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Fresnes Prison

Fresnes Prison (French Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes) is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison (maison d'arrêt) of about 1200 cells, a smaller one for women and a penitentiary hospital.

Fresnes is one of the three main prisons of the Paris area, Fleury-Mérogis (Europe's largest prison) and La Santé (located in Paris) being the other two.

History
The prison was constructed between 1895 and 1898 according to a design devised by architect Henri Poussin. An example of the so-called "telephone-pole design," the facility was radically different from previous prisons. At Fresnes prison, for the first time, cell houses extended crosswise from a central corridor. The design was used extensively in North America for much of the next century.

During World War II, Fresnes prison was used by the Germans to house captured British SOE agents and members of the French Resistance. Held in horrific conditions, many of these prisoners were tortured, and some died there. As soon as the Allied forces broke through at Normandy and fought their way to liberate Paris, the Gestapo peremptorily killed prisoners at Fresnes. Fresnes Prison was liberated on 24 August 1944 by the French 2nd Armoured Division under General Philippe Leclerc, after a day of heavy fighting with many casualties on both sides.

Pre-war

 * Jean Genet (1910–1986), novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist; for petty theft (late 1930s - early 1940s).

World War II

 * Jack Agazarian, SOE agent, endured torture for six months at Fresnes prison before being moved to Flossenbürg concentration camp where he was held in solitary confinement before being executed on 29 March 1945.
 * Berty Albrecht, French campaigner and co-founder of the Combat movement, was tortured and committed suicide.
 * Roger Bardet, French Resistance operative, who became a double agent, leading to the arrest of Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom; Sidney Jones, Marcel Clech, and Vera Leigh; Henri Frager; Maurice Pertschuk, and Marcus Bloom. Survived.
 * Yolande Beekman, SOE F Section agent, executed in Dachau concentration camp.
 * Blanche Rubenstein Auzello, America-born wife of Hotel Ritz Paris manager; French resistance operative, incarcerated and tortured; escaped when Nazis deserted Fresnes upon arrival in Paris of Allied troops.
 * Marcus Bloom, SOE F Section agent, then to Avenue Foch where he was severely beaten but revealed nothing. In August 1944 he was deported to Mauthausen and executed on 6 November 1944.
 * Andrée Borrel, SOE F Section agent, later executed in Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
 * Christopher Burney, SOE agent, held in solitary confinement for 15 months and freed in 1945. After the war he published an account of his imprisonment.
 * Peter Churchill, SOE F Section agent, arrested with Odette Sansom in April 1943. He was held in Fresnes until 13 February 1944 when he was transferred to Berlin for questioning. On 2 May 1944, he was sent to Sonderlager “A” Sachsenhausen, where he was held in solitary confinement for 318 days out of 11 months. He survived despite being sentenced to death.
 * Roman Czerniawski, creator of the Interallie network in France, held in Fresnes prison after his arrest in November 1941. He was released and became a successful double agent.
 * Madeleine Damerment, SOE F Section agent, later executed in Dachau concentration camp.
 * Edmond Debeaumarché, French Resistance operative, arrested on 3 August 1944 and questioned harshly by the Gestapo at the Rue des Saussaies, He lost consciousness under the beatings but did not divulge any names; subsequently held at Fresnes and then transported by train to Buchenwald on 15 August 1944. Survived.
 * Anatoly Gurevich, Soviet agent of the Red Orchestra who was imprisoned there in January 1943.
 * Graham Hayes, a founding member of the Small Scale Raiding Force arrested in September 1942 in Operation Aquatint, was kept in solitary confinement for nine months before his execution by firing squad on 13 July 1943.
 * Agnès Humbert, along with other members of the French Resistance, "Groupe du musée de l'Homme", were imprisoned and tried there and sentenced to death. However she was transferred to the Prison de la Santé where the men were executed and the women sentenced to five years slave labour and deported to Anrath prison in Germany. After four years, she was liberated by the Third United States Army in June 1945.
 * Phil Lamason, Squadron Leader in the RNZAF was the ranking officer and one of 168 allied airmen imprisoned here in 1944. They were transferred to Buchenwald just days before Paris was liberated, and all but two survived.
 * Pierre Laval, former Prime Minister of France, executed for treason on 15 October 1945
 * Pierre Le Chêne, SOE F Section agent, held in solitary confinement to 10 months, then deported to Mauthausen, then Gusen I, liberated on 6 May 1945.
 * Vera Leigh, SOE F Section agent, later executed in Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
 * André Marsac, French Resistance operative, whose interrogation led to the arrest of Roger Bardet, and subsequently Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom. Survived.
 * Isidore Newman, SOE F Section agent, arrested on 31 March 1944 and taken to the Gestapo prison in Paris, then Fresnes, and lastly transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp where he was executed on 7 September 1944.
 * Alfred and Henry Newton, SOE F Section agents, were held at Fresnes before deportation to Buchenwald where they spent 18 months before being liberated on 11 April 1945.
 * Sonia Olschanezky SOE F Section agent, later executed in Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
 * Eliane Plewman, SOE F Section agent, later executed in Dachau concentration camp.
 * Louis Renault, automobile industrialist, arrested by the provisional French government for collaborating with the Nazis, died in 1944 following alleged mistreatment in Fresnes prison.
 * Dr Jean Rousset, chief lieutenant to Virginia Hall in Lyons was held at Fresnes where he was brutally tortured, before being detained for 18 months in Buchenwald before being liberated on 11 April 1945.
 * Diana Rowden, SOE F Section agent, later executed in Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
 * Yvonne Rudellat, SOE F Section agent, died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a few days after the liberation of the camp by the allies.
 * Odette Sansom, SOE F Section agent, arrested with Peter Churchill in April 1943. She was transferred to 84 Avenue Foch, the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst, where she was brutally tortured prior to being transported to Ravensbrück but survived despite being sentenced to death.
 * Robert Sheppard, SOE F Section agent, successively held in Fresnes prison and then concentration camps of Neue Bremm, Mauthausen, Natzweiler-Struthof, and Dachau. Released by US troops on 29 April 1945.
 * Charles Skepper, SOE organiser of the "Monk" circuit. He was arrested in March 1944, severely tortured by the Gestapo,  transported to Fresnes and then to Compiegne prison. His death, possibly at Buchenwald concentration camp, was officially recognised by the War Office as ‘died while in enemy hands on or shortly after 1 April 1944'
 * Suzanne Spaak, French Resistance operative, was executed there on 12 August 1944, less than two weeks before the city was liberated.
 * John Starr, SOE F Section agent, captured on 18 July 1943 and transferred to Fresnes where he was shot and wounded while attempting to escape, then tortured, then transferred to Avenue Foch. In 1944 he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and released at the end of the war.
 * Brian Stonehouse, SOE F Section agent, arrested on 24 October 1941 and held in solitary confinement in Castres prison while subjected to frequent and brutal interrogations. Then transferred to Fresnes prison and further interrogated. Later sent to Mauthausen concentration camp, and in mid-1944, transferred to Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. He saved his own life by drawing sketches for the camp commandant, guards and their families.
 * F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, SOE F Section agent, arrested in February 1943, tortured in Avenue Foch then transferred to Fresnes where he made two failed attempts to escape, then transferred to Compiègne prison, then Buchenwald where he made a brief escape. On his recapture, he was sent to Stalag XX-B, near Marienburg.
 * Edward Zeff, SOE F Section agent, arrested in February 1943 and sent successively to Fresnes, then a prison in Prague, Mauthausen concentration camp, then Melk where he was condemned to receive fifty lashes before being hanged, but escaped death having befriended one of the camp Kommandants; finally, again at Mauthausen, where he was the only British Jew who was there at the time of the liberation by the Americans in 1945. He had been brutally tortured over three months but revealed no information to the Nazis.

Post war

 * Robert Alesch, one of the most deadly double agents in World War II, was held in Fresnes prison prior to his execution on 25 February 1949.

 * James Baldwin, American cultural icon and writer, was interned at Fresnes during Christmas of 1949 after being found by police sleeping in a hostel with a bed sheet that an acquaintance had loaned him for the night. The acquaintance had stolen the bedsheet from a different hotel.

 * Paul Touvier, French Nazi collaborator during World War II, was imprisoned in 1989 for his war crimes and died of prostate cancer in 1996 at the Fresnes prison hospital.
 * Antonio Ferrara, Italian mobster, who broke out of the prison in March 2003 in a commando-style raid. Members of his gang attacked the prison with rocket launchers and assault rifles, and they set fire to nearby cars in what is believed to have been intended as a distraction. Arrested again four months later, Ferrara is now imprisoned in Fleury-Mérogis.

Modern day
Fresnes Prison has recently experienced many rebellions and arson incidents.

title: Fresnes Prison


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Kobe Airport

Kobe Airport (神戸空港) is a domestic airport on an artificial island just off the coast of Kobe, 8 km south of Sannomiya Station Japan. Opened on February 16, 2006, it primarily handles domestic flights, but can also accommodate international charter flights. In the first year of operation (2006), the airport handled 2,697,000 passengers with an average load factor of 61.1%. In 2017, it handled 3,071,974 passengers with an average load factor of 79.4%. In the fiscal year covering April 2022-March 2023, UKP had a pax throughput of 3,109,151. The island airport covers just 156 hectares (385 acres) of land.

