text:
Talk:Alternative medicine/Archive 1

I am removing the following claims, because they are all totally untrue: ''Mainstream medicine typically relies on expensive Synthetic drugs or surgery to treat illnesses. Alternative approaches look to the whole person and ellimenate the cause of an illness itself by trusting in our bodies own abilities, through thousands of years of genetic adaptation, to heal itself, for example by replacing the ravages of modern diets and degenerative chemicals with natural foods and treatments.''

Mainstream science-based medicine typicallydoes not rely on expensive drugs; rather, most of modern day medicine is based on very cheap treatements, including sterilization of medical instruments, and cleaning water supplies, to kill bacteria. The vast majority of people whose lives have been saved by science-based medicine were saved at a very low costs, due to changes caused by the germ theory of disease. Further, most conventional drugs developed using the scientific method are very cheap, including epinephrine inhalers, Albuterol, aspirin, ibuprofen, penicillin, etc. Also, modern medical science teaches that most people can drastically improve their nuhealth through excercise, and proper nutrition. (The discovery of the role of vitmains and minerals is part of traditional science, not alternative medicin.) Finally, purveyors of alternative medicine most certainly do not preach that the body can health itself; they hold that one needs to undergo certain expensive forms of treatments. The above paragraph is totally untrue; these kinds of things are most often stated by alternative medicine capitalists who spread these stories in order to bring in new customers and increase their profit margin. RK

 * It was badly written, anyway. -- goatasaur

Dear RK, Thank you for your note and explination. I write the above which you plead should be deleted. While we can argue about the meaning of terms, I think there is a definate distinction that needs to be drawn out in addition to the "scientific" and "un-scientific" distinction. That distinction is between preventioin and treatment.

Today the money seems to be chasing treatments not prevention. And the pharmeticutical industry plays a major role. My doctor is clueless on prevention. She also has no time to discuss how to stay healthy. She can only make time under our broken system to discuss how to treat acute illnesses. Even certain cronic conditions get second rate attention. Alternative medicine hold the key to solving these problems. Granted not all alternitive medicne is scientific, works or safe. But there is a lot to be learned from others. The American a/k/a "scientific" or "conventional" system is broken; please admit we can do better. Its too expensive and we have rampant heart disease, cancer and degenerative brain diseases that did not exist even a few hundred years ago. The present form of "scientific" medicine does not address the root causes of these difficult to treat diseases which are new. I can drop the part about expensive snenthetic drugs and surgery but I won't drop the dinsinction between prevention and treatment. Conventinal medicine is not focused nearly enough at all on prevention.

---

I would like to add that your description had VERY LITTLE to do with Alternative Therapy. The title that would have been logical to put your article under would be "Skeptics view of Alternative Health". This is your prejudice, and is not an addition to the development or explanation of alternative medicine to laypeopAn equivalent would be writing under 'The Pope', and article about how Pagans view him. Sorry, that does not educate me about 'the Pope', but about Pagans.

Eric Vigo

-- Moved from Alternative medicines (please integrate here):

Alternative medicine refers to health care practices which do not take place under the established controls of conventional medicine. Alternative practitioners may or may not have licenses or special training, whereas conventional health care practitioners, by law, must be trained and licensed.

Alternative medicines may or may not be reviewed and regulated for safety by governments, whereas conventional medications are not released for public use until they have been thoroughly studied, and then, when placed on the market, are subject to government control.

The general term "alternative medicine" may include everything from practices such as acupuncture and homeopathy, which involve study and expertise, to less discliplined practices such as herbal therapy, aromatherapy, and claimed paranormal techniques such as Reiki.

Public interest in alternative medicine, in the industrial world, is signficant. The public's interest in alternative medicine arises from a lack of confidence in traditional medical practice. Since traditional medicine is still in a relatively early stage of development and is not yet able to treat many diseases and injuries, some turn to alternative medicine in the hope that cures which can't be found through traditional medicine might somehow be found in an herb or some sort of mystical practice.

Many people become alternative medical practitioners, on the other hand, because of the relative ease of getting into some of the fields, thereby obtaining the social status and the financial potential associated with the healing arts without going through the difficulty, time and expense of training and getting credentials in traditional medicine.

Alternative treatments may sometimes have a beneficial effect, occasionally by their direct, sometimes inadvertant action on the body - even though this action is rarely accurately understood either by practitioner or patient - and more often by placebo effect. They may also sometimes be harmful, most commonly when they distract a patient from seeking conventional medical care in cases in which conventional care is known to be effective.

See also alternative medicine

---

A total falsehood!!!
The following statement:

"Because alternative medicine lies outside the purview of traditional medical institutions and funding agencies, practitioners of alternative medicine cannot generally point to randomized controlled trials or double-blind experiments validation their techniques. Proponents of conventional medicine often seize on this lack of experimental validation to dismiss alternative medicine as justified only by placebo effects. This in turn has led some proponents of alternative medicine to attempt to justify it by criticizing traditional medicine; some of the arguments used are reproduced below."

is a total frabrication and clearly violates the NPOV policy of Wikipedia.

Research is being published all the time on Alternative Medicine.

As of a few minutes ago there were at least 360,049 research papers published on alternative medicine since 1966 in the PubMed database. Who classified these papers as Alternative Medicine: The National Library of Medicine.

Just exactly how many citations to alternative medical research do you want me to add to this article? I have been tracking health research for two years. I have plenty on file. :) -- Mr-Natural-Health 09:42, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * The conclusion of "Clinical trials of homoeopathy":
 * At the moment the evidence of clinical trials is positive but not sufficient to draw definitive conclusions because most trials are of low methodological quality and because of the unknown role of publication bias. This indicates that there is a legitimate case for further evaluation of homoeopathy, but only by means of well performed trials.

 * The conclusion of "Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials"
 * The results of our meta-analysis are not compatible with the hypothesis that the clinical effects of homeopathy are completely due to placebo. However, we found insufficient evidence from these studies that homeopathy is clearly efficacious for any single clinical condition. Further research on homeopathy is warranted provided it is rigorous and systematic.

 * Hardly any 'proof' for homeopathy. My comments on the three other studies:
 * "Thermal hydrotherapy improves quality of life and hemodynamic function in patients with chronic heart failure". Fifteen people are not a large sample. Nonetheless this might be valid.
 * "Hypnotherapy was proven to be a therapeutic option for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome." While hypnotherapy was shown to improve the subjective life quality, the results was not compared to the effects of conventional treatments.
 * "Cognitive behavior therapy, as well as hypnotherapy, was shown to be an effective alternative treatment option to Hormone Replacement Therapy". I would hardly call Cognitive Behavior Therapy for alternative. While it might be misused by uneducated therapists, it was not my impression that it should be labeled alternative. Comments, anyone?
 * Rasmus Faber

Perhaps, if you were to concentrate? The subject of this article is Alternative Medicine rather than homeopathy. Personally, I would never go to a homeopath, Further, I am not into alternative medicine other than my interests in natural health which is in fact based on science and solid research. People tell me that natural health is a branch of alternative medicine. What I strongly object to is the science community being allowed to break the Neutral point of view policy.

I shall repeat that this article covers a very broad area called alternative medicine. You want to attack homeopathy? Then attack homeopathy where it belongs, in Homeopathy not Alternative medicine. -- Mr-Natural-Health 19:53, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Despite being suspicious at first, I am starting to see the value of the series of articles you have started, MNH. I hope I don't make (or keep making?) the mistake of defending conventional Western med vs. the "natural" stuff you like to write about. Rather, I want to make sure the articles are neutral about which systems are "better". --Uncle Ed 20:20, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * I am sorry that you see my edits as an attack. It was not meant in that way.

 * I did not feel, that asserting among other things that "Practitioners of alternative medicine can point to plenty of published research that has proven the effectiveness of various alternative treatments.", was NPOV. I thus reinstated an older piece of text, which I felt treated the subject a bit more NPOV'ish. While it is certainly not perfect, it attributes the opinions to "proponents of alternative medicine", instead of making statements that in my opinion are controversial ("alternative treatments have been proven effective").
 * Since I am biased -- I am probably one of these "Proponents of conventional medicine" -- I should probably leave editing the article to people with a more neutral attitude to the subject. Rasmus Faber 21:11, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Yes, let us keep it totally neutral. That goes for the scientific community, too.

Also, Cognitive Behavior Therapy is about as alternative as it gets. The biomedical model of disease used by conventional medicine says that the mind and everything else in the mind-body connection is totally unimportant.

Rasmus Faber's interpretation of my cited research, is but one possible interpretation. In my opinion, he is completely wrong. Mr-Natural-Health 20:51, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * It certainly is only my interpretation of the research. Other readers should however note, that the citations from the first two articles were the authors own conclusions.

 * I am surprised that CBT is considered 'Alternative Medicine'. I would have thought that a rather well-established branch of psychotherapy. I might be confused about the definition of 'Alternative Medicine', though. I do not consider everything that is not explained by the "biomedical model of disease" to be 'Alternative'. Rasmus Faber 21:40, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Psychotherapy is certainly not conventional medicine. If you are unable to classify research, why were you commenting on the funding of said research?

