Keiko was captured near Reyðarfjörður, Iceland in 1979 at the approximate age of two and sold to the Icelandic Aquarium in Hafnarfjörður. At the time, he was named Siggi, with the name Kago given at a later date.

In 1982, he was transferred to Marineland in Ontario, Canada. At this new facility, he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesions indicative of poor health and was also bullied by an older orca. Keiko was then sold to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1985. Keiko lived in a warm, chlorinated tank with artificial salt water. These conditions were more suited to dolphins, and due to this, his health continued to decline. Around this time Keiko was also performing frequently for the public.

At Reino Aventura, he was given the name "Keiko", a feminine Japanese name that means "lucky one". At the time, he was only 10 feet (3.0 m) long.

Free Willy
Keiko became the star of the film Free Willy in 1993. The publicity from his role led to an effort by Warner Bros in order to find him a better home. The pool for the now 21 ft orca was only 22 ft deep, 65 ft wide and 114 ft long. He was housed with bottlenose dolphins, but no others of his own species. Keiko was underweight for his size, and the water temperature was often too warm, which contributed to various skin problems. Due to a papillomavirus infection, Keiko experienced skin outbreaks, first observed while he was housed in Ontario, Canada, prior to his transfer to Mexico City, which complicated both his candidacy for relocation and for eventual release into the wild.

Free Willy-Keiko Foundation
Outcry for Keiko's liberation arose from the film's credits containing a phone number for whale preservation that received hundreds of thousands of call-ins. Warner Brothers and Craig McCaw approached the International Marine Mammal Project for help, which in February 1995 established the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation. With donations from the foundation and millions of school children, the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon was given over $7 million to construct facilities to return him to health with the hope of eventually returning him to the wild. Reino Aventura donated Keiko to the Foundation. Before he left the amusement park in Mexico City, Keiko performed for the public for the last time, and was seen off by thousands of children, with more onlookers watching his overnight journey to the Mexico City International Airport. At the time he weighed about 7,700 pounds (3493 kg). A Lockheed L-100 Hercules cargo plane donated by United Parcel Service (UPS) hauled Keiko to Newport, Oregon on 8 January 1996.

On arrival in Oregon Coast Aquarium, Keiko was housed in a new (2000000 USgal) concrete enclosure containing seawater. His weight had increased significantly by June 1997, to 9,620 pounds (4364 kg).

Re-introduction to the wild
The plan to return him to the wild was a topic of much controversy. Some felt his years of captivity made such a return impossible. Researchers in a scientific study later said attempts to return him to the wild were unsuccessful, but that monitoring him with radio and satellite tags was part of "a contingency plan for return to human care," which secured "the long-term well-being of the animal." Others considered his release misguided. The Norwegian pro-whaling politician Steinar Bastesen made international news for his statement that Keiko should instead be killed and the meat sent to Africa as foreign aid. Nevertheless, the process of preparing Keiko for the wild began on 9 September 1998, when he was flown to Klettsvík, a bay on the island of Heimaey in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. UPS again participated in transport, this time by providing ground transportation to the nearby Newport Municipal Airport. Keiko was transported in a specialized 30 ft container filled with enough saltwater to cover him and cooled with ice cubes. He was then transported by air in a C-17 Globemaster airplane loaned by the U.S. Air Force. Upon landing at Vestmannaeyjar Airport, the C-17 Globemaster aircraft suffered a landing gear failure causing over $1 million in damage, though Keiko was unharmed.

His day-to-day care became the responsibility of the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation with management assistance from the Ocean Futures Society. He was initially housed in a pen in the Klettsvik Bay where he underwent training designed to prepare him for his eventual release, including supervised swims in the open ocean.