History
The city government of Kobe first proposed an airport adjacent to Port Island in 1971. At the time, government planners were seeking alternatives to the heavily congested Itami Airport: the original Kobe Airport plan called for six runways more than 3000 m in length on a 1100 ha facility. The mayor of Kobe, Tatsuo Miyazaki, declared his opposition to building such a large airport so close to the city, and was re-elected shortly afterward in 1973, defeating a competitor who supported the airport.

Kobe businesses were still interested in the plan, however, and pressed the city government to propose a smaller facility with one 3000 m runway. This plan was submitted to the Transport Ministry in 1982 as a competitor for the Kansai International Airport plan which was then being supported by the Osaka and Wakayama prefectural governments. After the national government voiced its displeasure with the Kobe proposal, Kobe officially switched its support to the Kansai Airport proposal in 1984, but in 1985 decided to independently fund the construction of another airport.

The construction of the airport was stalled for lack of funding until 1995, when it won national government support as a means for recovering the Kobe economy in the wake of the Great Hanshin earthquake. Despite ongoing controversy, locals continued to support the plan: in the 1997 mayoral election, the pro-airport coalition won a narrow victory over the anti-airport coalition. Construction began in September 1999 but political controversy continued: 87,000 signatures were collected in a petition to recall the mayor in 2000, and a citizen lawsuit to cancel the project was dismissed in 2004.

The airport finally opened on February 16, 2006, with Japan Airlines operating the first flight and All Nippon Airways operating the first scheduled flight. Both ANA and JAL announced plans to replace portions of their widebody fleet with a larger number of mid-size aircraft, in part because of a need to fill the excess number of flight slots created by Kobe Airport's construction. The airport handled its first international business jet flight in September 2006.

As part of its bankruptcy restructuring, JAL terminated all services out of Kobe and closed its office on June 1, 2010, in response to which Skymark Airlines announced a major expansion at the airport. ANA also cut back services following the airport's opening. Skymark is currently the dominant carrier at Kobe carrying approximately two-thirds of its passengers.

In 2013, Kobe mayor Tatsuo Yada endorsed a proposal to consolidate the management of the three Kansai region airports by adding Kobe Airport to the planned sale in 2014 of operating concessions at Itami and Kansai.

Kobe was already the most indebted municipality in Japan with debts of over ¥3 trillion after the Great Hanshin earthquake, and this project's cost (estimated at over ¥300 billion, or US$3 billion) has made it very controversial. Supporters argue that the third airport can mean increased competition and lower airfares. People in the surrounding regions (Shikoku, Awaji Island etc.) can now have a closer airport while access to Kansai may be limited. Since the ferry from Tokushima to Kansai International Airport was discontinued, travellers have had to rely on alternate means of transportation including a bus to Kansai Airport, which takes an hour longer, or to use the local Tokushima Airport, which is limited in schedules.

On April 1, 2018, Kansai Airports Kobe founded by Orix, Vinci Airports, and Kansai Airports took over the operation of Kobe Airport.

Airlines and destinations
Kobe has a single passenger terminal with four gates capable of accommodating widebody aircraft

Some international charter flights also use Kobe Airport. Although the airport's runway is not long enough to handle long-range flights to Europe and the Americas, it occasionally handles charters to China and other nearby countries.

The Transport Ministry has capped scheduled domestic operations at 30 daily flights, and has banned international flights with the exception of private aircraft and "own use" charters, in order to prevent overcrowding in the area's airspace and to protect the growth of Kansai Airport. The flight caps have been a point of controversy with Kobe Airport supporters, who point out that the cap was calculated based on Kansai Airport operating twice as many frequencies as are currently offered: given the current traffic levels at Kansai, Kobe should be able to handle six or seven flights per hour.

Ground and water transportation
On February 2, 2006, Kobe Airport Station was connected to Sannomiya Station in central Kobe by an extension of the existing Port Liner automated guideway transit system, using 2000 series trains as well as some older 8000 series trains (older trains being gradually replaced by newer 2000 ones). Travel time to Sannomiya is 18 minutes. From Sannomiya, it is 21 minutes to Ōsaka Station and 51 minutes to Kyoto Station by JR special rapid express.

Kobe Airport is connected to Kansai Airport by the Kobe–Kanku Bay Shuttle (神戸-関空ベイ・シャトル), a high speed ferry which completes the airport-to-airport journey in 31 minutes for ¥500 for visitors to Japan.

There are bus services to Shin-Kobe Station (on the San'yō Shinkansen), Sannomiya Station, and Kōbe Station in 25–38 minutes. A single trip to Shin-Kobe Station costs ¥330.

Accidents and incidents

 * At 14:30 on 31 May 2024, a light aircraft belonging to Hirata Gakuen aviation school landed on the airport runway without its wheels being extended during a touch-and-go landing, forcing the affected runway's closure and the cancellation of 34 flights. None of the three people aboard the plane were injured.

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

title: Kobe Airport


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Purée Mongole

Purée Mongole, also called Cream Mongole, is a creamed split pea-tomato soup of unknown origin; a recipe for it was printed in 1889. Popular during the period between the 1920s–1940s, it is similar to Boula which is made with turtle soup.

Purée Mongole is usually made with carrots, onions, white turnips, leeks, a stock (either beef or chicken) and milk. Depending on the recipe, it can have julienne carrots and be seasoned with curry powder, ground cloves, turmeric, nutmeg, cumin, and basil, in addition to salt and pepper. Simplified recipes printed in many vintage cookbooks, including the 1946 edition of the Joy of Cooking, used canned, condensed pea and tomato soups as a base with additional vegetables and seasonings.

title: Purée Mongole


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Smooth breathing

The smooth breathing (ψιλὸν πνεῦμα; psilí; spiritus lenis) is a diacritical mark used in polytonic orthography. In Ancient Greek, it marks the absence of the voiceless glottal fricative from the beginning of a word.

Some authorities have interpreted it as representing a glottal stop, but a final vowel at the end of a word is regularly elided (removed) when the following word starts with a vowel and elision would not happen if the second word began with a glottal stop (or any other form of stop consonant). In his Vox Graeca, W. Sidney Allen accordingly regards the glottal stop interpretation as "highly improbable".

The smooth breathing mark ( ᾿ ) is written as on top of one initial vowel, on top of the second vowel of a diphthong or to the left of a capital and also, in certain editions, on the first of a pair of rhos. It did not occur on an initial upsilon, which always has rough breathing (thus the early name ὕ hy, rather than ὔ y) except in certain pre-Koine dialects which had lost aspiration much earlier.

The smooth breathing was kept in the traditional polytonic orthography even after the sound had disappeared from the language in Hellenistic times. It has been dropped in the modern monotonic orthography.

History
The origin of the sign is thought to be the right-hand half ( ┤ ) of the letter H, which was used in some archaic Greek alphabets as while in others it was used for the vowel eta. It was developed by Aristophanes of Byzantium to help readers discern between similar words. For example, ὅρος horos 'boundary' (rough breathing) and ὄρος oros 'mountain' (smooth breathing). In medieval and modern script, it takes the form of a closing half moon (reverse C) or a closing single quotation mark:
 * ἀ
 * Ἀ

Smooth breathings were also used in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets when writing the Old Church Slavonic language. Today it is used in Church Slavonic according to a simple rule: if a word starts with a vowel, the vowel has a psili over it. From the Russian writing system, it was eliminated by Peter the Great during his alphabet and font-style reform (1707). All other Cyrillic-based modern writing systems are based on the Petrine script, so they have never had the smooth breathing.

Coronis
The coronis (κορωνίς, korōnís, "crow's beak" or "bent mark"), the symbol written over a vowel contracted by crasis, was originally an apostrophe after the letter: τα᾽μά. In present use, its appearances in Ancient Greek are written over the medial vowel with the smooth breathing mark—τἀμά—and appearances of crasis in modern Greek are not marked.

Letters with smooth breathing mark
Ἀἀ · Ἐἐ · Ἠἠ · Ἰἰ · Ὀὀ · ῤ · ὐ · Ὠὠ

Unicode
In Unicode, the code points assigned to the smooth breathing are for Greek and  for Cyrillic. The pair of space + spiritus lenis is. The coronis is assigned two distinct code points, and.

title: Smooth breathing


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A47 road

The A47 is a major trunk road in England linking Birmingham to Lowestoft, Suffolk, maintained and operated by National Highways. Most of the section between Birmingham and Nuneaton is now classified as the B4114. From Peterborough eastwards, it is a trunk road (sections west of the A1 road have been downgraded as alternative roads have been built).

History
The original (1923) route of the A47 was Birmingham to Great Yarmouth, but there were some changes made to its route in the early years. At its eastern end, the A47 originally ran through Filby and Caister-on-Sea, with the Acle Straight bearing the number B1140.

A change took place in 1925. The original route of the A47 between Guyhirn and Wisbech in the Isle of Ely was via Wisbech St Mary, with the direct route being part of the A141. This is because there was no road bridge over the River Nene at Guyhirn, and hence no junction between the A47 and the A141. In April 1925 a steel road bridge was opened, and the A47 and the A141 swapped routes between Guyhirn and Wisbech.