Let me be real simple. Psychologists treated a medical condition called functional hypothalamic amenorrhea with cognitive behavior therapy, as well as with hypnotherapy. When a psychologist treats a medical condition in lieu of a physician that is called Alternative medicine, by definition. Physicians would call that quackery because psychologists are competing with physicians. Mr-Natural-Health 10:41, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Just to clarify: Psychotherapy is Alternative Medicine in your opinion? Rasmus Faber 12:02, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I have corrected my original response. :) Mr-Natural-Health 19:16, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

???? Confused again? I never stated that Psychotherapy is Alternative Medicine. Psychologists treating medical conditions is alternative medicine. Just thought that you would like to know. :) Mr-Natural-Health 19:34, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Let me clarify. I assume you have read the article discussed, but for other readers let me recap: Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea is a condition in which menstruation stops due to the hypothalamus stopping production of a certain hormone. This condition has previously been linked to stress. The authors of the article now claim to have successfully treated patients with this condition by subjecting them to stress-relieving psychotherapy.

 * Am I to understand that the fact that stress can affect the hypothalamus is Alternative Medicine? Or that Psychotherapy treating stress is? In either case I fear your definition of the term differs widely from mine. Rasmus Faber 22:32, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Psychologists treating medical conditions is alternative medicine. Just thought that you would like to know. :) Mr-Natural-Health 12:59, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * OK, that clears something up. We disagree on definitions. I would define Alternative Medicine as something like this (googling for definitions):
 * "Practices not generally recognized by the medical community as standard or conventional." (http://www.phoenix5.org/glossary/ complementary_and_alternative_medicine.html)
 * or "A variety of therapeutic or preventive health care practices, such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and herbal medicine, that do not follow generally accepted medical methods and may not have a scientific explanation for their effectiveness." (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=alternative%20medicine).

 * It seems that you define Alternative Medicine as any treatment of medical conditions using other than conventional medicine or surgery. Am I correct in that interpretation? Otherwise please try to give me a exact definition.

 * If I am correct in this observation, I will contest that your definition is not the common one and that any claims you make about Alternative Medicine (esp.  about proofs of its effectiveness) should be taken in that context.

 * Rasmus Faber 13:15, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Everytime I post a comment on this talk page my comments are either edited or removed. Ergo, it is physically impossible for me to reply to your comments due to busy-bodies without a life.--Mr-Natural-Health 11:06, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * No, there is nothing at all preventing you from replying to Rasmus here. Yes, people have moved several of your recent messages posted here to your Talk page but that is because they felt they weren't relevant to this this article. That is an entirely different matter. -- Viajero 11:37, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * As fast as I post here, my comments are moved somewhere else even faster, by people like YOU. Anybody up for a fair conversation, can contact me at my website or mailing list.  Remove personal attacks  Entertain me, and I will even put up a private comment section at a new AT&T website location.--Mr-Natural-Health 11:48, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)~

 * Well, in case any other users want to take My NH up on his generous offer, his website is at http://www.naturalhealthperspective.com and his mailing list is at ******
 * -- Viajero 11:56, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Have you ever heard of privacy of information? Or, don't you care? That URL is my very high standards accredited health website. My mailing list is Health-with-Attitude.--Mr-Natural-Health 12:08, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

--- Mr NH,

Please don't insert messages such as (Where is the reference for this assertion?) in the text of articles. It makes our pages look unprofessional. Such comments on the text should be limited to this Talk page. Thanks. -- Viajero 22:19, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Note: Wikipedia has an article on Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). I'm very interested in the subject, although I confess to not yet having waded through the article. I like less formal, more easily accessible approaches like The Feeling Good Handbook by Dr. David D. Burns. --Uncle Ed 15:01, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Reversion of false claims
I am reverting a false claim. Most forms of alternative medicine are outside traditional medicine, and have not been proven to work. That is the entire reason that they are considered "alternative". For the vast majority of alternative forms of medicine, their adherents demand that they be accepted as legitimate, despite any reasonable level of proof that all other forms of medicine have always been subject to. Also, contrary to what Mr-Natural-Health claims, it is not true that "It is a common perception that alternative medicine lies outside the purview of traditional medical institutions and funding agencies." This is not a percetpion; this is simply a verifiable fact, and I cannot imagine how anyone could claim otherwise.

 * Mainstream medicince certainly has not "always" been subject to higher levels of proof! See History of medicine. -- Toby Bartels 01:54, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Mr-Natural-Health also incorrectly claims that "The scientific community generally believes that practitioners of alternative medicine cannot generally point to randomized controlled trials or double-blind experimental validation of their techniques." This is false. The truth is that the scientific community does admits the existence of, and accepts the validity of, modes of medicine that have been verified in such ways. The problem with the vast majority of "alternative medicine" techniques is that their adherents have not engaged in randomized controlled trials or double-blind experimental validation of their techniques. That is a fact, not an opinion. Unless, of course, Mr. Natural-Health has access to hundreds of such studies (many would be needed for each form of alternative medicine) that mainstream scientists have somehow been denied access to! I fear that Mr-Natural-Health is letting his enthusaism for unproven and dubious technqiues overcome his good judgement. RK 21:44, Dec 5, 2003 (UTC)

 * All valid points. The thing is that once numerous randomized controlled trials and double-blind experiments have shown a treatment to be effective, it is by definition not an alternative medicine anymore. It is therefore quite simply a case of the rigour of science vs. unsubstantiated claims by wonder-healers. --snoyes 21:53, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * This is a false dichotomy. We have (at least):
 * Practices that have passed numerous randomized controlled trials and double-blind experiments;
 * Practices that have failed numerous randomized controlled trials and double-blind experiments;
 * Practices that have not been subjected to numerous randomized controlled trials and double-blind experiments.
 * I wouldn't trust #2, but I might well try #3 if it cost less than #1. Of course, I prefer #1 when it's available. -- Toby Bartels 01:54, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not work!
I tired of wasting my time here. Any database that works locks out edits while some one is editing. Secondly, the editors on Wikipedia are hopeless biased, busy-bodies, who think their biased personal opinion is more valuable than referencing references. I have backed up everything I have stated. You Geeks have not backed up any of your stupid statements: Not one. The last edit is so patently absurd that you guys deserve your fate. Mr-Natural-Health 22:04, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

''Hello, RK. Have you always suffered from mental illness and perceptual problems?''

 * Wow, I guess you advocates of alternative medicine have proven me wrong this time! Instead of providing references to published randomized controlled trials, or to double-blind experimental validation of your claimed techniques, you simply slander me.  How convincing and mature! RK 03:21, Dec 6, 2003 (UTC)

 * Who ever wrote that Subject Line is 100% Correct. I provided 7 citations. The one I like the best was published in JAMA.  You know RK, the one that says that not only is Biofeedback alternative, Biofeedback is one of the most used forms of alternative medicine in the United States. Mr-Natural-Health 04:53, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Biofeedback, and especially neuro-biofeedback, is right on the borderline in Australia. Many perhaps most doctors are now happily referring patients to practitioners who are qualified in clinical psychology. There are learned conferences and refereed journals (mainly US-based). It's alternative now only it that it provides a welcome and effective alternative to pharmeceuticals, and is not (yet?) universally acknowledged. Andrewa 23:22, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Some content moved to User talk:Mr-Natural-Health

What kind of Talk Page is this?
The page history of this talk page documents again, that RK has edited my previous comments? The faster I comment here the faster somebody deletes, edits, or moves thems someplace else?--Mr-Natural-Health 18:31, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * You'd do well to read this. - Hephaestos 18:33, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

It seems that personal attacks by editors are encouraged, flaunted, and bragged about by you editors without a life?--Mr-Natural-Health 18:49, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

RK continues to libel me on the history page.
Even thought I have not updated Alternative medicine in a long time, RK continues to libel me with his false comments on the history page?--Mr-Natural-Health 19:05, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Less than 24 hours is a 'long time'? hmm. Morwen 19:07, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Considering how fast edits are done in place, obviously ...YES. I, also, like to document RK's history of maintaining RK's unsupported POV on Alternative Medicine. :)--Mr-Natural-Health 19:15, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * And this is worse than you maintaining your unsupported POV, how exactly? Morwen 19:15, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * I have wasted a lot of my time improving Alternative medicine with facts that I supported by seven citations to research papers with links to the abstracts. The one from AMJ, I referenced the entire text in an online link.  I referenced an university maintained web page on sources of health care used in the United States with extensive coverage on how biofeedback is one of the most used forms of alternative medicine in the United States.