Ocean Futures left the Keiko project in late 2001. The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation and The Humane Society of the United States re-established management of the project at that time until Keiko's death in 2003. Keiko was fully free by the summer of 2002 and departed Icelandic waters in early August following some orcas but not integrated with the pod. His journey was tracked via the signal from a VHF tag attached to the dorsal fin. About a month later, he arrived in Norway's Skålvik Fjord, apparently seeking contact with human beings and allowing children to ride on his back. His caretakers relocated to Norway and continued to conduct boat-follows with Keiko for the next 15 months. On the basis of girth measurements and blood tests, it was assumed that Keiko had fed during his 900-mile (1500 km) journey from Iceland to Norway. Keiko occasionally approached groups of wild orcas, but remained on the periphery, at distances of 100–300 meters (109 to 328 yards), with his head pointing toward the closest orca.

Death
Keiko resided in Taknes Bay, which was a clear inlet of coastal water where he was free to roam. There he was fed and looked after by keepers. Keiko had a tracking device attached to his dorsal fin that allowed his four handlers to pinpoint his location as long as he stayed within range.

Although Keiko was old for an orca in captivity, male orca in the wild live up to around 35 years. Executive director of the Free Willy-Keiko foundation stated that Keiko was relatively healthy, up until a quick onset of symptoms which consisted of lethargy and loss of appetite the day before. Dale Richards, one of his handlers, said Keiko died quickly after an irregular respiration rate was measured at age 27 on 12 December 2003. Pneumonia was determined as his cause of death.

A spokesman of the Humane Society of the United States, Nick Braden said that veterinarians administered antibiotics to Keiko after he started showing symptoms that Thursday, however this was not enough to prevent his death.

Evaluation of the re-introduction process
Most sources conclude that the project to free Keiko was a failure because the orca failed to adapt to life in the wild. In Norway, Keiko had little contact with other orcas and was not fishing; for months before his death, the whale was being fed daily. A report in The Guardian describes the freed orca's life in Taknes Bay as follows: "... until his death Keiko was, rather than frolicking freely in his fjord, being taken for 'walks' by caretakers in a small boat at least three times a week. ... It took more than 60 failed attempts to reunite Keiko with free orcas before he followed a group where, spotting a fishing vessel off the Norwegian coast, he followed it into the fjords that would prove his final resting place."

According to an article in New Scientist, "He was seen diving among the wild orcas only once, on 30 July 2002. And after physical contact at the surface, Keiko swam away, seeking out human company on the tracking boat". Simon, Hanson, Murrey, et al. (2009) confirm that he was seen on the periphery of some wild groups but was never seen to be socially integrated with such whales. In summary, According to Simon et al. (2009) Keiko's return to humans for food and for company confirms the failure of the project.
 * "He never integrated into a wild pod ... and could not break his need for human contact."

Reasons cited for Keiko's failure to adapt include his early age at capture, the long history of captivity, prolonged lack of contact with conspecifics and strong bonds with humans.

In spite of those comments, David Phillips, executive director of the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, praised the release project: "We took the hardest candidate and took him from near death in Mexico to swimming with wild whales in Norway". "Keiko had five years with the sights and sounds of natural seawater. I think it was a great success in terms of Keiko, his well-being, and the whole world that wanted to do the right thing." Others also claim that the release was a success, and The Huffington Post called it a "phenomenal success ... giving him years of health and freedom".

The total cost of freeing Keiko was about US$20 million. The lead author of the study published by Marine Mammal Science said: "You can't just let these animals out into the wild. You have to take the responsibility, and that might cost a lot of money. The fortune spent on Keiko might have been better invested in conservation programs to protect whales and their habitat ... But that's not as appealing as the adventures of a single whale".

An alternative to freeing orcas after long-term captivity, is the use of a "sanctuary" or "oceanic enclosure" (sea pen), according to Lori Marino of the Whale Sanctuary Project. "They can't be released, but their quality of life can be improved by orders of magnitude", Marino said in a 2016 interview where she agreed that the cost would be high ($15 to $20 million). "It's a solemn responsibility, and it's the best we can do for animals that are in captivity."