The A47 was rerouted along the Acle Straight in 1935, with the old route being renumbered as the A1064 (Acle to Caister-on-Sea) and part of the A149 (Caister to Great Yarmouth). Another change also dates from 1935. The A47 originally ran via Downham Market, not King's Lynn. In 1935, it was rerouted via King's Lynn, replacing part of the A141 (Wisbech to King's Lynn) and part of the A17 (King's Lynn to Swaffham). The old route via Downham Market was renumbered as the A1122 (Outwell to Swaffham) and part of the A1101 (Wisbech to Outwell).

Major improvements were made from the late 1970s until early in the 1990s. The 7 mile (11.3 km) £5 million part-dual-carriageway East Dereham Bypass built on part of the disused railway line was opened in spring 1978 followed by a five-mile (8 km) part-dual-carriageway Swaffham Bypass, costing £5 million which was opened in June 1981. Bypasses for Uppingham (£1.4 million) and Blofield (£4 million) were opened in 1982 and 1983 respectively. The southern section of the Great Yarmouth Western Bypass was opened in May 1985 and the northern section in March 1986 at a cost of £19 million followed by improvements to the one mile (1.6 km) Postwick-Blofield section (£1.2 million) which was opened in November 1987. In 1989 Acle Bypass was completed as a cost of £7.1 million and the £1.2 million East Norton Bypass was opened in December 1990. The three mile (4.8 km) £9 million East Dereham-North Tuddenham Improvement opened in August 1992 and the £62 million Norwich southern Bypass in September 1992.

Escalating road protests starting with Twyford Down in 1992 and culminating with the Newbury bypass in 1996 (at which over 1,000 people were arrested) led to over 300 road schemes being cancelled in November 1995 and to the cancellation of further schemes including the Thorney bypass by the new Labour government in 1997.

In 2002 the government announced a new road building programme which included the three mile (4.8 km) dual-carriageway Thorney bypass which opened on 14 December 2005.

In February 2017 the Highways Agency re-designated the stretch of the A12 road between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft as the A47.

Acle Straight (New Road)
A study on the A47 which concluded in 2001 looked at improving New Road, i.e. the section of the A47 between Acle and Great Yarmouth known as the Acle Straight. The improvement of the Acle Straight has become a point of contention between interested parties due to its passage through the Norfolk Broads, an area of important ecological and conservation significance that limits development. The study which recommended widening rather than dualling of the Acle Straight was opposed by the Broadland District Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Norfolk Police Authority and the majority of local respondents who believed that dualling of the road is necessary to improve road safety, decrease journey time and support the economic development of Great Yarmouth. Dualling was however strongly opposed by the Environment Agency, the Council for National Parks (CNP) and the Broads Authority due to its impact on biodiversity and internationally important wildlife sites. These parties did cautiously support further investigation into the option for widening following further investigation of its environmental impact.

Acle Straight safety improvement scheme
In 2006 a programme of safety improvement for the Acle Straight were announced. This would include road resurfacing, better road markings, improved visibility and the installation of safety cameras at an estimated total cost of £1.6 million. The result would then be monitored while long-term improvements, such as widening, are considered. In October 2009 after it was announced that a £40,000 feasibility study, to see whether roadside ditches along the nine-mile stretch could be moved further back without disturbing delicate marshland habitat had been delayed until autumn 2010 at the earliest.

Norwich Northern Distributor Road
A£117 million road scheme to the north of Norwich, linking the A1067 and Norwich International Airport to the A47, sponsored and managed by Norfolk County Council. It was priority scheme for Norfolk County Council and it attracted strong opposition both locally and from environmental groups. On 2 June 2015 the scheme was given the go ahead, in 2017 parts of the road were opened with the complete road opened in early 2018.

Norwich Western Link
In 2007 Norfolk County Council started developing a proposal for a link road between the A47 and A1067 in the area between Hockering and Lenwade. Five different route options were considered which ranged from 1.5 km to 3.4 km of new road construction and an estimated construction cost of between £5.8 million – £9.1 million. Public consultation on the proposal was held between July and September 2007 with the most support given to Option 1 with positive responses from residents, businesses and Parish and District Councils. Although costing more than £5 million the scheme did not meet any of the targets of the Local Transport Plan and so did not qualify for regional funding. Funding for the scheme would therefore have to be found by the County Council. The scheme was not progressed.

In April 2017 however Norfolk County Council voted to make the Norwich Western Link one of its three top highway priorities. The scheme would connect the A47 at Easton with the A1067 at Attlebridge at the end of the Norwich Northern Distributor Road and consultants have been brought in to progress the scheme.

Other proposed improvements
In 2012 Norfolk County Council launched the strategic route prospectus which detailed improvement schemes along the A47 between Peterborough and King's Lynn. The list of improvements, costing a total £526 million, included dualling sections of the road and other junction improvements. The sections of the road to be dualled were the Acle straight, Blofield to Burlingham, North Tuddenham to Easton and the East Winch/Middleton bypass. Other improvements detailed were four schemes at Great Yarmouth, including a £112 million third river crossing, four junction improvements along the Norwich Southern Bypass and improvements to the three junctions at King's Lynn.

On 8 October 2012 it was the announced that improvements to the A1/A47 junction at Wansford and the roundabout at Honingham would be approved for pinch point funding. On 1 December 2014 it was announced that a package of improvements to the A47 worth a total of £300 million would be funded during the 2015-20 parliament. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that the proposed improvements would be honoured by any incoming Labour government. The proposed improvements consisted of
 * dualling the section between Blofield and North Burlingham
 * dualling the section between Easton and Tuddenham
 * dualling the section between Wansford and Sutton
 * improvements to the A47/A141 junction at Guyhirn
 * improvements to the A47/A11 Thickthorn junction
 * safety improvements to the Acle Straight
 * improvements to the A47/A149 junction at Great Yarmouth

Birmingham
The Birmingham end of the A47 starts one mile from the centre of Birmingham at the junction with the A4540 Middleway. The traffic light controlled junction was laid out in 2018–19 following the infilling of the Ashted Circus roundabout. The road runs north-east through Vauxhall as Nechells Parkway and then Saltley Road. (Historically it started in the City Centre on High Street.) The road continues north east following the Cross Country Route and River Rea as first Heartlands Parkway and then Fort Parkway. The Birmingham section of the road terminates at Spitfire Island, a roundabout on the A452 halfway between the M6 Junction 5 and A38 Tyburn Island.

The route between Birmingham and Nuneaton was known as the A47 until 1986, when it was renumbered, mainly as the B4114, following the completion of the M42.

Nuneaton – Leicester
At Nuneaton the road re-emerges as Hinckley Road from a junction with the A444, near the railway station. Leaving Nuneaton, it passes North Warwickshire and Hinckley College on the left, it meets the A4254 at a roundabout and the A5 Watling Street near the Longshoot Hotel. It follows the A5 for a half-mile entering Leicestershire and the district of Hinckley and Bosworth, then leaves at a roundabout to bypass Hinckley to the north as Dodwells Road then Normandy Way which was completed in the summer of 1994. This section passes through a large industrial estate and close to a Tesco distribution centre, crossing the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal. It meets a roundabout near the Triumph motorbike factory. It bypasses Earl Shilton on its southern side as a single carriageway road. It then runs through Leicester Forest on a line parallel with the M69. It enters Leicester Forest East crossing the M1 near the service station and continues on into the City of Leicester at the B5380 junction. The road continues into the city centre crossing the A563 outer ring-road before becoming part of the inner ring road.

Leicester – A1
Leaving Leicester the road becomes Humberstone Road, then Uppingham Road. It passes under the Midland Main Line and meets the B6146 St Barnabas Road to the south, then passes over the former Leicester Belgrave Road to Peterborough North section of the Great Northern Railway which follows the road as far as Houghton on the Hill. At the A6030 crossroads, it becomes part of the Leicester outer ring road in North Evington. At Humberstone, beyond the A563 (outer ring road) and Goodwood Road (projected extension of the outer ring road) crossroads, the road meets the B667 Spencefield Lane to the south, for Evington. Between the Downing Drive junction and Thurnby Hill it enters Leicestershire and the district of Harborough. At Thurnby it meets Station Road to the north, for Scraptoft. Leaving Bushby it climbs Winkadale Hill into the countryside.

The road travels through Houghton on the Hill, with crossroads for Leicester Airport (to the south) and Old Ingarsby (to the north) next to the Rose and Crown and JET Houghton Garage, and heads down Palace Hill with a right turn for Gaulby, a left turn for Tilton on the Hill, then crosses the River Sence. The two-mile £2.5 million three-lane Billesdon Bypass opened in October 1986, passing north of the village, with staggered crossroads. It meets the B6047 north-south Market Harborough to Melton Mowbray road (for Tilton on the Hill) at staggered crossroads at the highest point of the A47, at around 670 feet. It passes through Skeffington with a right turn for Rolleston then heads through Tugby, which is traversed by the Midshires Way and National Cycle Route 63. It winds its way towards the one-kilometre £1.2 million East Norton Bypass, which opened in December 1990, passing south of the village, with a left turn for Loddington and right turn for Hallaton. Leaving the village, after rejoining the former route, it passes the former railway station. It heads down a hill as three lanes and crosses the Eye Brook and from here the next ten miles are in Rutland, and three lanes become two.