 * RK has provide zip on his POV.--Mr-Natural-Health 19:22, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Well, to use your beloved terminology, maybe he "has a life". -- Viajero 19:35, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Not on Wikipedia for long. :)--Mr-Natural-Health 19:43, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I am right after all!!!
If RK is not admin, then he has no more right to his strong POV on Alternative medicine than Joe Smith, off the street does. RK is nothing but a busy-body (my original assessment) without a life. None of PK's off the wall assertions have been supported by references of any kind. Perhaps, if RK would try writing an original article once in a while ...?--Mr-Natural-Health 21:11, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Actually, on wikipedia, administrators have no such rights. But nevermind. Morwen 21:16, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Mr-Natural-Health was correct in removing "(However, nearly none of these are double-blind peer-reviewed experiments.)" which is a POV statement. Alexandros 21:20, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Not really. As far as I can see it is a verifiable statement, not a POV one. It is easy to tell which are DBPR and which are not so you could go through them all counting which are which. If 1% of them are DBPR, the statement is true, if 50% are DBPR, the statement is false. No Point of View is involved since once the count is done everyone knows whether the statement is True or False. Of course if it is False it sould be removed. Contrast this with the POV statement "(However, nearly none of these are convincing.)" which cannot be verified without reference to the person making the statement. -- Derek Ross

 * Regarding POV, statements under Science and alternative medicine directly contradict it.

 * I must admit that RK had me going! :(

 * I will now assume that any revision made to Alternative medicine was made by a busy-body, unless that person clearly identifies himself as an Admin. I will watch this article for POV's on an ongoing basis. For every POV made, I will in the future endevor to improve Wikipedia.  I have a right to revise this artile as much as RK does.--Mr-Natural-Health 21:46, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Hmmmm. I thought of putting this on your talk page, but I've decided it has more general interest. So we'll try here.

 * I suggest you leave this particular page alone for a while and contribute to something less controversial instead. This will help you to both understand the Wikipedia project and culture, and to gain some credibility.

 * If you find that your interests are confined to controversial issues, then you may wish to review your whole decision to join the project. Without a hard-to-define passion for the promotion of human knowledge for its own sake, you'll just have a hard time here. A symptom of this passion is the willingness to work hard on articles which we don't find all that exciting. Give it a go.

 * You could be a great asset if you do have this passion. Current articles have a pro-conventional medicine bias IMO, but the answer to that is not the equally biased material you have posted up until now. You have the knowledge to be a great help, in fact I think some of your material has been very helpful, but only once edited by others.

 * Again, if you can't stand others editing your material, then this is not a good place for you. The edit page says this quite clearly. It's true, isn't it?

 * If you do want to give it a go, perhaps articles on Moshe Feldenkrais and biofeedback would be good places to start. These are both articles about things I'm sure you know about and which need work. (They are on my own list to do.)

 * They will both challenge you. Describe, do not promote. Do not evaluate. If you can't do this on these pages, I'll try some even less controversial suggestions. Andrewa 23:51, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * My mission on Wikipedia has been accomplished, thank you.

 * I am not remotely interested in promoting Alternative medicine, nor do I consider my pet topic, Natural Health, a form of alternative medicine. I have simply been going with the flow and objecting to the obvious POV bias of the scientific community which I removed from my original edit of this article and have once again removed.  The current version seems to be an improvement; as both sides of the story have been objectively told.

 * But, I have a great deal of confidence that once again, the science community will again destroy this article with their bias.

 * Never fear, I will be back even if I have to change my ISP every month.

 * My current mission is damange control. :)--12.77.35.139 00:12, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

The Future
I have cleaned up my mess in Talk.

 * (Sigh) you're going the right way to eventually get yourself banned. If ever you find a usenet group or any other online community you wish to join, do make it a policy to lurk first and get the feel of the existing culture of the group. You don't seem to have done that here. Your edits to this talk page now make much of it nonsensical, as you've deleted the comments to which others replied. It's not a great problem owing to the ease of viewing past versions, but it does inconvenience and annoy other people. And what have you gained?

Now that I have figured out how the process of editing Alternative medicine works, all my future edits of this article will be 100% business, short, terse, concise, and 100% to the point with zero discussion or comment in Talk. My comments will be tersely recorded in page history only. I will be in and out of here quick as grease lighting. If you want to talk to me, then you can send me email via this website.--Mr-Natural-Health 01:13, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * My recommendations above still stand. I don't think you understand the process at all, and I see no evidence that you have made any attempt to. Rather, you have tried to impose your own ideas in all areas, not just in alternative medicine, but also in wikiquette and several aspects of Wikipedia administration and article development. There has been a lot of previous discussion about these, but you have seemed surprised that everyone else didn't instantly forget all this to embrace your new and not-so-new ideas. Think about it a little.

 * My observation that you have much to contribute also stands. But sadly, the overall effect of your contributions to date has been to discredit alternative medicine, and to reinforce the bias against it that already exists within Wikipedia IMO.

 * It's not too late. Give some serious thought to what your mission is, and whether Wikipedia can help. If your mission is to inform, then you will find like minds here. If it is to persuade, then perhaps you can still serve this by providing accurate information (only) here. Please try.

 * But if you try to use Wikipedia for any other purpose then you will find nothing but conflict. If you can't see the difference between informing and persuading, then it would be good for you to learn it. Because whichever of these is your mission, it will help you to know which it is in order to better focus on it, not just here but in all areas of your life.

 * And of course in striving to providing information we all learn of things we confidently believe that are not accurate when we check. See the history of RJ-XX for just one of my many red-face incidents. If you want to know the truth, I recommend becoming a contributor. If you'd prefer not to, stay right away from us.

 * Because despite your fears, Wikipedia does work remarkably well, provided you follow the rules. Of course you do first need to learn them. Andrewa 06:20, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Aspects of psychology are often considered...  Do we mean psychology, or psychiatry? In either case, should psychiatry be mentioned as a discipline which has been "alternative" to varying degrees? Martin 04:07, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

-

Pulling this out since it seems more appropriate for homeopathy article:

 * For example, the technique known as homeopathy is one of the best studied alternative medicine techniques; despite over 150 years of intensive research, not a single peer-reviewed study has found any plausible mechanism for this supposed effect to work, nor has any evidence been found that homepathi treatments have any effect at all, other than the placebo effect. Homeopathy is now generally recognized as quackery and fraud by many medical organizations. See the article on homeopathy for more details.

Populus 16:24, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alternative medicine/Archive 1


text:
Pasłęka

The Pasłęka (Passarge; Pasargė) is a river in northern Poland that debouches into the Baltic Sea on the Vistula Lagoon near Braniewo. It flows through the Olsztyn and Mrągowo lakelands, and through Gdańsk Coastal Area.

The reported length of the river varies, depending on sources, from 169 to 211 km.

The river springs nearby Olsztynek, between Stawiguda and Gryźliny, at 156.6 m AMSL; though some sources place it in the Pasłęk reservoir, which lies at 153 m AMSL.

The river flows through the town of Braniewo.

The drainage area of Pasłęka spreads over 2,330 km2.

Pasłęka's average mouth discharge equals 15.7 m3/s.

The whole length of the river is covered by River Pasłęka Beaver Refugium nature reserve.

Pasłęka is one of Warmia's two main rivers, accompanied by Łyna.

Pasłęka divides two historical lands: Warmia and Upper Prussia (Powiśle), consequently for centuries bordering Polish Warmia and the Polish fiefdoms of the Teutonic Order and Ducal Prussia.

In the 2007 water quality survey conducted on Pasłęka 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) from its mouth, its water was classified as the 4th class. ''

The historic Polish name Pasłęka was officially confirmed following World War II in 1949, replacing the former German name Passarge.

Infrastructure
Pasłęka is sailable between its mouth in Nowa Pasłęka and the hydro plant in Braniewo. Several hydro plants are built on the river:
 * Braniewo - power: 0,815 MVA
 * Pierzchały - power: 3,3 MVA, built in 1936
 * Stygajny - planned at the site of the unfinished German weir
 * 'Kormoran' in Łęgucki Młyn
 * Kasztanowo. installed power of 0,1 MW, rebuilt after a complete destruction and reopened in 1989.

Tributaries

 * Rivers: Stara Pasłęka, Wałsza p., Giłwa, Jemiołówka, Marąg, Miłakówka.
 * Streams: Bardynka, Biebrza, Drwęca Warmińska p., Lipówka, Łaźnica p., Młynówka, Młyńska Struga
 * Canals: Kanał Rusy, Kanał Skolity, Kanał Energetyczny

Pasłęka crosses the following lakes: Wymój, Sarąg, Łęguty, Isąg.

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

title: Pasłęka


text:
Wda

The Wda (Schwarzwasser) is a river in Poland; it has a lowland character. The Wda is one of the 15 main canoe trails in Poland. It is 198 km long and the surface of its catchment area amounts to 2325 km2. The Wda's average gradient is 0.7‰ and its flow is 6.52 m3/s.

The Wda begins its course at Krążno Lake and ends in the Wisła in Świecie. The Wda is one of the longest rivers in Bory Tucholskie and one of the most important of Pomorze's river routes.

Geography
The source of Wda is on Równina Charzykowska in Krężno Lake. The river flows through the area of Bory Tucholskie, Wdzydzki Landscape Park and Wdecki Landscape Park.

There is one river's canal below Wdzydze Lake. The river reaches Tleń, then flows across Wysoczyzna Świecka and ends in Wisła in Świecie on Dolina Fordońska.