Filmography
In 2010 the film Keiko: The Untold Story was released. In 2013 a New York Times video, The Whale Who Would Not Be Freed, included interviews about Keiko's return to the ocean.
 * Quinceañera (1987; TV series)
 * Keiko en peligro (1990)
 * Free Willy (1993)
 * Azul (1996; TV series)
 * Keiko: The Untold Story (2010)

title: Keiko (orca)


text:
User:Shivar~enwiki

There was no defination for globe valves in the VALVES TOPIC

title: User:Shivar~enwiki


text:
Lewis Baltz

Lewis "Duke" Baltz (September 12, 1945 – November 22, 2014) was an American visual artist, photographer, and educator. He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s. His best known work was monochrome photography of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which highlighted his commentary of void within the "American Dream".

He wrote for many journals, and contributed regularly to L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui.

Baltz's work is held in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Early life and education
Lewis Baltz was born on September 12, 1945, in Newport Beach, California. His father died when he was age 11.

Baltz attended Monterey Peninsula College in 1967. He later graduated with a BFA degree in fine arts from San Francisco Art Institute in 1969; and held a Master of Fine Arts degree from Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University).

Career
His work is focused on searching for beauty in desolation and destruction. Baltz's images describe the architecture of the human landscape: offices, factories and parking lots. His pictures are the reflection of control, power, and influenced by and over human beings. His minimalistic photographs in the trilogy Ronde de Nuit, Docile Bodies, and Politics of Bacteria, picture the void of the other. In 1974 he captured the anonymity and the relationships between inhabitation, settlement and anonymity in The New Industrial Parks near Irvine, California (1974).

His books and exhibitions, his "topographic work", such as The New Industrial Parks, Nevada, San Quentin Point, Candlestick Point, expose the crisis of technology and define both objectivity and the role of the artist in photographs. His work Candlestick Point is made of 84 photographs documenting a public space near Candlestick Park, ruined by natural detritus and human intervention.

Baltz moved to Europe in the late 1980s and started to use large colored prints.

He published several books of his work including Geschichten von Verlangen und Macht, with Slavica Perkovic (Scalo, 1986). Other photographic series, including Sites of Technology (1989–92), depict the clinical, pristine interiors of hi-tech industries and government research centres, principally in France and Japan. In 1995, the story Deaths in Newport was produced as a book and CD-ROM. Baltz also produced a number of video works.

Baltz taught at various institutions, including Claremont Graduate School, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside), California State University, San Bernardino, and the IUAV University in Venice, Italy, where in 2006 he co-founded the Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation.

End of life, death and legacy
In 2002, Baltz became a professor for photography at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He lived his last years between Paris and Venice. Baltz died on November 22, 2014, in Paris at the age of 69 following a long illness.

Awards
He received several scholarships and awards including a scholarship from the National Endowment For the Arts (1973, 1977), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1977), US-UK Bicentennial Exchange Fellowship (1980), and Charles Brett Memorial Award (1991).

Publications

 * Landscape: Theory, Lewis Baltz, Harry Callahan, Eliot Porter, Carol Digrappa and Robert Adams, 1980 ISBN 0-912810-27-0
 * The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California, Lewis Baltz and Adam Weinburg, 2001 ISBN 0-9630785-6-9
 * The Deaths in Newport, onestar press, 2002
 * The Tract Houses: Die Siedlungshauser (English and German Edition), Lewis Baltz, 2005 ISBN 0-9703860-4-4
 * The Prototype Works, Lewis Baltz, 2010 ISBN 3-86521-763-X
 * Mario Pfeifer: Reconsidering The new Industrial Parks near Irvine, California by Lewis Baltz, 1974, Lewis Baltz, Mario Pfeifer, Vanessa Joan Mueller, 2011 ISBN 1-934105-29-5
 * Lewis Baltz: Candlestick Point, Lewis Baltz, 2011 ISBN 3-86930-109-0
 * Lewis Baltz: Rule Without Exception / Only Exceptions, Lewis Baltz, 2012 ISBN 3-86930-110-4
 * Lewis Baltz: Texts., Lewis Baltz, 2012 ISBN 3-86930-436-7
 * Lewis Baltz, Lewis Baltz, 2017 ISBN 3-95829-279-8

Collections
Baltz's work is held in the following permanent collections:
 * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art
 * Tate Modern
 * Los Angeles County Museum of Art
 * Whitney Museum of American Art
 * Art Institute of Chicago
 * Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
 * Philadelphia Museum of Art
 * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

title: Lewis Baltz


text:
Glen A. Larson

Glen Albert Larson (January 3, 1937 – November 14, 2014) was an American television producer, writer, musician, and director who was one of the most profilic and successful figures of 1970s and 1980s television.