There is a left turn for Belton-in-Rutland and a right turn for Allexton (in Leicestershire) where the road is crossed by the Leicestershire Round and Macmillan Way. The two-mile £1.9 million Wardley Hill Improvement opened in October 1987, and there is a right turn (only) for Wardley, where the road is crossed by the Rutland Round. The road improvement took a less-crooked route closer to the village, with a less steep incline avoiding the top of Wardley Hill. The one-and-a-half-mile £1.4 million Uppingham Bypass opened in June 1982, taking a shorter route north of the town, which is the home of Uppingham School. It meets the A6003 (for Oakham) at a roundabout, and meets the former Glaston Road route and crossroads for Bisbrooke, to the south. It passes through Glaston, with crossroads for Wing (to the north) and Seaton (to the south) near the Old Pheasant. It passes over the tunnel of the Oakham to Kettering Line. Entering Morcott it passes Redwings Lodge, a former Travelodge, and a new cafe restaurant, the Country Lounge originally a Little Chef, on the left and there is a left turn for Morcott, where the road is crossed by the Rutland Round. It meets the A6121 (for Stamford) and B672 (for Caldecott) where it crosses a tunnel of a former railway. At a right turn for Barrowden there is Morcott Windmill, and the road is again crossed by the Rutland Round. There is a crossroads for South Luffenham and Barrowden.

From Shire Oaks (Coppice Leys) through Tixover, the road has been straightened, and to the right is the Welland Valley (Rutland – Northamptonshire boundary). At Tixover there is a crossroads, where the Rutland Round follows the road to the east. The road crosses the River Welland, where the Jurassic Way crosses the road. The Duddington Bypass, where the road enters the district of North Northamptonshire, opened in 1975. This section has a busy roundabout where it meets the south-west/north-east corridor A43. On the northern edge of Collyweston Great Wood, it meets Kingscliffe Road for Collyweston, at the west gate of RAF Wittering. It follows the perimeter fence of the airfield to Collyweston Cross Roads (now no longer crossroads due to the airfield), where there is a right turn for Kings Cliffe. The woodland here is the northern edge of the historic Rockingham Forest. The road towards Wittering Lodge has been straightened, and crosses the City of Peterborough boundary (former Northamptonshire, then Cambridgeshire). At Toll Bar Cottage, there is a left turn for Wittering, opposite Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve. The road meets the A1.

A1 – Kings Lynn
The road formerly went through Wansford, further to the south. The £250,000 dual-carriageway Wansford North Bypass opened in January 1965. There is a right-turn for Sutton. It is crossed by the Roman road Ermine Street. The dual-carriageway £9 million Ailsworth-Castor Bypass opened in September 1991. Around Peterborough, the Peterborough Longthorpe Grade separated junction (GSJ) opened in December 1987 where it meets the A1260. There is a GSJ for Bretton and a Sainsbury's, and it passes the Peterborough City Hospital. The £1.2 million Peterborough Westwood GSJ opened in January 1987 near Ravensthorpe. This section of road is called the Soke Parkway (named after the Soke of Peterborough). When this was first built, in the mid-1970s, the A47 followed what is now the A15 Paston Parkway.

It crosses the East Coast Main Line and meets the A15 at New England near to a Morrisons (former Safeway), and Boulevard and Brotherhood retail parks at Walton to the north and New England to the south. There is another GSJ near Paston to the north and it meets the other strand of the A15 at a GSJ near Gunthorpe. It meets the southern terminus of the new A16 alignment before meeting the A1139 at a roundabout and crossing the Car Dyke. The 3 mi £7.2 million Eye Bypass opened as Eye Road in October 1991, diverting traffic from the Paston Parkway, and partly built on the former Peterborough to Wisbech railway. There is a local access roundabout at Eye Green near the Esso Eye Green Service Station, a Travelodge and the Peterborough Eye former Little Chef on the right, where it becomes Thorney Road, The Causeway. The landscape becomes very flat known as The Fens. A 3 mi dual-carriageway bypass of Thorney opened on 14 December 2005. The road meets the B1040 and B1167 at roundabouts. Near Thorney Toll, the road enters Cambridgeshire and the district of Fenland near the New Toll Service Station. The straight road finishes at Guyhirn, meeting the B1187 and crossing on the Tiddy Mun bridge and following the River Nene and the Nene Way. The 1/2 mi £3.7 million Guyhirn Diversion opened in October 1990. The road heads north-east, following the east bank of the River Nene. The 5 mi £6 million Wisbech/West Walton Bypass opened in autumn 1984. The former route leaves as the B198 at a roundabout. It meets a level crossing, and it enters Norfolk and the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk just before a roundabout with the A1101 for Elm and Emneth at the Elme Hall Hotel. It passes the Total Wisbech Services and then meets the old route (B198) at a roundabout and becomes the 6 mi £23 million dual-carriageway Walpole Highway/Tilney High End Bypass which opened in summer 1996. There is an exit for Walpole Highway, and another for Terrington St John. It passes near Tilney High End. Near Tilney All Saints, it meets the old route at a roundabout, becoming the single carriageway Main Road, then Pullover Road. It meets the end of the A17 at the "Pullover Roundabout" where the West Lynn Little Chef is located.

King's Lynn – Great Yarmouth
From King's Lynn, the road goes over the River Great Ouse and Fen Rivers Way, near to former sugar beet factory site on a very busy concrete dual-carriageway built in 1975. It meets the A148 at a GSJ. The A10 and the A149 have their terminus here, at the Hardwick Flyover (opened on 30 October 2003 ) near the large Hardwick Industrial Estate (formerly home of Campbell's Soup) and a Ramada Hotel. It becomes Constitution Hill, passing North Runcton then Middleton, where it passes the Crown public house and St Mary's church as "Lynn Road".

Next is East Winch, where it passes All Saints's church, then West Bilney where it passes St Cecilia's church. The former King's Lynn-Swaffham railway crossed at this point. There is a right-turn for Pentney and it meets the B1153 for East Walton. The half-mile £2.8 million Narborough Bypass, opened in November 1992, where the road crosses the River Nar and enters the district of Breckland. There is a straight section to where it meets the A1122 (for RAF Marham) at a roundabout at the start of the five-mile £5 million part-dual-carriageway Swaffham Bypass, which opened in June 1981. There is an exit for Swaffham, and a GSJ with the A1065 (for Fakenham).

It passes some wind turbines and there is a roundabout where it joins the former route just before it is crossed by the Peddars Way. There is a left turn for Sporle and it passes Necton then heads north-west through Little Fransham, passing the Canary and Linnet, with a left turn for Crane's Corner. The seven-mile £5 million part-dual-carriageway East Dereham Bypass opened in spring 1978, which was built on part of the disused railway line. It passes near Wendling and St Peter and St Paul church then meets the B1146 (for Dereham) and A1075 (for Shipdham) near a Tesco supermarket and B1135. The B1147 leaves for Swanton Morley. The three-mile £9 million East Dereham-North Tuddenham Improvement opened in August 1992, which passes North Tuddenham. It bypasses Hockering. It enters the district of Broadland at the start of the bypass of Honingham, where it crosses the River Tud. Just before the roundabout at Easton, it enters the district of South Norfolk. The dual-carriageway £62 million Norwich Bypass opened in September 1992. At the Longwater Intersection, the A1074 follows the former route through Norwich near the Longwater Retail Park and Sainsbury's. Near Bawburgh, it crosses the River Yare. There is a GSJ with the B1108, for Little Melton and Colney. At Cringleford, it meets the A11 at the Thickthorn Interchange and Thickthorn Services and crosses the Breckland Line. Near Keswick Hall, it meets the A140 at a GSJ at Harford Bridge, south of Norwich, near a Tesco, then crosses the Great Eastern Main Line. It is crossed by Boudica's Way, then meets the A146 at a GSJ. It crosses the River Yare again at the Postwick Viaduct and enters the district of Broadland. It crosses the Wherry Line and meets the A1042 at a GSJ. The section from the end of this bypass to Blofield, the one-mile £1.2 million Postwick-Blofield Dualling, was opened in November 1987. There is a left turn to Great Plumstead. The one-mile £4 million dual-carriageway Blofield Bypass opened in February 1983, which starts at a roundabout for Brundall. It becomes single carriageway and passes North Burlingham near the staggered White House crossroads with the B1140. The three-mile £7.1 million dual-carriageway Acle Bypass opened in March 1989, which ends at a roundabout with the A1048 near a Travelodge, becoming the single carriageway New Road. From Acle, the road enters the Acle Straight which is nearly seven miles of straight and level single carriageway to Great Yarmouth, with just one curve at Road House Diner. The road is notorious for congestion, especially during the holiday season, and also for the number of accidents, which due to the drainage ditches on either side of the road are often fatal, and demands for dualling have been heard for many years, although there are no current plans to go ahead with this. It enters the district of Great Yarmouth, then passes close to Breydon Water. The northern section of the two-mile £19 million Great Yarmouth Western Bypass (A47) opened in March 1986, and the southern section opened in May 1995.