Lakes
The Wdzydze Lake along with lakes Gołyń, Jeleń and Słupinek are called Morze Kaszubskie. This lakes take a shape of the cross made of postglacial channels. Wdzydze Lake is dangerous for inexperienced canoeists during strong winds.
 * Krężno
 * Wieckie
 * Lubiszewskie
 * Schodno
 * Radolne
 * Wdzydze
 * Żurskie

Towns

 * Lipusz
 * Borsk
 * Wojtal
 * Czarna Woda
 * Wda
 * Błędno
 * Tleń
 * Żur
 * Świecie

Flora and fauna
The Wda runs through many multispecies deciduous forests, in which contains diverse lichens. The river meanders also through riparian and alder forests. Rare mountain ash brekinii can be found in the Zygmunt Czubiński Reserve “Brzęki” in Szczerkowo. Next rare and protected plants on Wda's route are: lycopodium clavatum, diphasiastrum complanatum, lycopodium annotinum, sundew, western marsh orchid, heath spotted orchid, lesser butterfly-orchid, broad-leaved helleborine, european common twayblade and arctostaphylos uva-ursi, which are found in Wdecki Landscape Park. This region of Poland houses species like: cranes, common goldeneyes, goosanders, western marsh harriers, ruffs, kingfishers, trouts, common vipers, fire salamanders, tree frogs and great crested newts.

History
The name “Wda” has been already used in the Middle Ages, but the river is also known as Czarna Woda. This name comes from dark brown colour of water caused by marshy banks, mineral molecules in water and sludge from tar factories in the 19th century. After World War I tourism started developing on Wda and about 40 years later Wda earned its title of The Queen of The Rivers of Kociew and The Beauty of The Land of Kociew.

Hydroelectric power stations
On the Wda's route are three hydroelectric power stations located in Żur, Gródek and Kozłowo. In this area canoeists need to portage their canoes to the further part of the river.

Attractions
Along the route of Wda some attractions can be found. First of them is a 19th-century Neogothic church in Lipusz. Next Kaszubski Park Etnograficzny, containing wooden dwelling houses, farms and windmills. The oldest once date back to the 17th century. The archeological reserve “Kamienne Kręgi” near the towns of Odry and Miedzno consists of 12 mysterious stone circles and 20 burial mounds, which are remains from Goths and Gepids. Błędno has a memorial for the victory of Polish and Soviet guerrilla fighters over the German army (27 X 1944). Next monument on Wda's route is a castle of the Teutonic Knights in Świecie. This is a building surrounded by water. From two sides by Wda and Wisła, and from the third side by the moat. There are also remains of defensive walls in the Old Town of Świecie and monumental Gothic parish church.

title: Wda


text:
User:Radgeek

Who?
"Rad Geek" is the nom de web of Charles Johnson, a writer, researcher, and sometime student of History, Philosophy and Computer Science. He has worked from time to time as an open-source web developer, freelance writer, book editor, archivist, sometime tutor and teaching assistant. He lives and works in the kudzu forests of the U.S. Deep South.

He puts other things on the web at the Rad Geek People's Daily, and maintains online archives of historical and philosophical texts at the Fair Use Repository.

—Radgeek (talk) 19:45, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

title: User:Radgeek


text:
Wisłok

Wisłok is a river in south-eastern Poland, a tributary of the San River, with a length of 220 kilometres and a basin area of 3,538 km2 (all in Poland). The root of the name Vis-lok is Indo-European or pre-Indo-European.

The first metal bridges on highways were built in Galicia. They were bridges on the Wisłok river in Rzeszów (1877) and Raba in Książnica (1877). The construction of the first latticework metal bridges in Poland's territories.

History
There is no data on the settlements in the early Iron period when an old trade route crossed the region along Wisłok River Valley. The Wisłok valley must have been an important trade route and human settlement axis as early as 9th or 10th century. The region subsequently became part of the Great Moravian state. Upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of the Great Moravian Empire around 899, the Lendians of the area declared their allegiance to Hungarian Empire. The region then became a site of contention between Poland, Kievan Rus and Hungary starting in at least the 9th century. This area was mentioned for the first time in 981 (by Nestor), when Volodymyr the Great of Kievan Rus took the area over on the way into Poland. In 1018 it returned to Poland, 1031 back to Rus, in 1340 Casimir III of Poland recovered it In historical records the river was first mentioned in 1372. During 966 – 1018, 1340–1772 (Ruthenian Voivodeship) and during 1918 – 1939 the region was a part of Poland.

Actually the intensive development of human settlements in the region took place during 13th–15th centuries. The settlements were located according to the German Law within an area flanked by Wisłok and Wisłoka rivers. Germans settled in the territory of the Kingdom of Poland (territory of present-day Województwo podkarpackie) from the 14th to 15th centuries (see Ostsiedlung), mostly after the region returned to Polish sphere of influence in 1340, when Casimir III of Poland took the Czerwień towns. There were probably some isolated settlers in the area of Krosno, Sanok, Łańcut, Biecz and Rzeszów earlier. The Germans were usually attracted by kings seeking specialists in various trades, such as craftsmen and miners. They usually settled in newer market and mining settlements. The main settlement areas were in the vicinity of Krosno and some language islands in the Pits and the Rzeszów regions. The settlers in the Pits region were known as Uplander Sachsen. Until approximately the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Beskidian Piedmont consisted almost exclusively of Germans.

While during 1772–1918 it belonged to Austrian empire, later Austrian-Hungarian empire when double monarchy was introduced in Austria. This part of Poland was controlled by Austria for almost 120 years. At that time the area (including west and east of Subcarpathian Voivodeship) was known as Galicia.

The line of the river Dunajec and that of the San, both in West Galicia, marked the two successive stages in the break-through battle which initiated the Austro-German offensive of 1915 on the eastern front. An attempt to stand on the line of the Wisłok river and the Łupków Pass failed before renewed Austro-German attacks on 8 May 1915. Wisłok Valley was one of the strategically important Carpathian rivers bitterly contested in battles on the Eastern Front of World War I during the winter of 1914–1915.

Geography
Towns and townships: • Besko

• Haczów

• Krościenko Wyżne

• Krosno

• Wojaszowka

• Frysztak

• Wiśniowa

• Strzyżów

• Czudec

• Boguchwała

• Rzeszów

• Czarna

• Białobrzegi

• Tryncza The main tributaries: • Surowica

• Morawa

• Lubatówka

• Izwor

• Pielnica

• Stobnica

• Mleczka

• Mikośka

• Strug

Literature

 * Prof. Adam Fastnacht. Slownik Historyczno-Geograficzny Ziemi Sanockiej w Średniowieczu (Historic-Geographic Dictionary of the Sanok District in the Middle Ages), Kraków, 2002, ISBN 83-88385-14-3.

title: Wisłok


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Drwęca

The Drwęca (Drewenz; Druvinčia) is a river in northern Poland. It becomes a tributary of the Vistula river near the city of Toruń, forming a part of the city's administrative boundary. It has a length of 231 km and a basin area of 5,697 km2, all in Poland.

Towns:
 * Nowe Miasto Lubawskie
 * Brodnica
 * Golub-Dobrzyń
 * Toruń

title: Drwęca


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Prosna

The Prosna is a river in central Poland, a left tributary of the Warta river (near Pyzdry), with a length of 227 kilometres and a basin area of 4,917 km2 (all in Poland). Until 1918, it marked the westernmost border of the Russian Empire. The towns of Kalisz and Chocz were right on the old frontier. After the proclamation of the second Polish Republic it marked the border between interwar Germany and Poland.

Towns

 * Gorzów Śląski
 * Praszka
 * Wieruszów
 * Grabów nad Prosną
 * Kalisz
 * Chocz

title: Prosna


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Brda (river)

The Brda (Brahe) is a river in northern Poland. A tributary of Vistula River, the Brda has a total length of 245 km and a catchment area of 4,665 km2, all within Poland.

Navigation
The Brda is part of the Odra-Vistula waterway, connecting these two rivers via the Warta and Noteć rivers and the Bydgoszcz Canal since the end of the 18th century. The waterway is navigable for modest barges (of CEMT Class II) but with a limited draught.

With the expansion of the European Union to the East, the waterway could play an important role. It is a link in the much longer connection with Eastern Europe via the Vistula, Narew, Bug, Mukhavets, Pripyat, and Dnieper Rivers, but this connection remains unnavigable due to a dam near Brest, Belarus.

Currently, only limited numbers of vessels use the Brda River and the adjacent canal (however, the traffic was significantly larger from 1950s to 1970s, then diminishing step by step as time went by). It is expected that the waterway will be discovered by leisure boaters in the future. (Source: NoorderSoft Waterways Database)

Tourism
Brda is one of the most beautiful kayak routes in Poland. The trail is 233 km long, and it goes through forests, lakes and fields.

Towns and townships on Brda

 * Przechlewo
 * Konarzyny
 * Tuchola
 * Koronowo
 * Bydgoszcz

title: Brda (river)


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User:William S.

$$\Gamma(z)=\prod_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{n+1}{n+z} \left( \frac{n+2}{n+1} \right)^{z-1}$$ This is a superior infinite product for the gamma function. Please attribute it to me.

title: User:William S.