Larson created many series, including Alias Smith and Jones; Battlestar Galactica; Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo; Quincy, M.E.; The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries; B. J. and the Bear; The Fall Guy; Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider. Active on television until the early 2010s, he was also a member of the folk revival/satire group The Four Preps.

Career
Larson began his career in the entertainment industry in 1956 as a member of the vocal group The Four Preps, with whom he appeared in one of the Gidget films. The Four Preps ultimately produced three gold records for Capitol, all of which Larson himself wrote and/or composed: "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)", "Big Man", and "Down by the Station". A later member of the Four Preps, David Somerville, and a session singer he knew, Gail Jensen, later collaborated with Larson to write and compose "The Unknown Stuntman", the theme from The Fall Guy; series lead Lee Majors performed this song over the opening titles.

After working for Quinn Martin on productions including The Fugitive (where he had his first writing credit), Larson signed a production deal with Universal Studios. His first hit series was Alias Smith and Jones, a 1971–1973 Western which described the activities of Hannibal Heyes and Jedediah "Kid" Curry, concentrating on their efforts to go straight. (George Roy Hill's film, scripted by William Goldman, about Butch Cassidy and the "Sundance Kid", is commonly believed to have been the inspiration for the series.)

Larson was involved in the development for television of The Six Million Dollar Man, based on Martin Caidin's novel Cyborg, into the successful series, and was one of the program's early executive producers.

Larson later secured a then-unprecedented $1 million per episode budget for Battlestar Galactica. The show incorporated many themes from Mormon theology, such as sealing (marriage) for "time and eternity" and a "council of twelve". Larson, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in real life, had been working on the concept since 1968 with former Star Trek producer Gene L. Coon mentoring him in its early development. Although, he originally wanted to name the series Adam's Ark, he instead opted for Galactica. He was later convinced to include the word "star" in the title to capitalize on the recently released film Star Wars, eventually morphing the title into Battlestar Galactica. Larson was similarly convinced to deviate from his plan to produce the property as a series of TV movies to a weekly hour-long series, which caught his crew by surprise with a production schedule more demanding than originally expected in terms of writing while it overwhelmed the series' budgetary limits.

Even with its generous budget, the series often recycled effects shots and was canceled after one season. The pilot episode, titled "Saga of a Star World" was edited into a two-hour theatrical film and a re-edit of the other episodes was released as a second theatrical feature film titled Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack. After the series was canceled, Larson went on to create a relatively low-budget sequel titled Galactica 1980, which was set many years later, when the Galactica had reached Earth. It was less successful than the original and was canceled after 10 episodes.

Larson re-used some of the sets, props, costumes, and effects work from Galactica for the light-hearted sci-fi series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in 1979. Based on the comic-book character created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan, Larson co-developed the series with Leslie Stevens. The feature-length pilot episode was released as a theatrical film in March 1979 and grossed $21 million at the North American box office. The weekly television series began in September 1979, running for two seasons until April 1981.

In the 1980s, Larson had further success as one of the creators of Magnum, P.I., which ran from 1980 to 1988. Around the same time, he left Universal to work for 20th Century-Fox. Additionally, Larson created The Fall Guy, which ran from 1981 to 1986. Larson's next prominent series was Knight Rider, which featured science-fiction elements with a light-hearted action-adventure scenario and limited violence. These basic elements characterized many of Larson's series' throughout the 1980s with Automan, Manimal and The Highwayman, though all of these shows were unsuccessful and none lasted more than a single season. Larson's profile declined, though he made a brief comeback in the 1990s with an adaptation of the Ultraverse comic Night Man, which lasted two seasons.