Great Yarmouth - Lowestoft
From the Acle Straight, the A47 meets the Vauxhall Roundabout in Great Yarmouth where it intersects with the A149. The A47 follows a route south across Breydon Bridge which spans the estuary where the Rivers Yare and Bure meet Breydon Water. It meets at the Gapton Hall Roundabout, which intersects with the A1243. The route continues South, meeting with the Harfrey's Roundabout, which connects the A47 to Great Yarmouth's Herring Bridge. From there the A47 is formed of the Gorleston Bypass, a 2.6KM stretch of dual carriageway with a single slip-road connecting it to Gorleston via the A143. After this, a small section of the A47 runs south past the regions main A&E, the James Paget University Hospital. Approx 5.5 KM of dual carriageway then takes the A47 to North Lowestoft, which connects the A47 to the coastal villages of Hopton and Corton via 3 roundabouts. The A47 enters Suffolk as its route heads south into Lowestoft, along restricted 30MPH roads. As the A47 intersects with the A1144 in the centre of Lowestoft, it branches off into two routes. The main A47 branches past the towns docks, where it enters a section of 3 lanes controlled by lane tidal flow lights, which predetermine which of the three lanes is open for north or southbound travel over the Bascule Bridge. The secondary A47 branches through the centre of the town, passing Lowestoft Railway Station and meeting the main A47 by the docks just before the bridge. The A47 then terminates at the Bascule Bridge, where the A12 begins.

Transit service

 * Between Leicester and Uppingham, the A47 is serviced by bus route 747 Uppingham–Leicester.
 * First Eastern Counties 'Excel' service X1 follows much of the A47 between Norwich and Great Yarmouth.

First Eastern Counties run an 'Excel' service, with 4 branded routes - A, B, C and D, which primarily serve population centres along the A47, with some routes going as far as Peterborough.

title: A47 road


text:
A47

A47 may refer to:
 * Queen's Indian Defense, Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings code
 * Focke-Wulf A.47, a meteorological aircraft developed in Germany in 1931

 * roads
 * A47 road, a road connecting Birmingham and Lowestoft in England
 * A47 motorway (France), a road connecting Givors and Saint-Étienne
 * A47 motorway (Spain), a proposed road to connect Las Nieves and Rosal de la Frontera

title: A47


text:
Vernon Smith

Vernon or Vern Smith may refer to:

 * Vern Smith (journalist) (1892–?), American left-wing journalist
 * Vernon B. Smith (1894–1969), American regional artist
 * Vernon Smith (American football) (1908–1988), American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach
 * Vernon L. Smith (born 1927), American economist
 * Vernon Smith (Indiana politician) (born 1944)
 * Vernon Smith (basketball) (1958–1992), American basketball player
 * Vern Smith (ice hockey) (born 1964), Canadian ice hockey defenceman
 * Vernon K. Smith (died 1966), Idaho politician
 * Vernon Smith (screenwriter) (active 1924–1951), writer of American films

title: Vernon Smith


text:
Talk:February 11

Semi-protected edit request on 21 October 2020
Date of birth for singer Khalid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_(singer) ) in 1998. Source: https://twitter.com/thegreatkhalid/status/1094869513294630920 FreeChurros (talk) 18:21, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: That is a remarkably weak source. He just says he's 21. He doesn't say it's his birthday.  Toddst1 (talk) 18:53, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Does this corroborate it? https://twitter.com/thegreatkhalid/status/1227430073579397122 — Preceding unsigned comment added by FreeChurros (talk • contribs) 18:57, 21 October 2020 (UTC) https://twitter.com/thegreatkhalid/status/928752844273889280FreeChurros (talk) 18:59, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Twitter posts are generally not considered a reliable source. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 19:32, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Mary Quant’s birthday
Right: this page lists Mary Quant’s year of birth as 1934.

As does the Britannica page.

However, the Britannica entry has a question mark by the year: which tells me they’re not sure about the date: either the year, or the whole date.

The Wikipedia entry on Mary tells us her birth year was 1930: and cites two external references.

Can we get the date checked and tidied up, please?

Cuddy2977 (talk) 10:34, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

11th February
It’s the birthday of the famous Roséanne Park, known as Rosé on the stage the 4th official member of BLACKPINK and a beautiful young woman well know in K-pop industry and around the world 209.169.148.166 (talk) 06:55, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 February 2024
Mary Quant's year of birth was 1930, not 1934 2.99.58.8 (talk) 20:34, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅ As mentioned in the footnote that I added (which was copied over from the Mary Quant article and I presume has WP:EDITCON), it seems that most newer sources accept her year of birth as 1930. Liu1126 (talk) 21:29, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Superbowl
The Super Bowl with the 49rs and the chiefs on February 11th, 2024 2604:2D80:4388:2100:1DE5:F5DE:6E5C:5A0 (talk) 04:11, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:February 11


text:
Talk:American Sign Language

Linquist William Stokoe
I don't believe William (bill) Stokoe was a Linquist. He certainly was not hired as Linquist when he started his work at Gallaudet. He was hired as an English teacher. So when he first saw Sign Language it wasn't through the lens of a linguist it was as an English teacher. He studied with two Linquist while Gallaudet which was part of his interest in the language. I don't believe he had a degree in linguistics therefor I don't think he could be identified as Linquist William Stokoe.

Regional Variations
How come the Regional Variations doesn't seem to have as many citations. The information seems valid, but there's only 1 citation per section with a lot of information included? -Jdenny17 (talk) 19:06, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

 * @Jdenny17 Seconded, but I'd like to add that the claim that "research often shows" that faster signing is due to faster paced lifestyle in urban areas is based on a mention of an interview with a single Deaf person and smells like completely invalid informations to me. I think it'd be an extremely significant result if it was proven. Trerri (talk) 21:01, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Map legibility
The map in the infobox is difficult to interpret especially before enlarging as the colors are pretty similar. I'm not super worried about color being the only distinction here, because the info is provided in the text of the main article under geographic distribution, but I do think that more contrast might be helpful? I don't know anything about infobox editing and it looks like the map is from Commons... hoping someone with more experience in one/both of those areas might have some thoughts. SomeoneDreaming (talk) 02:05, 9 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I've replaced the map with a version that is both more color-contrastive and an SVG. Noting here that the "geographic distribution" section and the map differ with respect to several countries (Cambodia, for instance), but I don't have immediate access to Glottolog and can't verify one way or another. Right now the SVG map is based solely on the original, but if RS say something different, it should be edited. AviationFreak💬 22:36, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
 * That map is much easier to read, thank you for your hard work! SomeoneDreaming (talk) 13:13, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
 * That map is much easier to read, thank you for your hard work! SomeoneDreaming (talk) 13:13, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

"Phonemes"/"Cheremes"
This article currently uses the term "phoneme," with a footnote pointing to Bahan 1996. The explanation there just presents "chereme" as a now-defunct term used by Stokoe, but it's still in use by researchers of signed languages and ASL. The Valli work that we cite a lot in the article, for instance, uses "chereme" - see here. A Google Scholar search yields plenty of papers using "chereme" (a few recent ones: ). From a more philosophical standpoint, "phonemes" are almost always considered in terms of sounds: our article describes them as such in the lede. That same article has a section towards the end that claims "chereme" is no longer used as a term, but as demonstrated above, that just isn't true. I'm not flatly opposed to using "phoneme" in the article, but I do think "chereme" would be a better fit. If other editors have thoughts, I'd love to hear them. AviationFreak💬 21:30, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:American Sign Language


text:
Louis Rossetto

Louis Rossetto is an American writer, editor, and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and former editor-in-chief / publisher of Wired magazine. He was also the first investor and the former CEO of TCHO chocolate company.

Personal life
Louis Rossetto was born and grew up on Long Island, New York in an Italian-American family. He went to Columbia University as an undergraduate, graduating in 1971, and later returned for an MBA, graduating in 1973. Rossetto is life-partners with Jane Metcalfe and they have two children.

1970s & 1980s
In 1971, while a senior in college, he appeared on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine as co-author with Stan Lehr of "Libertarianism, The New Right Credo," one of the first articles about the emerging Libertarian movement. In 1974, he wrote a novel called Take-Over, released by controversial publisher Lyle Stuart. Take-Over posited a counterfactual history: instead of resigning during the Watergate crisis, Richard Nixon launched a coup d'état. In 1976, Rossetto ghost edited a new journalism book called Ultimate Porno about the making of Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione's film Caligula.

In 1985, he joined CBC reporter Richard Evans to report on the Afghanistan war for ABC News. Rossetto's subsequent articles for the Christian Science Monitor and newsweeklies Elseviers in the Netherlands and Panorama in Italy were among the first to pinpoint the war's turning point, when the mujahideen first put the Russians on the defensive that was ultimately to push them out of Afghanistan.

In 1986, Rossetto joined the staff of Amsterdam-based INK Taalservice, a high-tech translation company serving the new PC industry. INK launched an English-language magazine with Rossetto as editor called Language Technology, which covered the burgeoning the technologies used to process language — from PCs to machine translation to networks. The first issue of Language Technology was designed by leading edge Dutch graphic designer Max Kisman, and was the first issue of any magazine to be created with desktop publishing software, in this case ReadySetGo, which Rossetto had carried back from its introduction at that year's San Francisco MacWorld exhibition. During his time at Language Technology, Rossetto was a consultant to the European Community on language industry issues.

In 1986, Rossetto's life partner Jane Metcalfe joined as the magazine's ad sales director. INK later sold the magazine to a small Dutch media company Media Nederland, who renamed it Electric Word. Electric Word 's circulation grew to include leading research labs at universities, governments, and high tech companies around the world. Cover subjects were as diverse as computer visionary Alan Kay, AI pioneer Marvin Minsky, Timothy Leary, and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte. The magazine was later sold to a small Dutch media company and renamed Electric Word. Whole Earth Review ’s editor Kevin Kelley proclaimed Electric Word "the least boring computer magazine in the world," which became its tagline.