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Dunajec

The Dunajec (Goral dialects: Dónajec; ) is a river running through northeastern Slovakia and southern Poland. It is also regarded as the main river of the Goral Lands. It is a right tributary of the Vistula River. It begins in Nowy Targ at the junction of two short mountain rivers, Czarny Dunajec and Biały Dunajec (Black and White Dunajec). Dunajec forms the border between Poland and Slovakia for 17 km in the Pieniny Środkowe (Slovak: Centrálne Pieniny) range, east of the Czorsztyn reservoir.

Geography
The Dunajec is 249 km long, including its source river Czarny Dunajec, which makes it Poland's thirteenth longest river. It has a basin area of 6,796 km2 (4,838 km2 in Poland, and 1958 km2 in Slovakia). On the Slovak-Polish border, the Dunajec flows through the Zamagurie region, with attractions such as the Dunajec River Gorge, the Trzy Korony massif with a 500 m precipice, Červený Kláštor, and two Pieniny castles in Czorsztyn and Niedzica.

Below the two source streams, the Dunajec flows through a broad valley called Nowotarska Basin. It then supplies the waters of the dam in Niedzica (Jezioro Czorsztyńskie Lake) and the dam in Sromowce Wyżne (Sromowce Wyżne reservoir). Flowing through the central part of the Pieniny range, it creates a picturesque turn at the Polish Slovak border between Sromowce Wyżne and Szczawnica, where it flows by Kotuńka rock which differentiates the area from the over parts of the river. Further down, it turns to the north into the Western Beskid Mountains, and Sądecka Basin (where it merges with its own largest tributary, the Poprad river). It flows across an open valley of the Beskid Foothills and falls down across Rożnów Foothills (with two more dams: the Jezioro Rożnowskie Lake, and Jezioro Czchowskie Lake) and finally, it leads into the Sandomierz Basin and the valley of Vistula Lowlands. The Dunajec flows into the Vistula River in the vicinity of Opatowiec.

Towns and townships
The Dunajec flows through or near these locations in Poland and north Slovakia:

title: Dunajec


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Froude number

In continuum mechanics, the Froude number ($Fr$, after William Froude, ) is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of the flow inertia to the external force field (the latter in many applications simply due to gravity). The Froude number is based on the speed–length ratio which he defined as: $$\mathrm{Fr} = \frac{u}{\sqrt{g L}}$$ where $u$ is the local flow velocity (in m/s), $g$ is the local gravity field (in m/s2), and $L$ is a characteristic length (in m).

The Froude number has some analogy with the Mach number. In theoretical fluid dynamics the Froude number is not frequently considered since usually the equations are considered in the high Froude limit of negligible external field, leading to homogeneous equations that preserve the mathematical aspects. For example, homogeneous Euler equations are conservation equations. However, in naval architecture the Froude number is a significant figure used to determine the resistance of a partially submerged object moving through water.

Origins
In open channel flows, introduced first the ratio of the flow velocity to the square root of the gravity acceleration times the flow depth. When the ratio was less than unity, the flow behaved like a fluvial motion (i.e., subcritical flow), and like a torrential flow motion when the ratio was greater than unity.

Quantifying resistance of floating objects is generally credited to William Froude, who used a series of scale models to measure the resistance each model offered when towed at a given speed. The naval constructor Frederic Reech had put forward the concept much earlier in 1852 for testing ships and propellers but Froude was unaware of it. Speed–length ratio was originally defined by Froude in his Law of Comparison in 1868 in dimensional terms as: $$\text{speed–length ratio} =\frac{u}{\sqrt {\text{LWL}} }$$ where:
 * $u$ = flow speed
 * $LWL$ = length of waterline

The term was converted into non-dimensional terms and was given Froude's name in recognition of the work he did. In France, it is sometimes called Reech–Froude number after Frederic Reech.

Definition and main application
To show how the Froude number is linked to general continuum mechanics and not only to hydrodynamics we start from the Cauchy momentum equation in its dimensionless (nondimensional) form.

Cauchy momentum equation
In order to make the equations dimensionless, a characteristic length r0, and a characteristic velocity u0, need to be defined. These should be chosen such that the dimensionless variables are all of order one. The following dimensionless variables are thus obtained: $$ \rho^*\equiv \frac \rho {\rho_0}, \quad u^*\equiv \frac u {u_0}, \quad r^*\equiv \frac r {r_0}, \quad t^*\equiv \frac {u_0}{r_0} t, \quad \nabla^*\equiv r_0 \nabla, \quad \mathbf g^* \equiv \frac {\mathbf g} {g_0}, \quad \boldsymbol \sigma^* \equiv \frac {\boldsymbol \sigma} {p_0}, $$

Substitution of these inverse relations in the Euler momentum equations, and definition of the Froude number: $$\mathrm{Fr}=\frac{u_0}{\sqrt{g_0 r_0}},$$ and the Euler number: $$\mathrm{Eu}=\frac{p_0}{\rho_0 u_0^2},$$ the equations are finally expressed (with the material derivative and now omitting the indexes):

Cauchy-type equations in the high Froude limit $Fr → ∞$ (corresponding to negligible external field) are named free equations. On the other hand, in the low Euler limit $Eu → 0$ (corresponding to negligible stress) general Cauchy momentum equation becomes an inhomogeneous Burgers equation (here we make explicit the material derivative):

This is an inhomogeneous pure advection equation, as much as the Stokes equation is a pure diffusion equation.

Euler momentum equation
Euler momentum equation is a Cauchy momentum equation with the Pascal law being the stress constitutive relation: $$\boldsymbol \sigma = p \mathbf I $$ in nondimensional Lagrangian form is: $$\frac{D \mathbf u}{D t} + \mathrm{Eu} \frac {\nabla p}{\rho}= \frac 1 {\mathrm{Fr}^2} \hat g $$

Free Euler equations are conservative. The limit of high Froude numbers (low external field) is thus notable and can be studied with perturbation theory.

Incompressible Navier–Stokes momentum equation
Incompressible Navier–Stokes momentum equation is a Cauchy momentum equation with the Pascal law and Stokes's law being the stress constitutive relations: $$\boldsymbol \sigma = p \mathbf I + \mu \left(\nabla\mathbf{u} + ( \nabla\mathbf{u} )^\mathsf{T}\right) $$ in nondimensional convective form it is: $$\frac{D \mathbf u}{D t} + \mathrm{Eu} \frac {\nabla p}{\rho} = \frac 1 {\mathrm{Re}} \nabla^2 u + \frac 1 {\mathrm{Fr}^2} \hat g $$ where $Re$ is the Reynolds number. Free Navier–Stokes equations are dissipative (non conservative).

Ship hydrodynamics
In marine hydrodynamic applications, the Froude number is usually referenced with the notation $Fn$ and is defined as: $$\mathrm{Fn}_L = \frac{u}{\sqrt{gL}},$$ where $u$ is the relative flow velocity between the sea and ship, $g$ is in particular the acceleration due to gravity, and $L$ is the length of the ship at the water line level, or $L_{wl}$ in some notations. It is an important parameter with respect to the ship's drag, or resistance, especially in terms of wave making resistance.

In the case of planing craft, where the waterline length is too speed-dependent to be meaningful, the Froude number is best defined as displacement Froude number and the reference length is taken as the cubic root of the volumetric displacement of the hull: $$\mathrm{Fn}_V = \frac{u}{\sqrt{g\sqrt[3]{V}}}.$$

Shallow water waves
For shallow water waves, such as tsunamis and hydraulic jumps, the characteristic velocity $U$ is the average flow velocity, averaged over the cross-section perpendicular to the flow direction. The wave velocity, termed celerity $c$, is equal to the square root of gravitational acceleration $g$, times cross-sectional area $A$, divided by free-surface width $B$: $$c = \sqrt{g \frac{A}{B}},$$ so the Froude number in shallow water is: $$\mathrm{Fr} = \frac{U}{\sqrt{g \dfrac{A}{B}}}.$$ For rectangular cross-sections with uniform depth $d$, the Froude number can be simplified to: $$\mathrm{Fr} = \frac{U}{\sqrt{gd}}.$$ For $Fr < 1$ the flow is called a subcritical flow, further for $Fr > 1$ the flow is characterised as supercritical flow. When $Fr ≈ 1$ the flow is denoted as critical flow.

Wind engineering
When considering wind effects on dynamically sensitive structures such as suspension bridges it is sometimes necessary to simulate the combined effect of the vibrating mass of the structure with the fluctuating force of the wind. In such cases, the Froude number should be respected. Similarly, when simulating hot smoke plumes combined with natural wind, Froude number scaling is necessary to maintain the correct balance between buoyancy forces and the momentum of the wind.

Allometry
The Froude number has also been applied in allometry to studying the locomotion of terrestrial animals, including antelope and dinosaurs.

Extended Froude number
Geophysical mass flows such as avalanches and debris flows take place on inclined slopes which then merge into gentle and flat run-out zones.

So, these flows are associated with the elevation of the topographic slopes that induce the gravity potential energy together with the pressure potential energy during the flow. Therefore, the classical Froude number should include this additional effect. For such a situation, Froude number needs to be re-defined. The extended Froude number is defined as the ratio between the kinetic and the potential energy: $$\mathrm{Fr} = \frac{u}{\sqrt{\beta h + s_g \left(x_d - x\right)}},$$ where $u$ is the mean flow velocity, $β = gK cos ζ$, ($K$ is the earth pressure coefficient, $ζ$ is the slope), $s_{g} = g sin ζ$, $x$ is the channel downslope position and $$x_d$$ is the distance from the point of the mass release along the channel to the point where the flow hits the horizontal reference datum; $Ep pot = βh$ and $Eg pot = s_{g}(x_{d} − x)$ are the pressure potential and gravity potential energies, respectively. In the classical definition of the shallow-water or granular flow Froude number, the potential energy associated with the surface elevation, $Eg pot$, is not considered. The extended Froude number differs substantially from the classical Froude number for higher surface elevations. The term $βh$ emerges from the change of the geometry of the moving mass along the slope. Dimensional analysis suggests that for shallow flows $βh ≪ 1$, while $u$ and $s_{g}(x_{d} − x)$ are both of order unity. If the mass is shallow with a virtually bed-parallel free-surface, then $βh$ can be disregarded. In this situation, if the gravity potential is not taken into account, then $Fr$ is unbounded even though the kinetic energy is bounded. So, formally considering the additional contribution due to the gravitational potential energy, the singularity in Fr is removed.

Stirred tanks
In the study of stirred tanks, the Froude number governs the formation of surface vortices. Since the impeller tip velocity is $ωr$ (circular motion), where $ω$ is the impeller frequency (usually in rpm) and $r$ is the impeller radius (in engineering the diameter is much more frequently employed), the Froude number then takes the following form: $$\mathrm{Fr}=\omega \sqrt \frac{r}{g}.$$ The Froude number finds also a similar application in powder mixers. It will indeed be used to determine in which mixing regime the blender is working. If Fr<1, the particles are just stirred, but if Fr>1, centrifugal forces applied to the powder overcome gravity and the bed of particles becomes fluidized, at least in some part of the blender, promoting mixing

Densimetric Froude number
When used in the context of the Boussinesq approximation the densimetric Froude number is defined as $$\mathrm{Fr}=\frac{u}{\sqrt{g' h}}$$ where $g′$ is the reduced gravity: $$g' = g\frac{\rho_1-\rho_2}{\rho_1}$$

The densimetric Froude number is usually preferred by modellers who wish to nondimensionalize a speed preference to the Richardson number which is more commonly encountered when considering stratified shear layers. For example, the leading edge of a gravity current moves with a front Froude number of about unity.

Walking Froude number
The Froude number may be used to study trends in animal gait patterns. In analyses of the dynamics of legged locomotion, a walking limb is often modeled as an inverted pendulum, where the center of mass goes through a circular arc centered at the foot. The Froude number is the ratio of the centripetal force around the center of motion, the foot, and the weight of the animal walking: $$\mathrm{Fr}=\frac{\text{centripetal force}}{\text{gravitational force}}=\frac{\;\frac{mv^2}{l}\;}{mg} = \frac{v^2}{gl}$$ where $m$ is the mass, $l$ is the characteristic length, $g$ is the acceleration due to gravity and $v$ is the velocity. The characteristic length $l$ may be chosen to suit the study at hand. For instance, some studies have used the vertical distance of the hip joint from the ground, while others have used total leg length.

The Froude number may also be calculated from the stride frequency $f$ as follows: $$\mathrm{Fr}=\frac{v^2}{gl}=\frac{(lf)^2}{gl}=\frac{lf^2}{g}.$$

If total leg length is used as the characteristic length, then the theoretical maximum speed of walking has a Froude number of 1.0 since any higher value would result in takeoff and the foot missing the ground. The typical transition speed from bipedal walking to running occurs with $Fr ≈ 0.5$. R. M. Alexander found that animals of different sizes and masses travelling at different speeds, but with the same Froude number, consistently exhibit similar gaits. This study found that animals typically switch from an amble to a symmetric running gait (e.g., a trot or pace) around a Froude number of 1.0. A preference for asymmetric gaits (e.g., a canter, transverse gallop, rotary gallop, bound, or pronk) was observed at Froude numbers between 2.0 and 3.0.

Usage
The Froude number is used to compare the wave making resistance between bodies of various sizes and shapes.

In free-surface flow, the nature of the flow (supercritical or subcritical) depends upon whether the Froude number is greater than or less than unity.

One can easily see the line of "critical" flow in a kitchen or bathroom sink. Leave it unplugged and let the faucet run. Near the place where the stream of water hits the sink, the flow is supercritical. It 'hugs' the surface and moves quickly. On the outer edge of the flow pattern the flow is subcritical. This flow is thicker and moves more slowly. The boundary between the two areas is called a "hydraulic jump". The jump starts where the flow is just critical and Froude number is equal to 1.0.

The Froude number has been used to study trends in animal locomotion in order to better understand why animals use different gait patterns as well as to form hypotheses about the gaits of extinct species.

In addition particle bed behavior can be quantified by Froude number (Fr) in order to establish the optimum operating window.

title: Froude number


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Wkra

Wkra is a river in north-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Narew river, with a length of 255 kilometres and a basin area of 5,348 km2 - all within Poland. Among its tributaries are the Łydynia and the Płonka.

Towns and townships:
 * Bieżuń
 * Radzanów
 * Strzegowo
 * Glinojeck
 * Sochocin
 * Joniec
 * Pomiechówek
 * Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki

See also:
 * Rivers of Poland

title: Wkra


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Mo Vaughn

Maurice Samuel Vaughn (born December 15, 1967), nicknamed "the Hit Dog", is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman who played for the Boston Red Sox, Anaheim Angels, and New York Mets from 1991 to 2003. He was a three-time All-Star selection and won the American League MVP award in 1995 with Boston.

Early life and education
Vaughn attended New Canaan Country School in New Canaan, Connecticut. He played baseball for Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, New York.

Vaughn played college baseball at Seton Hall for head coach Mike Sheppard. While there he set the school record for home runs with 28. In his three years at Seton Hall he hit a total of 57 home runs and 218 RBIs, both team records. His teammates included seven-time All-Star and Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, Red Sox teammate John Valentin, and Kevin Morton. Vaughn earned the Jack Kaiser Award as MVP of the 1987 Big East Conference baseball tournament while keying the Pirates' championship run.

While at Seton Hall, Vaughn played collegiate summer baseball for two years (1987–88) with the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), and in 2000 was named a member of the inaugural class of the CCBL Hall of Fame.

At Seton Hall, his brothers in Omega Psi Phi gave him the nickname "Hit Dog."

Boston Red Sox
Vaughn became the centerpiece of the Red Sox's line-up in 1993, hitting 29 home runs and contributing 101 RBIs. In 1995, he established a reputation as one of the most feared hitters in the American League when he hit 39 home runs with 126 RBIs and a .300 average. He also garnered 11 stolen bases. His efforts, which led the Red Sox to the playoffs (only to lose to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Division Series), were rewarded with the American League MVP award.

Vaughn had his career year with the Red Sox in 1996, playing in 161 games with a batting average of .326 and a career-high 44 home runs, 143 RBIs, 207 hits and 118 runs scored. On September 24, 1996, he hit three home runs against the Orioles, going 4–5 with five RBI in a 13–8 win. On April 15, 1997, MLB retired the number 42 to honour Jackie Robinson, but Vaughn was one of multiple players who were allowed to continue wearing the number for the rest of their careers. In a May 30, 1997, game against the Yankees, Vaughn went 4-for-4 with three solo homers in the Red Sox's 10–4 win.

Vaughn continued to improve over the next several seasons, batting .315 or higher from 1996 to 1998 and averaging 40 home runs and 118 RBIs. The Red Sox lost in the American League Division Series in 1998, once again to the Cleveland Indians, although Vaughn played well, hitting two home runs and driving in seven runs in game one.

He was noted for "crowding the plate"; his stance was such that his front elbow often appeared to be hovering in the strike zone, which intimidated pitchers into throwing outside pitches.

Last season with the Sox
Though Vaughn's powerful personality and extensive charity work made him a popular figure in Boston, he had many issues with the Red Sox management and local media; his disagreements with Boston Globe sports columnist Will McDonough and Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette were particularly acute. As an outspoken clubhouse leader, Vaughn repeatedly stated that the concerned Sox administration did not want him around. Incidents in which he allegedly punched a man in the mouth outside of a nightclub and crashed his truck while returning home from a strip club in Providence led to further rifts with the administration.

Vaughn hit a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning of Opening Day at Fenway Park against the Seattle Mariners in 1998. Vaughn was one half of a formidable middle of the lineup with shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. The two combined for 75 home runs in 1998, Vaughn's final year with the club. After the Cleveland Indians knocked Boston out of the playoffs in the first round, Vaughn became a free agent. Almost immediately, he signed a six-year, $80-million deal with the Anaheim Angels, the highest contract in the game at that time.

Anaheim Angels
While he hit well for Anaheim when he played—he hit 30-plus home runs and knocked in over 100 runs in both 1999 and 2000—Vaughn was plagued by injuries in 1999 and didn't play a single game in the 2001 season. He started his Anaheim career by falling down the visitor's dugout steps on his first play of his first game, badly spraining his ankle. Vaughn was nevertheless seen as a viable middle of the line-up producer before the 2002 season and was traded to the New York Mets for Kevin Appier on December 27, 2001.

Following Vaughn's departure from Anaheim, Angels closer Troy Percival took a shot at him, saying "We may miss Mo's bat, but we won't miss his leadership. Darin Erstad is our leader." This prompted the normally mild-mannered Vaughn to go off on a profanity-laced tirade.

New York Mets
With the Mets, Vaughn was counted upon to be a key catalyst in a revamped lineup that featured imports Roger Cedeño, Jeromy Burnitz, and Roberto Alomar. Vaughn got off to a slow start in 2002, and he was ridiculed in local sports columns and on sports talk radio shows for being out of shape; he weighed 268 pounds during his first season in New York. However, he hit his 300th career home run on April 3 against Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Kip Wells and a game winning three-run home run in the 8th inning of a game on June 16 that gave the Mets a 3–2 win over the Yankees. He hit a memorable 505-foot home run at Shea Stadium (in the middle of the "Bud" sign on the Shea scoreboard) on June 26, and he finished the season with 26 home runs and 72 RBI.

In 2003, he played less than a month before knee problems ended the season for him. In January 2004, he announced that his knee problems would not allow him to play in the upcoming season. Vaughn's agent said that Vaughn was not announcing his retirement, but Vaughn acknowledged that he was unlikely to ever play again. At the time of his retirement, Vaughn was one of the two final players to wear the number 42, the other being Mariano Rivera (who retired in 2013).

Career statistics
Over 12 seasons, Vaughn was in 1512 games played, compiling a .293 batting average (1620–5532) with 861 runs, 270 doubles, 328 home runs, 1064 RBI, 725 bases on balls, .383 on-base percentage and .523 slugging percentage. He had five consecutive seasons with a batting average greater than .300 (1994–98). In seven post-season games, he hit .226 (7–31) with 4 runs, 2 home runs and 7 RBI. His career fielding percentage was .988 as a first baseman.

Personal life
In July 1995, Vaughn suffered an eye injury as a result of a fight at a Boston nightclub which caused him to miss two games. No charges were filed or arrests made.

In January 1998, Vaughn was arrested and charged with drunk driving after crashing into a disabled car on the side of the road and struggling with field sobriety tests in Norwood, Massachusetts. He was ultimately acquitted after a jury trial in March.

Vaughn is a managing director of OMNI New YorK, LLC, along with Eugene Schneur, which has bought and rehabilitated 1,142 units of distressed housing in the New York metropolitan area. The company also manages these properties to provide low cost housing using government tax credits. He purchased the Noble Drew Ali Plaza in Brownsville, Brooklyn for $21 million, and plans to add massive security upgrades and renovate it.

He has also been involved in refurbishing the Whitney Young Manor in Yonkers, New York, a development first constructed by a company owned by his hero Jackie Robinson. Besides the New York metropolitan area, his company is also involved in projects in Cheyenne, Miami and Las Vegas and has expressed an interest in Boston.

In January 2009, it had been reported by WCVB-TV in Boston that Vaughn had recently committed to investing "$6 million in improvements to the 168-unit Sycamore Village complex that will include new appliances and exterior renovations. Vaughn said his company does not tolerate guns, drugs and criminal behavior. Planning Director Michael Sweeney said Omni's purchase is a 'major reinvestment' in the city" of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Vaughn lived in Gates Mills, Ohio, and was the president of a trucking company (Mo Vaughn Transport) in Solon. Vaughn sold the company in 2018.

On April 18, 2013, Vaughn bought an advertisement section of The Boston Globe and used it to salute those involved in helping the victims of the April 15, 2013 Patriots Day Bombing in Boston. "You are all heroes in my eyes", wrote Vaughn, "Boston will march on."

Vaughn became eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. 75% of the vote was necessary for induction, and 5% was necessary to stay on the ballot. He received 1.1% of the vote and dropped off the ballot.

Performance-enhancing drugs
It was revealed on December 13, 2007, in the report by Senator George J. Mitchell that Vaughn had purchased steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs from Kirk Radomski, who said he delivered the drugs to him personally. Radomski produced three checks, one for $2,200 and two more for $3,200, from Vaughn, one of the latter dated June 1, 2001, and another dated June 19, 2001. Radomski said that the higher checks were for two kits of HGH, while the lower one was for one and a half kits. Vaughn's name, address and telephone number were listed in an address book seized from Radomski's house by federal agents. Vaughn's trainer instructed him to take HGH in attempt to recover from injury.

Mitchell requested a meeting with Vaughn in order to provide Vaughn with the information about these allegations and to give him an opportunity to respond, but Vaughn never agreed to set a meeting.

title: Mo Vaughn


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Abe Saperstein

Abraham Michael Saperstein (אברהם מיכאל סאפערשטיין; July 4, 1902 – March 15, 1966) was the founder, owner and earliest coach of the Harlem Globetrotters. Saperstein was a leading figure in black basketball and baseball from the 1920s through the 1950s, primarily before those sports were racially integrated.

Saperstein revolutionized the game of basketball and took the Globetrotters from an unknown team touring small farm towns in the Midwestern United States during the height of the Great Depression to a powerhouse that went on to beat the best team in the all-white National Basketball Association. He also introduced the three-point shot, which went on to become a mainstay of modern basketball.

Saperstein was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971 and, at 5ft 3in, is its shortest male member. In 1979, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and 2005 was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Early life
Saperstein was born in the East End of London, England, to a Jewish family originally from Łomża, Poland. His family moved from London to Chicago in 1907, when Abe was five years old. They settled just north of the city's Jewish area, often called the “Poor Jews' quarter” because of the many struggling immigrants living there. Saperstein's father, Louis, who had been an apprentice tailor in Poland, saw an ad for a tailor on Chicago's North Side in a predominantly German, Irish, and Swedish neighborhood. The ad warned “No Jews allowed” so Louis changed his surname to the more German-sounding Schneider, which is German for "tailor". After buying the business from the owner several years later, Louis dropped the façade and changed the name of the store to Louis Saperstein's Tailor Shop.

At age 10, Saperstein discovered a lifelong love of sports, playing basketball at the Wilson Avenue YMCA and second base for a parochial school team, though he attended the public Ravenswood Elementary School. At Lake View High School, he played nine different sports, including baseball, basketball, football, boxing, and track. Saperstein attended the University of Illinois, but dropped out to help support his family. He decided not to follow his father into tailoring. Instead, his dream was to pursue a career in sports, though he realized that his athletic abilities and height were not going to take him far.

Saperstein eventually landed a position working for the Chicago Park District as a playground supervisor at Welles Park, on Chicago's North Side. There, after hours of watching kids play basketball, he decided to create his own team, the Chicago Reds. The Chicago Reds were a semi-pro lightweight (135 lb limit) basketball team, and Saperstein played point guard.

As player, manager, and coach of the Chicago Reds, Saperstein met Walter Thomas Ball, a legendary baseball player in the Negro leagues, who had a black baseball team he wanted to send on tour in Illinois and southern Wisconsin. He hired Saperstein as his booking agent.

Harlem Globetrotters career
Saperstein went on to become booking agent for several basketball teams as well, until branching out in the late 1920s to form his own team with some of the members of the Savoy Big Five. He called the team the New York Harlem Globetrotters. Although Saperstein's team had nothing to do with Harlem (they wouldn't play there until 1968), he chose the name to indicate that the players were black, as Harlem was the epicenter of African-American culture. Many of the towns where the Globetrotters played in their first few years were all white, and Saperstein did not want other teams or spectators to be surprised that his team was black.

The Globetrotters played their first game in Hinckley, Illinois. The team netted a grand total of $8, which was split evenly among the six members of the team, including Saperstein. Over the next several years, in the midst of the Great Depression, Saperstein served as the team's coach, driver, booking agent, PR director, and occasional substitute player. When a player was injured in a 1926 game, for example, Saperstein substituted into the game, prompting the Winona (Minnesota) News to report: "Four clean-limbed young colored men and a squat bandy-legged chap of Jewish extraction ... styled the Harlem Globetrotters, beat the Arcadia Military police ... 29 to 18."

During the early seasons, the Globetrotters needed to play every night just to make ends meet, because the team often netted less than $50 a night. Accommodations on the road were sparse and hotels often would not allow blacks. On one occasion, when the players could not find a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa, they sneaked up the fire escape and slept in Saperstein's room. Saperstein was relentless in booking games; in the team's first seven years, the Globetrotters played more than 1,000 games, with Saperstein driving the players to tiny towns throughout the Midwest in his unheated Ford Model T.

From early on, the Globetrotters blended basketball with showmanship and ball-handling wizardry, but they were also extremely talented basketball players, winning most of their games. In 1940, the Globetrotters beat the legendary black basketball team, the New York Renaissance.

An even bigger achievement came a few years later in the 1948 Globetrotters–Lakers game, when the Globetrotters defeated the Minneapolis Lakers, the best team in the all-white NBA, a league that had been formed two years earlier. The star of the Lakers was six-foot-ten George Mikan, nicknamed "Mr. Basketball." Despite the Lakers' significant height advantage and the team's billing as the best basketball team in the country, the underdog Globetrotters won the game 61–59, thanks to a dramatic long shot at the buzzer by Globetrotter Ermer Robinson. Afterward, in the locker room, the players hoisted Saperstein triumphantly on their shoulders.

The Globetrotters-Lakers game had taken place amid a sharp racial divide in sports. Many fans and team owners believed that black athletes were not coachable or intelligent enough to learn complicated plays, and lacked the competitive fire necessary for premier athletes. The victory, which was just shy of the Globetrotters' 3,000th victory in 21 seasons, proved that none of this was true and that African-American players had the skill and ability to play in the professional leagues.

In 1950, within two years of the Globetrotters-Lakers' game, the NBA integrated. Chuck Cooper, who had been a Globetrotter briefly, became the first black player to sign a contract with the NBA. Another two of the first black NBA players also were Globetrotters – Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton and Hank DeZonie.

Also in 1950, the Globetrotters played their first game in Madison Square Garden, marking the first time the venue sold out for a basketball game. Following these successes, interest in the Globetrotters grew and Saperstein created two more teams in the United States, as well as an international squad. The Globetrotters have now played in more than 123 countries and territories across the planet.

Even after the NBA integrated, top black players continued to play for the Globetrotters. In 1958, Wilt Chamberlain joined the Globetrotters for a year before going to the NBA and becoming its most dominant player. In a 1999 interview, Wilt Chamberlain said, "The fraternity of the Globetrotters was one of the most rewarding times of my life. I almost did not go into the NBA."

Two feature-length movies have been made about the Globetrotters, The Harlem Globetrotters (1951) and Go, Man, Go (1954), the latter starring Dane Clark and Sidney Poitier. Several documentaries have also told the Globetrotters' story, including The Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed the World (2005), which featured Geese Ausbie, Larry Brown and Bill Bradley.

Innovation of the three-point rule
Saperstein had ambitions of owning a team in the National Basketball Association and hoped to start a team in California. That hope was dashed when the NBA approved the move of the Lakers from Minneapolis to L.A. Saperstein was also denied ownership of the Warriors when the team moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, Saperstein started the American Basketball League (ABL) in 1961 and served as its commissioner, as well as owner of the league's Chicago Majors team. To differentiate the ABL from the NBA – and to promote the new league – Saperstein introduced several innovations that have endured as features of modern basketball. He widened the free throw lane to 18 feet (from 12) and created the three-point shot. As commissioner of the short-lived ABL, Saperstein wanted a way to add excitement to the game and provide players with additional challenges. He hoped the three-pointer would become basketball's equivalent of the home run. "We must have a weapon," Saperstein said, "and this is ours."

To determine the distance the new shot line should be from the basket, Abe Saperstein and longtime DePaul University coach Ray Meyer went onto a court one day with tape and selected 25 feet as the right length. "They just arbitrarily drew lines," his son Jerry Saperstein said. "There's really no scientific basis. Just two Hall of Fame coaches getting together and saying: 'Where would we like to see the line?'" Not long after, in June 1961, Saperstein was traveling when the other seven ABL owners voted, 4–3, to officially shorten the line to 22 feet. Saperstein, who had significant power in the league as owner of the popular Globetrotters, disagreed with this and simply ignored the ruling. Games continued with the 25-foot shot. Saperstein eventually acknowledged there was one problem with the 25-foot arc and solved it by adding a 22-foot line in the corners. "It made for interesting possibilities," he wrote.

After the ABL shut down in 1963, the American Basketball Association made the three-pointer a central part of its image, creating enough competition for the NBA that the two leagues merged in 1976. The NBA adopted the 23 ft shot in 1979. In 1994, it was moved to 22 feet, then changed back three seasons later, where it has stayed ever since.

Other sports teams
Saperstein was a leading figure in the black baseball leagues. At various times, he owned the Chicago Brown Bombers, the Birmingham Black Barons, and the Cincinnati Crescents baseball teams. He also created several new leagues, including the Negro Midwest League and, in partnership with Olympic track and field star Jesse Owens, the West Coast Negro Baseball League.

When Saperstein's friend Bill Veeck took ownership of the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s, he hired Saperstein as his chief scout for African-American players. At Saperstein's suggestion, Veeck eventually signed Luke Easter, Minnie Minoso, Suitcase Simpson, Satchel Paige, and Larry Doby, the American League's first black player.

Saperstein also founded the white New York Nationals baseball team and the Boston Brownskins, a basketball team that served as a minor league club for the Globetrotters. He also booked games for the Hong Wah Kues, a basketball team of Chinese Americans from San Francisco. Started in 1939 with six players, the Hong Wah Kues became known for their speed and quick passing. They played the Harlem Globetrotters once, and lost.

Legacy
In a time of racial segregation and bigotry in professional sports, Saperstein proudly showcased the talents of the nation's best black basketball players. Four years after the all-white National Basketball Association (originally called the Basketball Association of America) was formed, black players were finally allowed into the league.

As the integrated NBA became recognized as the country's highest level of basketball, Saperstein focused the Globetrotters on entertainment, creating a popular act that played to audiences worldwide. In the years following World War II, the Globetrotters embarked on a “goodwill tour.” Among the more memorable of those games took place in Berlin's Olympic Stadium and featured Jesse Owens, who was traveling with the team. Owens returned to the stadium where he had won four gold medals 15 years earlier, after which Hitler famously refused to shake his hand.

Although Saperstein worried about bringing the team into the racially charged atmosphere of Berlin, Owens and the Globetrotters were greeted by 75,000 cheering fans. The mayor of Berlin greeted Owens and famously said, "In 1936, Hitler refused to shake your hand. Today, I give you both of mine."

As the movement for civil rights progressed, some alleged that Saperstein did not do enough to advance the equality of his black players. In the 50s and 60s, some players resented that, due to the prejudice of hotel owners, they continued to be housed in "colored" hotels in black neighborhoods, while players on Saperstein's white teams supposedly stayed in first-class hotels. There was also discontent among some Globetrotters that Saperstein reportedly paid white players on his other teams higher salaries. Others criticized the Globetrotters for their on-court antics, saying they played into racial stereotypes. In 1978, however, Jesse Jackson said: "They did not show blacks as stupid. On the contrary, they were shown as superior…they were able to turn science into an art form." Meadowlark Lemon, who played with the Globetrotters from 1954 until 1979, also came to the Globetrotters's defense, saying that the team had "done more for the perception of black people, and the perception of America, than almost anything you could think of."

Personal life
Saperstein was the eldest of nine children, several of whom were involved with the Globetrotters. In the early years, Saperstein's then-teenage brother Harry worked as a typist and secretary, sending out press releases and game schedules. His sister Fay, the youngest sibling, helped Abe with paperwork for years and ran the New York office in the 1950s. After Abe's death in March 1966, his brother Morry Saperstein assisted in running the business before it was sold to a group of Chicago businessmen for $3.7 million and eventually moved from Chicago to New York City.

On May 6, 1934, Saperstein married Sylvia Franklin from Chicago. They had two children, Jerry and Eloise. Jerry ran the international unit of the Globetrotters in the 1960s, founded the New York Sets, a charter franchise of World Team Tennis, and owned the San Francisco Shamrocks of the Pacific Hockey League. He then served as the first vice president at Madison Square Garden Corporation, reporting directly to the then-Chairman Sonny Werblin. Jerry died on November 16, 2021, two days after his 81st birthday. Jerry is survived by his two sons, Adam and Lanier Saperstein, and his daughter Sara Chana (Simone) Silverstein. They all live in the New York area. Lanier is a partner in the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. Eloise established a non-profit organization, the Abe Saperstein Foundation, designed to advance opportunities through sports for Chicago's youth, and she also was the first woman ever certified as an NBA player representative. She died on July 15, 2018, at the age of 81. Eloise is survived by her three children, Lonni, Avi and Abra, who live in the Chicago area.

Saperstein was a tireless worker, taking off just one day a year, Yom Kippur. He continued to work right up until his death from a heart attack in March 1966. "He had more energy than the Grand Coulee Dam," wrote Chuck Menville in The Harlem Globetrotters: An Illustrated History. The news of Saperstein's death came as a shock to the Globetrotters. The team's star, Meadowlark Lemon, was on the road in Charlotte, North Carolina at the time. "My mouth went dry," Lemon said. "The boys cried. I had to force myself to be funny. I did it only because Abe would have wanted the show to go on." Saperstein is buried in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois, near Chicago.

title: Abe Saperstein