In 2003, Battlestar Galactica was remade for the Sci-Fi Channel as a miniseries; it was followed by a 2004 series, that, unlike the original, lasted multiple seasons. Larson was not involved in any capacity with the new series, though he did receive a screen credit as "Consulting Producer". After the series ended in 2009, a short-lived prequel series, Caprica, followed in 2010. Larson was again not involved, but he was given a screen credit for the creation of certain characters.

In February 2009, media sources reported that Larson was in talks with Universal Pictures to bring Battlestar Galactica to the big screen, though any potential feature film would not be based on the recent Sci-Fi Channel series remake, but would possibly be based on the original series. The project stalled for some time; in 2011 a re-announced version was now no longer a continuation of the original series but rather a complete remake.

Criticism
Despite his success, much criticism has been aimed at Larson for his perceived general lack of originality as many of his television series are seen as small screen "knock-offs" of feature films. Harlan Ellison once referred to him as "Glen Larceny" for the notorious similarities between Larson's shows and cinema blockbusters.

In his autobiography, The Garner Files, James Garner stated that Larson stole a number of plots of The Rockford Files (which Garner's production company co-produced), then used them for his own shows, simply changing the dialogue minimally and using different character names. Garner's group complained to the Writer's Guild; Larson was fined, and an episode of Larson's series Switch called "Death by Resurrection" had the writing credits revised to give sole credit to the writers of the original Rockford Files episode "This Case Is Closed", as it was very clearly the basis of the Switch episode. Nevertheless, Garner felt that the fine had taught Larson nothing when he persisted in plagiarism and later copied the theme music from The Rockford Files for one of his shows. Garner stated that when Larson subsequently showed up on the Rockford set, he put his arm around Garner and said: "I hope there are no hard feelings, Jim." After Larson ignored a warning by Garner to take his arm off him, Garner reportedly punched Larson so hard that Larson "flew across the curb, into a motor home, and out the other side."

Lawsuit against Universal Studios
In July 2011, Larson began a lawsuit against Universal Studios, alleging a decades-long fraud and claimed the studio had not paid him a share of the profits owed from the television shows he produced while working with them. Larson's involvement with Universal had begun in the 1970s, and his contractual agreement had secured him net profits from the revenues generated by the shows he worked on as a producer, including The Six Million Dollar Man; Quincy, M.E.; Battlestar Galactica; Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider. The dispute was settled four years later in December 2015.

This was not the first legal wrangle Larson had with the studio, as there had previously been a disagreement over ownership of rights to the Battlestar Galactica franchise. It was ultimately determined that Larson no longer owned the television rights to the property, but retained feature film rights.

Death
Larson died on November 14, 2014, in UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, California, from esophageal cancer, aged 77 and was survived by his wife Jeannie and nine children. He is buried at Rose Hill Burial Park (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma).

Awards and honors

 * Emmy Award
 * 1978: Nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, for Quincy, M.E.
 * Grammy Award
 * 1979: Nominated for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special, for Battlestar Galactica (nomination shared with Stu Phillips, John Andrew Tartaglia, and Sue Collins)
 * Edgar Award
 * 1973: Won for Best Episode in a TV Series Teleplay, for McCloud, "The New Mexico Connection"
 * 1981: Won for Best Episode in a TV Series Teleplay, for Magnum, P.I., "China Doll" (with Donald P. Bellisario)

Larson also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the television industry.

title: Glen A. Larson


text:
Weak consistency

The name weak consistency can be used in two senses. In the first sense, strict and more popular, weak consistency is one of the consistency models used in the domain of concurrent programming (e.g. in distributed shared memory, distributed transactions etc.).

A protocol is said to support weak consistency if:
 * 1) All accesses to synchronization variables are seen by all processes (or nodes, processors) in the same order (sequentially) - these are synchronization operations. Accesses to critical sections are seen sequentially.
 * 2) All other accesses may be seen in different order on different processes (or nodes, processors).
 * 3) The set of both read and write operations in between different synchronization operations is the same in each process.