At Media Nederland, Rossetto also became launch editor of its glossy, general interest monthly magazine O. When Electric Word was terminated in 1990 due to Media Nederland's change of focus, Rossetto left with Jane Metcalfe to write the business plan for Wired. The last issue of Electric Word featured the world's first Photoshopped magazine cover — of TED founder Richard Saul Wurman.

1990s
In 1991, Rossetto and his partner Jane Metcalfe resettled in the US to raise capital for Wired. They launched the magazine on a shoestring budget in January 1993, with art director John Plunkett, executive editor Kevin Kelly, and managing editor John Battelle.

Wired was greatly admired for its bold design and its coverage of "digital culture". The magazine exuded a counterculture ethos—and was even compared to Rolling Stone as a barometer of the zeitgeist of the era. Its often deliberately provocative editorial reflected Rossetto's beliefs in a far-reaching "digital revolution" based on global consciousness and networked markets. Under Rossetto's five years as editor, the magazine won two National Magazine Awards for General Excellence and one National Magazine Award for Design.

In October 1994, Wired Ventures became an Internet pioneer when it launched the first Web site with original content and Fortune 500 advertising called HotWired. HotWired then proceeded to launch dozens of other Web sites, including Webmonkey and the search engine Hotbot. Hotwired employees Joey Anuff and Carl Steadman launched the first weblog Suck.com.

After HotWired, Wired expanded into books with HardWired and television with Wired TV. By 1996, it had Japanese and British editions, and was actively planning a German edition, as well as new business and design magazines.

Wired Venture's rapid expansion forced it in 1996 to turn to an IPO for financing. But after failing to take the company public as scheduled during what turned out to be a severe stock market downturn that summer, Rossetto and Metcalfe were forced to accept Providence Equity as financial partners in early 1997. By the summer of 1997, four years after launch, Wired magazine was solidly profitable. Its three-year-old online business, now renamed Wired Digital, was not. It was Wired Digital's cash needs which Providence used to wrest control of the company from Rossetto and Metcalfe in April 1997.

Despite Wired Ventures becoming cash-flow positive in May 1998, Providence sold off its assets. The company that Rossetto and Metcalfe began in 1991 with $30,000 was sold in pieces for $380 million. Condé Nast bought the now 500,000-circulation Wired magazine, and Lycos bought Wired Digital.

2000s & 2010s
Since Wired, Rossetto has mostly avoided the public eye. He assisted with a 2001 redesign of Reason Magazine and defended the invasion of Iraq in its pages. He pursued disparate individual projects through his and Metcalfe's family holding company, Força da Imaginaçao. One was a large residential real estate project in Walnut Creek, California. Another was a 2006 investment in innovative, ultra-premium chocolate company, TCHO.

Rossetto was TCHO's CEO and CCO from 2007 to 2014. TCHO was known for its award-winning, flavor-focused chocolate and for pioneering TCHOSource program which transferred technology and expertise to partner growers in Peru, Ecuador, and Ghana.

In 2013, Rossetto and Metcalfe were honored by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, with the Lanny Friedlander Prize for having "created a publication, medium, or distribution platform that vastly expands human freedom by increasing our ability to express ourselves, engage in debate, and generate new ways of understanding."

In 2015, Rossetto and Metcalfe were honored with a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award. Their five word acceptance speech: "Remember, it's all just prelude."

In 2017, Rossetto published Change is Good, an original novel about "the creation myth of the Digital Generation — a week in the lives of five Gen Xers and one millennial at ground zero of the Internet Revolution in South of Market, San Francisco, as it mutates into the dotcom bubble." The book is designed by Erik Spiekermann, and published by Spiekermann's p98a in Berlin. It will be the first book published with Spiekerman's new letterpress printing process.

title: Louis Rossetto


text:
Talk:Androids

Delete?
This page is a pseudo-history, and probably should be deleted. See Android for the valid article. Nanobug 22:24, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Has now been deleted and replaced by a redirect to the right article. -- The Anome 22:35, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Androids


text:
Suvarnabhumi Airport

Suvarnabhumi Airport (ท่าอากาศยานสุวรรณภูมิ,, or colloquially as สนามบินสุวรรณภูมิ, ; from Sanskrit सुवर्णभूमि (Suvarṇabhūmi), literally 'golden land')   is the main international airport serving Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. Located mostly in Racha Thewa subdistrict, Bang Phli district, Samut Prakan province, it covers an area of 3240 ha, making it one of the biggest international airports in Southeast Asia and a regional hub for aviation. The airport is also a major Cargo Air Freight Hub (20th busiest in 2019), which has a designated Airport Free Zone, as well as road links to the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) on Motorway 7.

Etymology
The name Suvarnabhumi is Sanskrit for "land of gold" (Devanagari:सुवर्णभूमि IAST : Suvarṇabhūmi; Suvarṇa is "gold", Bhūmi is 'land'; literally "golden land"). The name was chosen by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej whose name includes Bhūmi, referring to the Buddhist golden kingdom, thought to have been to the east of the Ganges, possibly somewhere in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, government proclamations and national museums insist that Suvarnabhumi was somewhere on the coast of the central plains, near the ancient city of U Thong, which might be the origin of the Indianised Dvaravati culture. Although the claims have not been substantiated, the Thai government named the new Bangkok airport Suvarnabhumi Airport, in celebration of this tradition.

History

The airport is currently the main hub for Thai Airways International and Bangkok Airways, as well as the operating base for Thai VietJet Air, Thai AirAsia, and Thai AirAsia X. It also serves as a regional gateway and connecting point for various foreign carriers connecting to Asia, Oceania, Europe, and Africa.

Suvarnabhumi was officially opened for limited domestic flight service on 15 September 2006, and opened for most domestic and all international commercial flights on 28 September 2006.

The airport is on what had formerly been known as Nong Nguhao (Cobra Swamp) in Racha Thewa in Bang Phli, Samut Prakan province, as well as the districts of Bang Kapi, Lat Krabang, Bang Na, and Prawet in the eastern side of Bangkok, about 25 km from downtown. The terminal building was designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects. It was constructed primarily by ITO JV. The airport had the world's tallest free-standing control tower (132.2 m) from 2006 to 2014 and the world's fourth largest single-building airport terminal (563000 m2).

Suvarnabhumi is the 17th busiest airport in the world, eleventh busiest airport in Asia, and the busiest in the country, having handled 60 million passengers in 2017, and is also a major air cargo hub, with a total of 95 airlines. On social networks, Suvarnabhumi was the world's most popular site for taking Instagram photographs in 2012.

Suvarnabhumi reassigned the IATA airport code, BKK, from Don Mueang after that airport ceased international commercial flights. Motorway 7 connects the airport, Bangkok, and the heavily industrial eastern seaboard of Thailand, where most export manufacturing takes place. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the airport was temporarily converted to a hospital and vaccination center.

Land purchase, initial early phase of construction
The need for the new airport was recognized in 1973 when 8,000 acre of land was purchased 40 km east of Bangkok. The site, known as Cobra Swamp, was drained and named Suvarnabhumi, meaning "realm of gold". On 14 October 1973, student-led protests led to the overthrow of the military government of Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn and the project was shelved.

"The Japanese government would end up assisting the new airport project as ODA, and in 1996, the project took a step forward with the signing of a loan agreement between the Government of Thailand and the Japanese government. Then, in 1996, Second Bangkok International Airport Company Ltd. (SBIA) was established as the project implementation organization, and the project got underway." It was scheduled to finish by the year 2000.

Airport tests and official opening
The airport was due to open in late 2004. Still, a series of budget overruns, construction flaws, and allegations of corruption plagued the project.

A further delay was caused by the discovery that the airport had been built over an old graveyard. Superstitious construction workers claimed to have seen ghosts there. On 23 September 2005, the Thai airport authority held a ceremony where 99 Buddhist monks chanted to appease the spirits.

Full tests of the airport took place on 3 and 29 July 2006. Six local airlines — Thai Airways International, Nok Air, Thai AirAsia, Bangkok Airways, PBair, and One-Two-Go Airlines — used the airport as a base for twenty domestic flights. The first international test flights were conducted on 1 September 2006. Two Thai Airways aircraft, a Boeing 747-400 and an Airbus A300-600, simultaneously departed the airport at 09:19 to Singapore and Hong Kong respectively. At 15:50 the same aircraft flew back and made simultaneous touchdowns on runways 19L and 19R. These test flights demonstrated the readiness of the airport to handle traffic.

On 15 September 2006, the airport started limited daily operations with Jetstar Asia operating three Singapore to Bangkok flights. Bangkok Airways moved to the airport on 21 September. AirAsia and Thai AirAsia followed on 25 September and on 26 September Nok Air moved to Suvarnabhumi Airport. During this initial phase, as well as in the previous tests, the airport used the temporary IATA code NBK.

Suvarnabhumi officially opened at 03:00 on 28 September 2006, taking over all flights from Don Mueang. The first flight to arrive was a Lufthansa Cargo flight LH8442 from Mumbai at 03:05. The first commercial arrival was Japan Airlines at 03:30. The first passenger arrival was Aerosvit flight VV171 from Kyiv at 04:30, and the first cargo departure was Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV-984 to Riyadh at 05:00. Aerosvit also had the first passenger departure (VV172 to Kyiv) around 05:30.

Initial difficulties
Difficulties were reported in the first few days of the airport's operation. On the first day alone, sluggish luggage handling was common—the first passenger arrival by Aerosvit took an hour for the luggage to start coming out, and some flights did not have their luggage coming out even after four hours. Flights were delayed (Thai Airways claimed that 17 of 19 flights were delayed that day), and there were failures with the check-in system. Subsequent problems included the failure of the cargo computer system, and the departure boards displaying the wrong information, resulting in confused passengers (especially as unlike Don Mueang, there were no "final calls" issued).

Months after its opening, issues of congestion, construction quality, signage, provision of facilities, and soil subsidence continued to plague the project, prompting calls to reopen Don Mueang to allow for repairs to be made. Expert opinions varied widely on the extent of Suvarnabhumi's problems as well as their root cause. Most airlines stated that damage to the airport was minimal. Then Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont reopened Don Mueang for domestic flights voluntarily on 16 February 2007, with 71 weekly flights moved back initially, but no international flights.

Tarmac problems
In January 2007, ruts were discovered in the runways at Suvarnabhumi. The east runway was scheduled to close for repairs. Expert opinions varied as to the cause of the ruts. Airport authorities and airline representatives maintained that the airport was still safe and resisted suggestions that the airport should be completely closed and all flights moved back to Don Mueang.

On 27 January 2007, the Department of Civil Aviation declined to renew the airport's safety certificate, which had expired the previous day. The ICAO requires that international airports hold aerodrome safety certificates, but Suvarnabhumi continued to operate because the ICAO requirement had yet to be adopted as part of Thai law.

As of early 2016, tarmac problems persisted at Suvarnabhumi. Soft spots on the tarmac, taxiways, and apron area had not been permanently fixed. Aircraft were getting stuck on the soft surfaces that are the result of sub-standard materials. "The constant resurfacing of the tarmac, taxiways and apron area with asphalt is an unacceptable patchwork solution. We literally need a "concrete" solution", said Tony Tyler, IATA's director general and CEO.

Plans to re-open Don Mueang for domestic flights
In January 2007, Thai Airways announced a plan to move some of its domestic operations back to Don Mueang International Airport due to overcrowding. Three days later, the Ministry of Transport recommended temporarily reopening Don Mueang while repair work on the runways at Suvarnabhumi proceeded. At that time, Thai Airways said it would shift most of its domestic flights back to Don Mueang while keeping flights with high international passenger connections such as Chiang Mai and Phuket at Suvarnabhumi. On 28 March 2009, Thai Airways discontinued all domestic flights from Don Mueang. Bangkok Airways and One-Two-GO Airlines had similar plans, but Bangkok Airways remained at Suvarnabhumi. Thai AirAsia said it would not move unless it could shift both its international and domestic operations, prompting them to stay at Suvarnabhumi for the time being. Nok Air and PBair were undecided, but Nok Air later relocated all flights to Don Mueang, where they operate today. As of January 2010, only Nok Air and One-Two-GO operated domestic flights from Don Mueang Airport. PBair have ceased operations altogether. One-Two-GO was integrated into Orient Thai Airlines in July 2010, but continues to operate from Don Mueang Airport. As of 1 October 2012, Air Asia has moved all of its Bangkok operations to Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) from Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK).

Repair and upgrades
Airports of Thailand found that the cost of fixing 60 identified problems at the airport would be less than one percent of the total airline cost and the problems could be fixed in up to four to five years. Dr Narupol Chaiyut, a member of a committee overseeing service problems at the new airport, estimated that 70 percent of the problems would be fixed in 2007. Twenty of the 60 problems were successfully fixed by February 2007.

Architectural design

Suvarnabhumi Airport's main terminal roof is designed with structural elements and bays placed in a cantilevered, wavelike form to appear to "float" over the concourse beneath. This overall design principle was to express the former essence of the site, from which water had to be drained before construction could begin. The eight composite 2,710-ton trusses supporting the canopy of the main terminal are essentially diagrams of the bending moments acting on them, with the greatest depth at mid-span and over the supports.

The result of Helmut Jahn's vision is a structure with performance materials serve in their total composition and in use more than in their conventional roles. This maximizes daylight use in comfort with substantial energy life-cycle cost savings. The installed cooling system reduced up to 50 percent compared to a conventional system. A translucent membrane with three layers was developed to mediate between the interior and exterior climate, dealing with noise and temperature transmission, while still allowing natural flow of daylight into building along with views of greenery outside.

Airport ranking

The airport was ranked number 48 among the world's top 100 airports in 2020. Other ASEAN airports in 2020 were ranked: Changi Airport, 1; Kuala Lumpur International Airport, 63; Jakarta–Soekarno-Hatta, 35; Hanoi, 87. Suvarnabhumi was ranked 46 in 2019, 38 in 2017 and 36 in 2016. According to the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) in 2018, the airport's ranking had not improved over the past six years. Customer complaints include: lengthy immigration waiting times; transit day room issues; insufficient numbers of chairs and phone charging points; insufficient English-speaking staff; and poor information displays.

As of 18 April 2024, the airport was ranked 58th by the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2024.

Events
On 25 January 2007, due to work upgrading the taxiways which suffered from small cracks, a few incoming flights were delayed and several flights were safely diverted to U-Tapao International Airport in Rayong Province.

On 26 November 2008, an illegal occupation of the airport took place by People's Alliance for Democracy, closing the departure lounge and blocking exits and leaving almost 3,000 passengers stranded in the main terminal and another 350,000 stranded inside the country, as all flights were grounded. The People's Alliance for Democracy seized the control tower at 12:00. On 2 December 2008, protesters agreed to leave the airport as they had been illegally protesting and permitted the resumption of flights. Security checks, clean-ups, and re-certification once the illegal occupation ended delayed the airport from being fully functional until 5 December 2008.

On 5 January 2019, the airport gained international attention when a Saudi Arabian ex-Muslim, Rahaf Mohammed, fleeing an abusive family that punished children who did not follow their religion, was accosted by Thai authorities at the behest of Saudi Arabia and sent to one of the airport's hotels to await repatriation back to her family and country. Fearing that she could be killed for being a disgrace to her family and religion, she barricaded herself in the hotel room, opened a Twitter account to plead for her freedom, and requested assistance from United Nations agents to get her to the Western world, away from her family, as a resettled refugee. As her pleas for help went viral, Thai agents agreed to let her go to Canada to start a new life without Islam.

In January 2021, a motorist drove his car through security gates and onto the tarmac at the airport while it was in use. It was later revealed that the driver had been under the influence of methamphetamine, which were also discovered in the trunk of the car. The driver claimed that he had taken a wrong turn.

Predatory irregularities
Petty thieves and confidence men, the majority of them illegal taxi drivers or tour guides, are known to prey on tourists in the arrival hall. They belong to politically well connected criminal groups: Kamnan Samruay, Boonruang Srisang, Sak Pakphanang, the Pattaya Mafia and Phuyai Daeng. Evicting them has proved difficult as they allegedly are well connected. (The head of the Pirap gang is supposedly related to an Airports of Thailand executive, while the Phuyai Daeng has ties to influential civil servants in Samut Prakan. )

On 1 October 2010, two hundred armed men occupied the airport's parking area for an hour, blocking the building's entrances and seizing ticket booths to collect fares from motorists. Airport security personnel failed to respond, reportedly because of an internal dispute within the parking management company, the firm contracted to run the parking facilities.

Airport terminal
Costing an estimated 155 billion baht (US$5 billion), the airport has two parallel runways (60 m wide, 4,000 m and 3,700 m long) and two parallel taxiways to accommodate simultaneous departures and arrivals. It has a total of 120 parking bays (51 with contact gates and 69 remote gates), with five of these capable of accommodating the Airbus A380. Suvarnabhumi Airport has 72 jet bridges and 69 non-jet bridges. Additionally, flights are able to park at remote locations on the ramp, from which airport buses transport passengers to and from the terminal. Suvarnabhumi Airport has 18 jet bridges and 6 non-jet bridges for Airbus A380.

The airport's two runways can accommodate 64 flights per hour. At peak times the runways average 63 flights per hour. In April 2019 the Thai cabinet approved a sum of 21.8 billion baht for the construction of a third runway. Construction will start in 2019 and be completed in 2021. The third runway will accommodate a maximum of 30 flights per hour. The project will be managed by Airports of Thailand (AOT).

The main passenger terminal building, with a capacity of handling 76 flight operations per hour, co-locates the international and domestic terminals, though assigning them to different parts of the concourse. In the initial phase of construction, it was capable of handling 45 million passengers and three million tonnes of cargo per year. Above the underground rail link station and in front of the passenger terminal building is a 600-room hotel operated by Accor under the Novotel brand. The airport's main passenger terminal was, at the time of construction, the world's largest passenger terminal ever constructed in one phase at 563000 m2. The airport air-traffic control tower was the tallest in the world at 135 m from 2006 to 2014.

From the opening of Suvarnabhumi in 2006 to early 2017, eight people had fallen to their deaths from upper-floor walkways, prompting the airport to spend 33 million baht in 2013 building glass barriers to prevent people from falling and/or taking their lives.