Therefore, there can be no access to a synchronization variable if there are pending write operations. And there can not be any new read/write operation started if the system is performing any synchronization operation.

In the second, more general, sense weak consistency may be applied to any consistency model weaker than sequential consistency.

A stricter condition is strong consistency, where parallel processes can observe only one consistent state.

title: Weak consistency


text:
Commentator

Commentator or commentators may refer to:
 * Commentator (historical) or Postglossator, a member of a European legal school that arose in France in the fourteenth century
 * Commentator (horse) (foaled 2001), American Thoroughbred racehorse
 * The Commentator or Ibn Rushd or Averroes (1126–1198), Andalusian philosopher
 * "The Commentators", a 1985 single by Rory Bremner
 * Oregon Commentator, formerly a student publication at the University of Oregon
 * Political commentator or pundit
 * Sports commentator or sportscaster
 * The Commentator, a political website published by Robin Shepherd
 * The Commentator, formerly a student publication at Texas A&M University

title: Commentator


text:
User:Morwen/timeline of sovereignty

 * March 26, 1707 - England and Scotland merge into the Kingdom of Great Britain due to the Act of Union 1707

 * July 4, 1776 - Some colonies in British North America declare independence as the United States

 * September 3, 1783 - Great Britain recognise United States independence - Treaty of Paris (1783)

 * 1808 - Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland merge into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland due to the Act of Union 1800

 * July 1, 1867 - Canadian Confederation, federates most remaining colonies in British North America into Canada

 * December 11, 1931 - Statute of Westminster formally states that the Parliament of the United Kingdom is co-equal with Dominion parliaments.

 * August 30, 1999 - East Timor referendum calls for independence
 * October 25, 1999 - UNTAET formed in East Timor
 * May 20, 2002 - UNTAET abolished, East Timor becomes independent

title: User:Morwen/timeline of sovereignty


text:
John Jakes

John William Jakes (March 31, 1932 – March 11, 2023) was an American writer, best known for historical and speculative fiction. His American Civil War trilogy, North and South, has sold millions of copies worldwide. He was also the author of The Kent Family Chronicles. Jakes used the pen name Jay Scotland among others.

Early life and education
Jakes was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 31, 1932. He first sold stories to pulp magazines while still in college in the early 1950s. Jakes studied creative writing at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, graduating in 1953. He then earned an MA in American literature from Ohio State University. He and Rachel, to whom he had been married for 13 months at the time, appeared on the game show Beat the Clock on August 23, 1952. Although they failed to complete the Bonus Round, Rachel won a Sylvania "Jefferson" 20" screen television set. In 1961, Jakes moved to Dayton, Ohio. He lived there for ten years and worked as a copywriter for several advertising agencies while he wrote fiction at night and on the weekends. In 1971, he began to write full-time.

Writing career

Thrilling Wonder Stories, edited by Sam Merwin, published two 1949–1950 letters from Jakes and two of his stories were published in pulp magazines edited by Howard Browne late in 1950, The Dreaming Trees (Fantastic Adventures, November) and "Your Number Is Up!" (Amazing Stories, December). Jakes sold his first short story (1,500 words) in 1950.

28 more speculative fiction stories by Jakes were published 1951 to 1953. He then published dozens of stories and several novels during the twenty years following completion of college, many of them fantasy fiction, science fiction and westerns, and other sorts of historical fiction.

During this time, he was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s and led by Lin Carter. The eight original members were self-selected by fantasy credentials alone. They sought to promote the popularity and respectability of the "Sword and Sorcery" subgenre (such as Brak the Barbarian stories by Jakes).

Jakes gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became a bestselling American Bicentennial Series of books in the mid- to late 1970s, selling 55 million copies. He subsequently published several more popular works of historical fiction, most dealing with American history, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War, which sold 10 million copies and was adapted as an ABC miniseries.

In 1988, Jakes's stage adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol was first performed at his home theater on Hilton Head Island. It has since become popular for production by many universities and regional theaters, including the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

In September 2013, Jakes was named a Florida Literary Legend at the Florida Heritage Book Festival and Writers Conference in St. Augustine, Florida.

Personal life and death
Jakes lived on Bird Key in Sarasota, Florida, with his wife, Rachel, to whom he had been married from 1951. They had four grown children: Andrea, Dr. Ellen, J. Michael, and Victoria.

Jakes died in Sarasota on March 11, 2023, at the age of 90.

The Kent Family Chronicles

 * The Bastard (1974) (Film adaptation: The Bastard)
 * The Rebels (1975) (Film adaptation: The Rebels)
 * The Seekers (1975) (Film adaptation: The Seekers)
 * The Furies (1976)
 * The Titans (1976)
 * The Warriors (1977)
 * The Lawless (1978)
 * The Americans (1979)

The North and South trilogy

 * North and South (1982)
 * Love and War (1984)
 * Heaven and Hell (1987)

The Crown Family Saga

 * Homeland (1993)
 * American Dreams (1998)

Other

 * The Texans Ride North (1952)
 * A Night For Treason (1956)
 * Wear A Fast Gun (1956)
 * The Devil Has Four Faces (1958)
 * The Seventh Man (1958)
 * I, Barbarian (1959) (as Jay Scotland)
 * Johnny Havoc (1960)
 * Sir Scoundrel (1962) (as Jay Scotland)
 * Veils of Salome (1962)
 * Arena (1963) (as Jay Scotland)
 * Making It Big aka Johnny Havoc and the Siren in Red (1968)
 * On Wheels (1973)
 * California Gold (1989)
 * In The Big Country (1993), later reissued as The Bold Frontier (2001)
 * On Secret Service (2000)
 * Charleston (2002)
 * Savannah or a Gift for Mr. Lincoln (2004)
 * Funeral for Tanner Moody (with Elmer Kelton, Robert Randish) (2004)
 * The Gods of Newport (2006)

Brak the Barbarian

 * Brak the Barbarian (1968)
 * Brak the Barbarian Versus the Sorceress (also published as "Witch of the Four Winds"(1969)
 * Brak the Barbarian Versus the Mark of the Demons (1969)
 * When the Idols Walked (1978) ISBN 0-671-81373-0
 * The Fortunes of Brak (1980)
 * Brak the Barbarian / Mark of the Demons (omnibus) (2012)
 * Witch of the Four Winds / When the Idols Walked (omnibus) (2012)

Dark Gate

 * Master of the Dark Gate (1970)
 * Witch of the Dark Gate (1972)

Dragonard

 * When The Star Kings Die (1967)
 * The Planet Wizard (1969)
 * Tonight We Steal the Stars (1969)

Planet of the Apes

 * Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Other novels

 * Secrets Of Stardeep (1969)
 * The Hybrid (1969)
 * The Last Magicians (1969)
 * The Asylum World (1969)
 * Mask of Chaos (1970)
 * Monte Cristo #99 (1970)
 * Six-Gun Planet (1970)
 * Black in Time (1970)
 * Time Gate (1972)
 * Mention My Name in Atlantis (1972)
 * On Wheels (1973)
 * Excalibur (1980) with Gil Kane

Collections

 * The Best of John Jakes (1977)

Children's books

 * Susanna of the Alamo (1986)

Nonfiction

 * Famous Firsts in Sports (1967)
 * Great War Correspondents (1967)
 * Great Women Reporters (1969)
 * Mohawk: The Life Of Joseph Brant (1969)

Plays

 * A Christmas Carol (1988)

Adaptations
The Bastard was adapted as a television miniseries by Universal Pictures Television as the first offering of the highly successful syndicated package, Operation Prime Time (1978). It was followed by The Rebels (1979) and The Seekers (1979). The North and South trilogy was made into three miniseries on ABC in the 1980s and 1990s.

title: John Jakes