Expansion plans
By mid-2015, the airport was handling more than 800 flights per day, higher than its 600-flight capacity. It has exceeded its capacity of 45 million passengers per year.

Airports of Thailand (AOT) approved an investment budget for the expansion of Suvarnabhumi Airport and construction was expected to be completed by April 2023. The plan was to strengthen Suvarnabhumi Airport's position as a regional aviation hub. Phase Two would raise the airport's capacity to 65 million passengers a year and would be undertaken in parallel with the construction of a new domestic terminal. The new domestic terminal will be intended to accommodate more than 30 million passengers annually.

The two expansion projects are part of the overall airport enlargement that would see Suvarnabhumi raise its annual passenger handling capacity to 125 million passengers, 90 million international and 35 million domestic passengers by 2024 at an estimated cost of 163 billion baht (US$5.25 billion/€3.62 billion). The expansion includes the construction of one additional runway of 3,700 m, subsequent enlargement of domestic and international terminals, and improvements to parking bays, car parks, and other airport infrastructure.

In March 2024 Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the third runway would open in October 2024, with a long-term target capacity of 150 million passengers.

Midfield Satellite Concourse 1 (SAT-1)
A new midfield concourse called SAT-1 partially opened in September 2023 and is expected to fully open from early 2024. It is linked to the current main terminal via an underground automated people mover (APM) system. The new people mover was provided by Siemens using the NeoVAL technology. The new satellite terminal has a total of 28 gates, with eight for the Airbus A380 and Boeing B747-800 super jumbo jet. Spanning around 251,400 square meters, it will increase the airport's annual passenger handling capacity from 45 million to 60 million.

Traffic by calendar year
Suvarnabhumi accounted for the largest share of air traffic at Thailand's airports in 2023, handling 51.7 million passengers in 2023, up by 80 percent from the previous year despite its passenger capacity of only 45 million a year.

Incidents

 * 8 September 2013: Thai Airways International Flight 679, an Airbus A330-300, (HS-TEF, Song Dao), arriving from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) had a runway excursion from runway 19L while landing in heavy rain with extensive damage to the airplane and the runway. All passengers and crew were evacuated with no serious injuries. Preliminary investigation determined the cause of the incident to be the right landing gear collapsing as a result of a damaged bogie. In the aftermath of the accident, Thai Airways had the logos of the aircraft painted over in black, prompting widespread criticism of attempted cover-up. An airline official initially said that the practice was part of the "crisis communication rule" recommended by Star Alliance. This was denied by the group, and Thai Airways later clarified that the "de-identifying" of aircraft was its own practice and not Star Alliance policy.  The controversy prompted discussion over the appropriateness and effectiveness of the practice as a brand-protection policy. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off as a hull loss. The airframe has since been converted to a roadside attraction called Airways Land, featuring a cafe and event space, on Mittraphap Road in Sida District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province.
 * 29 September 2015: A Thai Airways airport dolly crashed into an airport cleaner at bay 511.
 * 1 August 2016: Thai Regional Airline Flight 106, a Piper PA-31 Navajo (HS-FGB) arriving from Nakhon Ratchasima Airport with two passengers, crashed at Lam Phak Chi, Nong Chok district, Bangkok. In the incident, there was one fatality (the captain in command) and four injuries.
 * 8 October 2018: Thai Airways International Flight 679, a Boeing 747-400 (HS-TGF, Sri Ubon) arriving from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN), China, had a runway excursion from runway 19R while landing, causing damage to the airplane. No injuries were reported. As of January 2020, the aircraft is being repaired at U-Tapao International Airport.
 * 1 July 2020: A Boeing 767-200 (Z-WPF) flight UM462 with two passengers and 17 crew from Air Zimbabwe made an emergency landing because the left engine had shut down.
 * 24 July 2022: A Boeing 777-200 from Austrian Airlines, was en route at FL320 about 240 nm northwest of Bangkok when the crew decided to return to Bangkok as a precaution due to a malfunctioning oven.
 * 21 May 2024: Singapore Airlines Flight 321, a Boeing 777-312ER, was en route from London Heathrow to Singapore Changi where the flight encountered severe turbulence over Myaungmya District Myanmar resulting in one death and 30 injuries. The aircraft made an emergency landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.

Airport Rail Link (ARL)
The 30 billion baht Suvarnabhumi Airport Link was opened on 23 August 2010, after multiple delays. The Airport Rail Link (ARL) is operated by SRTET, a subsidiary company of the State Railway of Thailand. The standard gauge line is 28.6 km long and is elevated for most of its length, running mostly above existing regional railway lines and parallel to Motorway 7 and Si Rat Expressway. There is a short at-grade/underground segment as the line approaches the passenger terminal building of Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The ARL Station is located on the Underground floor of Suvarnabhumi Airport which also links to the Airports' Novotel Hotel adjacent to the Main Terminal.

The ARL hours of service are 06:00 to 00:00. The ARL has two interchange stations, namely Phaya Thai (changing for BTS Green Line services) and Makkasan (linking Phetchaburi station of the MRT Blue Line). In the future, the ARL will complement the SRT Red Line commuter service, which comprises two-meter gauge, dual-track lines. The ARL may also be extended from Phaya Thai to Don Mueang via Bang Sue Grand Station, given that the old Don Mueang International Airport has now been reopened for civil aviation under a dual-airport policy.

Regional train
Meanwhile, SRT provides a suburban commuter train service between Lad Krabang (the nearest station to Suvarnabhumi on the East line, one station from the airport by Airport Rail Link) and the northern suburban city of Rangsit via downtown Bangkok and the old Don Mueang Airport. The train also connects with BTS and MRT at Phaya Thai and Phetchaburi stations respectively. A shuttle bus service linking the airport with Hua Takhe railway station is provided by BMTA. The train service is currently not as popular as the bus service because it requires a shuttle bus connection. The service will be stopped when the Airport Express Link is completed.

Bus

Northeast of the Airport is Suvarnabhumi Public Transport Center, which is the Airport's Main Bus Terminal.

A free bus service connecting Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Mueang Airport operates from 05.00 until midnight. Three air-conditioned city bus routes are operated by Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) serve the airport's dedicated bus terminal. There are also direct buses between the airports operated by Airport Shuttle Bus.

Taxi
Located on Level 1 (Ground Level) are where the Public Taxis are located. A ticket printed from the ticket queue machine (located on the same floor) is required before queuing up for a taxi.

Car

The airport has five main access routes. Among these the most convenient route is via the Bangkok Chon Buri Motorway (Motorway 7). Another main airport entrance is in Samut Prakan Province via the expressway from Bang Na to Bang Pakong.

The Airport has 7 different car park zones, with zone 2 & 3 having direct access to the departure/arrival terminal. Located northeast of the airport is the Longterm Car Park Zone, next to the Bus Terminal.

The airport has provided five entrance routes. The main route is via the motorway in the north of Bangkok, directly connecting Bangkok's downtown and Chonburi Province, the industrial and harbor city in eastern Thailand. However, another main airport entrance is in Samut Prakan Province, connecting an elevated highway in the south of Bangkok from Bang Na to Bang Pakong.

Sky Lane Cycle Track
In December 2015, Airports of Thailand introduced Sky Lane (สกายเลน), a cycling track around the Suvarnabhumi airport perimeter. The entrance to Sky Lane is located in the northeastern corner of the airport area. Cyclists can bring their bicycles and bike here for free. The Sky Lane is a controlled-access, one-direction, two-lane track built only for cycling, so the riders can be ensured that they won't be bothered by any vehicle. The Sky Lane's length is 23.5 km, making it the longest in Asia. Sky Lane's facilities, which are specially designed for cyclists, include medical facilities, shops, food & beverage, track, parking lot and a rest area. The entrance gate is open from 06:00 to 18:00. On 23 November 2018, King Rama X presided over the official opening of cycling lane at Suvarnabhumi airport and denominated the track as Happy and Healthy Bike Lane (สนามลู่ปั่นจักรยานเจริญสุขมงคลจิต).

title: Suvarnabhumi Airport


text:
Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders

Baldwin IV (980 – 30 May 1035), called the Bearded, was the count of Flanders from 987 until his death.

Baldwin IV was the son of Count Arnulf II of Flanders (c. 961 — 987) and Rozala of Italy (950/60 – 1003), of the House of Ivrea. He succeeded his father as Count of Flanders in 987, but with his mother Rozala as the regent until his majority.

In contrast to his predecessors Baldwin turned his attention eastward, leaving the southern part of his territory in the hands of his vassals the counts of Guînes, Hesdin, and St. Pol. To the north of the county Baldwin was given Zeeland as a fief by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, while on the right bank of the Scheldt river he received Valenciennes (1013) and parts of the Cambresis as well as Saint-Omer and the northern Ternois (1020). In his French territories, the supremacy of Baldwin remained unchallenged. A great deal of colonization of marshland was organized along the coastline of Flanders and the harbour and city of Brugge were enlarged.

Baldwin first married Ogive, daughter of Frederick of Luxembourg, by whom he had a son and heir, Baldwin V (1012 – 1067). He later married Eleanor, daughter of Richard II of Normandy, by whom he had a daughter, Judith (1033 – 1094). Baldwin IV died on 30 May 1035.

title: Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders