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Wing Commander (franchise)

Wing Commander is a media franchise consisting of space combat simulation video games from Origin Systems, Inc., an animated television series, a feature film, a collectible card game, a series of novels, and action figures. The franchise originated in 1990 with the release of video game Wing Commander.

Setting and gameplay
Set in the 27th century, the games tell the story of humanity's war against the Kilrathi, an alien species of large feline bipeds. The Kilrathi are native to the planet Kilrah with their society depicted as an empire. Physically they are bipeds who strongly resemble big cats: they have leonine manes, but also have markings which distinguish their clan of origin. The species is featured in every game, with later games revealing more complex characters than just a faceless enemy. Later games would move on from the Kilrathi war setting, with Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom being about a conspiracy within the ranks and Wing Commander: Prophecy and Secret Ops telling the battles against a new enemy known as the Nephilim.

The player represents the Terran Confederation, the primary human government in the Wing Commander series. The Terran Confederation is an alliance of systems and regional governments which provide unified protection and economic growth. Launching from carrier ships, the player fulfills various missions in space fighter aircraft. The games were all notable for their storytelling through extensive cutscenes. Starting with Wing Commander III, every game (excluding Secret Ops) contained cutscenes that incorporated live action filming, starring several major Hollywood actors, including John Rhys-Davies, Mark Hamill, Thomas F. Wilson and Malcolm McDowell, as well as Christopher Walken, John Hurt, and Clive Owen in Privateer 2: The Darkening.

Games
The Wing Commander game series began in 1990 with Wing Commander. The newest addition to the series, Wing Commander Arena, was released for the Xbox Live Arcade service on July 25, 2007.

Wing Commander
The player begins his tour of duty as a young space fighter pilot on the carrier the TCS Tiger's Claw. The player can set this character's name and callsign in the first games in the franchise. As of Wing Commander 3, the protagonist is given the canonical name Christopher "Maverick" Blair. Through the player's heroic efforts, the Confederation is able to destroy the Kilrathi's sector headquarters and drive them from the Vega sector. Through the course of the Vega campaign, the player can gain numerous promotions and medals and fly in various squadrons, each featuring a different fighter. The game was notable for its innovative and seldom-repeated "campaign tree" structure, whereby the "path" the player took on the way to the end would be determined by the player's performance on preceding missions. In-game cinematics in "newsreel" format reflected the success or failure of the player and the Claw.

Originally announced as Squadron, the name was changed to Wingleader shortly into development; however, trademark issues forced a name change to Wing Commander at the last moment. The development team's nickname for the otherwise-unnamed protagonist was "Bluehair", due to his unusual shade of hair. Perhaps in a nod to this in-joke, when the character was given an actual name in later installments, Origin chose "Blair", a shortened version of the old nickname. Wing Commander was ported to the Amiga, FM Towns, SNES, Mega-CD, Amiga CD32, 3DO, Mac OS, and PlayStation Portable systems, the most ports of any Wing Commander game. In the Sega CD port which added voice acting, the player character was given the callsign of "HotShot" to allow him to be addressed by voice.

In 1991, Wing Commander won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1990.

The Secret Missions
A new Kilrathi secret weapon destroys the Terran colony of Goddard. In retribution, the Confederation plans a daring raid, Operation Thor's Hammer. Tiger's Claw must follow the Kilrathi deep into their own territory and destroy their new super weapon, the dreadnaught Sivar.

The Secret Missions was ported to the FM Towns, SNES, Sony PSP (as part of the EA Replay bundle), and was included with Wing Commander on the 3DO and Macintosh as part of Super Wing Commander.

The Secret Missions 2: Crusade
When the Confederation is just celebrating a new alliance with the bird-like native species of the planet Firekka, they learn that entire fleets of Kilrathi ships are leaving from other sectors and heading towards the Firekka system. Concerned, but massively outnumbered, the Confederation ships must retreat, but they soon learn from a Kilrathi defector that Firekka has been chosen as the place for a holy Kilrathi ceremony. The Confederation soon develops a plan to disrupt that ceremony in an act of terrorism meant to deliver a blow to enemy morale, and it is up to the pilots of Tiger's Claw to ensure the success of the mission.

The Secret Missions 2: Crusade was ported to the FM Towns.

Super Wing Commander
In 1994, a revamped version of the original Wing Commander, entitled Super Wing Commander (SWC), was released for the 3DO. It featured new graphics, full speech and included a Secret Missions 1.5 campaign (between the original campaigns 1 and 2) with a follow-up to Thor's Hammer in which the Claw destroys the Kilrathi shipyards that constructed the Sivar.

Super Wing Commander was ported to the Macintosh in 1995.

Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
Shortly after the Firekka campaign, the Tiger's Claw attempts to attack the Kilrathi headquarters in the Enigma sector, but is ambushed by new Kilrathi "Strakha" stealth fighters and is lost. No one but Blair sees these fighters, so they are dismissed as an excuse to cover his cowardice. He is scapegoated for the loss of the Claw, is demoted to captain and transferred to a backwater space station. Ten years later, he is called back into action when he is able to save the Confederation's flagship, the TCS Concordia. Meeting many old friends there, he continues the fight against the Kilrathi, finally culminating in the destruction of their sector HQ, thus clearing his name and uncovering a traitor on the Concordia's flight decks, who was the mastermind behind the ambush and destruction of the Tiger's Claw.

Wing Commander II was ported to the FM Towns. In 1992, it won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1991.

Special Operations 1
Blair is transferred to the undercover Special Operations division, supporting Kilrathi colonies that are defecting from the Empire. But first he must solve the problem of a mutiny on a Confed cruiser.

Special Operations 2
Jazz, the traitor from Wing Commander II, has fled imprisonment and the Mandarin (the society of traitors) are also able to steal some of the Confederation's newest top-secret fighters. Blair must hunt them down and face Jazz in one final showdown.

Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
The war is going very badly for the Confederation, far worse than what the public (or the player) generally knows. Battles are lost on all fronts, casualties are mounting, and the Concordia is destroyed. Colonel Christopher Blair (the player from the first games, now with a set name), is transferred to the TCS Victory, an old ship from the first days of the war. In a last-ditch attempt to win the war, Confed has designed the TCS Behemoth, a doomsday weapon able to destroy an entire planet. It is Blair's mission to help end this war for good, by destroying the Kilrathi homeworld of Kilrah. Unfortunately the Behemoth is destroyed by Kilrathi forces. The enemy fighters seemed to know exactly about the weakpoints of the weapon. Later on Blair finds out that his old friend Hobbes, a Kilrathi defector, is a sleeper agent and the traitor responsible for the Confed's losses. The last hope of winning the war for the Confederation is a secret weapon, the "Temblor Bomb", using the tectonic instability of Kilrah to destroy the planet. Blair is finally able to attack Kilrah, firing the bomb and destroying the Kilrathi homeworld. With the royal family of Kilrah killed and their homeworld lost, Melek, once attaché to the Kilrathi prince, surrenders before Blair.

Wing Commander III was the first game in the series to use full motion video as opposed to animated cutscenes, and texture-mapped 3D instead of sprite-based graphics. The game features well-known actors such as Mark Hamill as Christopher Blair, John Rhys-Davies as James "Paladin" Taggart, Thomas F. Wilson as Todd "Maniac" Marshall, Malcolm McDowell as Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, Josh Lucas as "Flash", and Ginger Lynn as Chief Technician Rachel Coriolis.

Wing Commander III was ported to the PlayStation, Macintosh and the 3DO.

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom
The war with the Kilrathi is over, but not all is well within the Confederation. Skirmishes in the Border Worlds destroy ships regularly. Both Confed and the Union of Border Worlds assign blame to each other and the skirmishes threaten to lead to all-out war. Blair is soon recalled to active duty and sent to the Border Worlds to confirm Confed's determination. But he finds out that a conspiracy of war-mongers with members in the highest Confed circles are responsible for the attacks. Defecting to the Border Worlds, Blair must expose the conspiracy to help restore the peace in a galaxy still torn over the events of the Kilrathi-Terran War.

The Price of Freedom retained the storytelling-style of its predecessor, using live-action cutscenes with an ensemble cast of actors. Many of the actors from Wing Commander III returned to reprise their roles. The story's final sequence was innovative in that dialogue choices made by the player affected the outcome of the hearing. However, only three endings were possible, and two of the outcomes depended on the earlier choices made by the player.

Wing Commander IV was ported to the PlayStation and Mac OS. To owners of the original MS-DOS version, Origin made available a Windows 95 DirectX port, free of charge.

Wing Commander: Prophecy
Peace has finally come to the Confederation, or so it seems. Still remaining vigilant, they commission the new megacarrier TCS Midway, which is soon needed when Kilrathi worlds are attacked by an enemy whose coming was foretold in ancient Kilrathi prophecies. The insectoid enemy, codenamed the Nephilim, soon begin attacking Confed space and the Midway is called in to stop their advance. As young hotshot pilot Lance Casey, the player must fight their organic ships to help destroy the wormhole they used to enter Kilrathi space, thereby halting the invasion, at least for a while.

As did Wing Commander IV, Prophecy incorporated live-action cutscenes with actors. Prophecy was ported to the Game Boy Advance.

Wing Commander: Secret Ops
The Nephilim return, this time much closer to Earth. Transferred to the cruiser TCS Cerberus, Casey and his wingmates must repel the invasion once again.

Secret Ops was an experiment in game distribution. It was at first only available as a free download. In regular intervals, new episodes were released, each featuring several new missions with the storyline told through in-game cutscenes. The game was later available in a collection together with Prophecy, and sold as Prophecy Gold.

Wing Commander Academy
A game where the player could build their own missions using ships from Wing Commander II.

Wing Commander: Privateer
Set in the border regions of Confederation space, the player takes control of a privateer (in Wing Commander, a "privateer" is a mercenary spacer) who may profit by trading, performing various missions, or pirating. Meanwhile, an ancient alien spaceship has been awakened and is on the loose, attacking ships at random, and the player-controlled privateer may be the Confederation's only hope in defeating it.

This game featured completely open-ended gameplay, with the player able to completely ignore the main storyline if they so desired.

Righteous Fire
When the player's priceless Steltek Gun is stolen, he embarks on a quest that will bring him into conflict with the Luddite-like Church of Man and their shady leader, Mordecai Jones.

Wing Commander Armada
Armada featured both an action and a strategy game mode and several multiplayer options. The game was ported to the NEC PC9821 and FM Towns.

Proving Grounds
This add-on for Armada added numerous new features such as a new "arcade"-mode with powerups, radar-obscuring asteroids, and several new multiplayer options, including IPX.

The Kilrathi Saga
Kilrathi Saga was a limited-edition reissue of the first three Wing Commander games (Wing Commander, Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, and Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger). Origin repaired some of the game's known bugs and adjusted the speed to run on the early Pentium processors of the time. At the time of its release only 20,000 copies were published.

Kilrathi Saga also featured complete digital re-orchestrations of the original two soundtracks by George Oldziey, but the Saga did not include the Secret Missions and Special Operations packs of the first two games. The packs were instead made available for download on the Origin website. Due to the add-on packs not being on the CDs there is a bug that causes some music to not be played during animated sequences in the add-ons.

Privateer 2: The Darkening
Privateer 2 was launched in late 1996 by Erin Roberts.

The game features live-action video scenes, directed by Steve Hilliker. The cast included Clive Owen, Mathilda May, Jürgen Prochnow, John Hurt, Christopher Walken, Brian Blessed and Amanda Pays. Dani Behr voiced the onboard computer, also named Dani. The game also featured David Warner, and Jürgen Prochnow, who later played Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn and Commander Paul Gerald, respectively, in the Wing Commander feature film. The filming was done at Pinewood Studios in England.

Set in a remote region of the Wing Commander universe in the Tri-System Confederation (a three system government that has almost three thousand-year history of its own parallel to the Terran Confederation history), a cargo ship Canera is attacked during landing and crashes into Mendra City on planet Crius in the year 2790 of the Tri-System calendar (the calendar appears to be longer than a Terran year with months that are about 40 days each). One survivor, As Lev Arris, a man with no memory of who he is and no record of his existence prior to two weeks before the crash, awakens from his cryo-sleep and must take on the life of a privateer in the Tri-System, re-discovering his past along the way.

Wing Commander Arena
Publisher Electronic Arts and developer Gaia Industries revived the Wing Commander franchise with a downloadable release on Xbox Live Arcade called Wing Commander Arena. Dogfights take place in one of nine environments, and pilots are able to choose from 18 ships. There can be up to 16 players in a single match. The title was released on July 25, 2007. It is set chronologically after Wing Commander Prophecy Gold, and background information is included in the digital Star*Soldier manual.

Alien Commander
Around 1993, Warren Spector developed a pitch for a science fiction game called Alien Commander, which would be set in the Wing Commander universe. A concept document was produced, however the project was scrapped in favour of proceeding with System Shock.

Privateer 3
Origin aborted several attempts to continue the Privateer franchise between 1995 and 2003, by either developing a sequel (Privateer 3) or an online game (Privateer or Wing Commander Online). Only one of these was formally announced. The March 1998 issue of Computer Games Strategy Plus featured a cover story on Privateer 3. Origin confirmed that development of the game had been canceled shortly after the magazine was published.

Strike Team
Wing Commander: Strike Team was a planned sequel to Wing Commander: Secret Ops which focused on multiplayer gameplay. The title was officially announced in an EAUK promotional publication but was canceled early in development.

Spiritual Successor
After Origin Systems was bought over by Electronic Arts, Roberts lost the rights to the Wing Commander franchise. Although there was an attempt to revive it, Roberts said the publisher "doesn't care about that world." This encouraged him to create a spiritual successor to Wing Commander called Star Citizen in 2012.

Novels
Several novels based on the games have been released by Baen Books. They include novelisations of WCIII and WCIV as well as offering further depth into known Wing Commander events such as the defection of Ralgha nar Hhallas.

Television series
Wing Commander Academy is a 13-episode animated series that originally aired on the USA Network between September 21 and December 21, 1996. The series is set before and during the events of the first game and features many familiar ships and characters. The cast featured Mark Hamill, Tom Wilson, and Malcolm McDowell reprising their Wing Commander game roles.

Film
In 1999, Wing Commander hit the big screen with the film of the same name. It was directed by Chris Roberts, the creator of the game series, and stars Freddie Prinze, Jr., Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard, Tchéky Karyo, Jürgen Prochnow, and David Warner. The film diverged significantly from the established Wing Commander universe, and was a critical and commercial failure.

Collectible card game
The Wing Commander: Collectible card game was an effort to combine the franchise's rising fortunes with the rising interest in card games, as Magic: The Gathering was revolutionizing gaming centers the world over. The collectible card game (CCG) was based exclusively on the WC3 intellectual license and contains no characters found elsewhere.

The game supports two players, one as the Kilrathi Empire and one as the Terran Confederation (rules modifications may be made to allow teams of players instead). In the pre-game phase, players set out five "Nav Point" cards in an X pattern, with a Terran and Kilrathi carrier at either end (to form a hexagon). During gameplay, players may deploy fighters, and then deploy pilots and equipment upon those fighters. Every card has its own "Power Point" cost; players start with 30 Power Points and gain two each turn. The designers recommend pencil and paper for the keeping-track of Power Points. Finally, certain cards feature "Medals", which also feature as a resource, as some elite cards require the "tapping" of Medal-bearing cards to deploy.

Fighters, with pilots and secondary armaments potentially attached, move among the nav points, fighting with each other and attacking the enemy carrier. During combat, either player may play "Maneuver" cards to fortify their fighters (assuming the targeted craft has a high enough Maneuver statistic) or "Battle Damage" cards to cripple their enemies; both have Power Point costs. Attacks are then resolved by comparison of the aggressor's Attack value with the defender's Defense value (with Support values from allied ships augmenting as appropriate). Each card lost results in the loss of one Power Point as well. There are two ways to win: to destroy the enemy carrier (with the successful use of Torpedo cards) or to reduce the opponent's Power Point pool to zero.

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Poster child

A poster child (sometimes poster boy or poster girl) is, according to the original meaning of the term, a child afflicted by some disease or deformity whose picture is used on posters or other media as part of a campaign to raise money or enlist volunteers for a cause or organization. Such campaigns may be part of an annual effort or event, and may include the name and age of a specific child along with other personally identifiable attributes.

In modern times, a "poster child" is a person of any age whose attributes or behaviour are emblematic of a known cause, movement, circumstance or ideal. The person in question is thought of as an embodiment or archetype. This signifies that the very identity of the subject is synonymous with the associated ideal; or otherwise representative of its most favorable or least favorable aspects.

Examples

 * Bobbi Campbell was a self-professed "AIDS poster boy" in the earliest years of the epidemic.
 * Willie Horton became a poster boy for a prison furlough program in the US and the liberal sensibilities of Michael Dukakis in the 1988 United States presidential election campaign.
 * Emily Susan Rapp was a poster child for the March of Dimes in the US, following the amputation of her leg at age four, due to a congenital birth defect.
 * Aziz Shavershian was described as the poster boy of a subculture of amateur bodybuilding in Australia, dubbed "aesthetics", and gained a large cult following of admirers.
 * Ryan White was considered a poster child for social acceptance of AIDS sufferers, after he contracted the disease from a blood transfusion and was expelled from his school.

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

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Barbara Cubin

Barbara Lynn Cubin (née Turner; born November 30, 1946) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, Wyoming's sole member of that body. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Wyoming.

Early life, education
Cubin was born in Salinas, California. She grew up in Casper, Wyoming, and graduated from high school there. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cubin worked as a substitute science and math teacher, and was employed full-time as a social worker for senior citizens and disabled adults. She later worked for the state Labor Department and Ironworkers' Union to train minorities and Vietnam War veterans to become iron workers.

In 1974, Cubin joined the Wyoming Machinery Company as a chemist, and in 1975, began managing the office of her husband, Fritz Cubin, a physician.

Personal
Cubin and her husband Fritz married in 1975 and had two children. Fritz Cubin, who was a doctor, died in 2010 after a decade of serious health problems.

In past elections, Cubin fended off attacks on missed floor votes, which she attributed to her husband's severe health problems. Cubin also has had health issues of her own. In 1993 and 1995, she had surgeries related to her gall bladder. In July 2005, she suffered a mild heart attack and underwent surgery to place a stent in an artery that was 70 percent blocked.

Early political career
Cubin began her political career in November 1986, when she was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives from Natrona County, Wyoming. She served there for six years. During the 1992 session, she was the primary sponsor of legislation that put on the ballot an initiative that would create the sentence of life without parole.

In November 1992, Cubin was elected to the Wyoming Senate, representing part of Casper, Wyoming. She served there for two years before being elected to the U.S. House.

1994 election
In November 1994, Cubin ran for Wyoming's U.S. House seat, to succeed Republican Craig Thomas, who was running for (and would be elected to) the United States Senate. Cubin defeated eight other Republicans in the primary, then won the general election against Bob Schuster, a wealthy Jackson attorney and then-partner of prominent trial attorney Gerry Spence.

Cubin's first race was very close by Wyoming standards (Wyoming is one of the most Republican states in the nation), with Cubin getting 53% of the vote. It was also the most expensive campaign in state history.

Cubin became the first woman to win an election for federal office in the state of Wyoming.

Subsequent elections
In 1996, Cubin was re-elected with 55 percent. Subsequent races were less close, until 2004, when she again won with 55% of the vote. By contrast, George W. Bush won the state with 69 percent of the vote. In 2006, Cubin won her seat again, but barely, registering 48 percent of the vote to her Democratic opponent Gary Trauner's 48 percent.

Committees
Early in her House tenure, she served on the House Science Committee. In her last terms in office, she was a member of the House Resources Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In the wake of the Democratic takeover of Congress in the 2006 elections, Cubin served only on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as a Member of both the Health and Telecommunications Subcommittees.

Political positions
Cubin's voting record is conservative: the American Conservative Union gave her 2005 voting record a rating of 96 points out of 100.

An opponent of abortion in any form, Cubin consistently voted for restrictions on abortion and against funding of family planning groups that provide abortion services, counseling or advocacy.

In 2006, Cubin was listed as cosponsoring legislation that would sell off some federal land to help pay for Hurricane Katrina and other disaster relief. Cubin maintains she never signed on to the legislation, saying there must have been a clerical error. About 42 percent of Wyoming's land is owned by the federal government, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Relatedly, she focused much of her attention on the mining and land use issues important to Wyoming. She cofounded the Congressional Mining Caucus and introduced legislation to allow mining companies operating on federal lands to pay taxes in minerals rather than dollars.

With regard to global warming, Cubin has stated that "there still exists broad disagreement within the scientific community on the extent to which humans actually contribute to the Earth's temperature changes."

The League of Conservation Voters, a nonpartisan PAC, gave Cubin a lifetime rating of 3 on a scale of 0 to 100. In 2006, she scored a 0.

In 2000, she was appointed to be a member of the National Rifle Association of America Board of Directors.

During her time in the House, Cubin rose into the ranks of Republican leadership, holding the posts of Deputy Majority Whip, Conference Secretary, and member of the Steering Committee.

Cubin was a supporter of impeaching President Bill Clinton. In November 1997, Cubin was one of eighteen House Republicans to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton. The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations. This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998. On October 8, 1998, Cubin voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry. On December 19, 1998, Cubin voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the majority of votes needed to be adopted).

Racial comment
On April 9, 2003, Cubin said on the House floor, "My sons are 25 and 30. They are blond-haired and blue-eyed. One amendment today said we could not sell guns to anybody under drug treatment. So does that mean if you go into a black community, you cannot sell a gun to any black person, or does that mean because my …" Representative Melvin Watt, (D-N.C.), who is black, interrupted and demanded that Cubin retract the statement. Cubin said that she did not mean to offend her "neighbors" on the Democratic side, and maintained that her comment was within House rules.

On the motion from Watt to strike Cubin's words, the motion was defeated along mostly party lines of 227 to 195, with 4 Democrats voting with the Republicans.

Slap
On October 22, 2006, after a televised debate with Democratic candidate Gary Trauner and Libertarian candidate Thomas Rankin, Cubin approached Rankin, who has multiple sclerosis and is a wheelchair user. Rankin states that Cubin said, "If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face." Rankin called her comment an inappropriate slur to the disabled. Rankin maintains he said nothing to Cubin before her remark.

ARMPAC
The Wyoming Democratic Party has repeatedly called for Cubin to return the $22,520 she received from Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee (ARMPAC).

On July 23, 2006 the Casper Star-Tribune reported Cubin "will keep the money she received from former Rep. Tom DeLay's fundraising committee even though the organization has been fined for campaign finance violations and is shutting down." ARMPAC agreed to pay a fine to the Federal Election Commission for "misstatements of financial activity, failure to report debts and obligations and failure to properly allocate expenses between federal and non-federal accounts."" Later in 2006, Cubin said she would return the money if DeLay was convicted. DeLay was convicted, though his conviction was reversed on appeal in 2013 by Texas Republican judges.

2008 retirement
Cubin announced in 2008 that she would not be a candidate for re-election that year. Former Wyoming State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis became the Republican nominee for Wyoming's At-Large U.S. House District. After her victory in the general election, Lummis succeeded Cubin in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Talk:Socialist Party

Polish Socialist Party
It's a mistake. Polish Socialist Party still exist. Party's webpage is www.socjalistyczna.pl —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.75.91.158 (talk) 15:19, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Socialist party of Canada
I moved the Socialist Party of Canada from active parties to former parties because there is no party still around in Canada named the Socialist party of canada User:whoneedspants May 22, 2009

Comment
From Wikipedia: Naming Conventions (to which we were referred):

''Use English words Convention: Name your pages in English and place the native transliteration on the first line of the article unless the native form is more commonly used in English than the English form. Adam 11:41, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * see discussion of the names of organisations at Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_(use_English). The main problem is that there isn't always an "official" English version. -- User:Docu

 * BTW. I like your current solution -- User:Docu

There is in fact very rarely an "official" English name for parties in non-English-speaking countries - why should there be? In an English-language encyclopaedia, however, we should give the most widely used English translation, and if there isn't one we should make one up. I don't know whether the party in question is most commonly called the Swiss Socialist Party or the Swiss Social Democratic Party (both are possible given that the party has different names in French and German), so one should redirect to the other. Adam 12:35, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Disambiguation
I have removed all the parties that were not name "Socialist Party" except for those which were "Country Socialist Party" or "Socialist Party of country". This is a disambiguation - C mon (talk) 08:33, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Capitalization
This article uses capitalization of "socialist party" when this article doesn't pertain to a specific socialist party, but rather to them in general, hence "socialist party" is not a proper noun, hence shouldn't be capitalized. I'm not an expert in linguistics, per se, so if I'm wrong feel free to correct me. Fuse809 (contribs · email · talk · uploads) 15:00, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

New Discussion
There is a new discussion taking place here that effects this page.

Discussion at Talk:Socialist Party (disambiguation) § Requested move 11 March 2023
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Socialist Party (disambiguation) § Requested move 11 March 2023. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 09:46, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Socialist Party


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User:Goedelman

In my humble opinion, Kurt Goedel's 1931 incompleteness theorem is the most outstanding result of 20th century science, despite Einstein and rockets and DNA etc. It had profound influence on computer science, logics, mathematics, and philosophy.

title: User:Goedelman


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Health in China

Health in China is a complex and multifaceted issue that encompasses a wide range of factors, including public health policy, healthcare infrastructure, environmental factors, lifestyle choices, and socioeconomic conditions. Although China has made significant progress in improving public health and life expectancy, many challenges remain, including air pollution, food safety concerns, a growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and an aging population. In order to improve the situation, the Chinese Government has adopted a series of health policies and initiatives, such as the Healthy China 2030 program, investment in the development of primary health-care facilities and the implementation of public health campaigns.

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that China is fulfilling 98.4% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income. When looking at the right to health with respect to children, China achieves 98.6% of what is expected based on its current income. In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves 97% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income. When considering the right to reproductive health, the nation is fulfilling 99.6% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available. Overall, China falls into the "good" category when evaluating the right to health.

1949 - 1976
An emphasis on public health and preventive treatment characterized health policy from the beginning of the 1950s. At that time the party began to mobilize the population to engage in mass "patriotic health campaigns" aimed at improving the low level of environmental sanitation and hygiene and attacking certain diseases. These public health measures contributed to a major decrease in mortality.

In 1956, China began a public health campaign to eliminate schistosoma-carrying snails. Beginning in 1958, the "four pests" campaign sought to eliminate rats, sparrows, flies, and mosquitoes. Particular efforts were devoted in the health campaigns to improving water quality through such measures as deep-well construction and human-waste treatment. Only in the larger cities had human waste been centrally disposed of. In the countryside, where "night soil" has always been collected and applied to the fields as fertilizer, it was a major source of disease. Since the 1950s, rudimentary treatments such as storage in pits, composting, and mixture with chemicals have been implemented. As a result of preventive efforts, such epidemic diseases as cholera, bubonic plague, typhoid fever, and scarlet fever have almost been eradicated. The mass mobilization approach proved particularly successful in the fight against syphilis, which was reportedly eliminated by the 1960s. The incidence of other infectious and parasitic diseases was reduced and controlled.

Political turmoil and famine following the failure of the Great Leap Forward led to the starvation of 20 million people in China. Beginning in 1961 the recovery had more moderate policies inaugurated by President Liu Shaoqi ended starvation and improved nutrition. The coming of the Cultural Revolution weakened epidemic control, causing a rebound in epidemic diseases and malnutrition in some areas.

Before the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the Ministry of Health focused on the delivery of health care in urban hospitals. Mao criticized Minister of Health Qian Xinzhong for promoting this health care model, arguing that an urban hospital-focused health care model failed to treat peasants and focused on cure rather than preventative medicine. Mao also criticized the Ministry itself as the Ministry "of urban overlords".

With the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong introduced a new approach to public health, especially in rural areas. In his June 26 Directive, Mao prioritized healthcare and medicine for rural people throughout the country. As a result, clinics and hospitals sent their staff on medical tours of rural areas.

Rural cooperative medical systems provided subsidized health care to rural residents. One aspect of this system was barefoot doctors, who received some training and then delivered primary care medicine to those who needed it. Barefoot doctors were a good contribution to primary health systems in China during the Cultural Revolution. It encompasses all principles stated in primary health care. Community participation is possible because the team is composed of village health workers in the area. There is equity because it was more available and combined western and traditional medicines. Intersectoral coordination is achieved by preventive measures rather than curative. Lastly it is comprehensive using rural practices rather than urban ones.

1976 - 2003
By the late 1970s, China's national health system covered almost the entire urban population and 85% of the rural population. The World Bank described this success as "an unrivaled achievement among low-income countries."

The "barefoot doctor system" was based in the people's communes. In the 1980s, with the disappearance of the people's communes and the rural cooperative medical system, the barefoot doctor system lost its base and funding. The Chinese government began to push for privatization of health care and, as a result, stopped providing necessary funding. Instead, according to Blumenthal et al. (2005), individual towns were now responsible for ensuring that people were receiving adequate health care, which caused disparities between wealthier and poorer regions. Additionally, the decollectivization of agriculture resulted in a decreased desire on the part of the rural populations to support the collective welfare system, of which health care was a part. In 1984 surveys showed that only 40 to 45 percent of the rural population was covered by an organized cooperative medical system, as compared with 80 to 90 percent in 1979.

This shift entailed a number of important consequences for rural health care. The lack of financial resources for the cooperatives resulted in a decrease in the number of barefoot doctors, which meant that health education and primary and home care suffered and that in some villages sanitation and water supplies were checked less frequently. Also, the failure of the cooperative health care system limited the funds available for continuing education for barefoot doctors, thereby hindering their ability to provide adequate preventive and curative services. The costs of medical treatment increased, deterring some patients from obtaining necessary medical attention. If the patients could not pay for services received, then the financial responsibility fell on the hospitals and commune health centers, in some cases creating large debts.

Consequently, in the post-Mao era of modernization, the rural areas were forced to adapt to a changing health care environment. Many barefoot doctors went into private practice, operating on a fee-for-service basis and charging for medication. But soon farmers demanded better medical services as their incomes increased, bypassing the barefoot doctors and going straight to the commune health centers or county hospitals. A number of barefoot doctors left the medical profession after discovering that they could earn a better living from farming, and their services were not replaced. The leaders of brigades, through which local health care was administered, also found farming to be more lucrative than their salaried positions, and many of them left their jobs. Many of the cooperative medical programs collapsed. Farmers in some brigades established voluntary health-insurance programs but had difficulty organizing and administering them.

Their income for many basic medical services limited by regulations, Chinese grassroots health care providers has supported themselves by charging for giving injections and selling medicines. This has led to a serious problem of disease spread through health care as patients received too many injections and injections by unsterilized needles. Corruption and disregard for the rights of patients have become serious problems in the Chinese health care system.

The Chinese economist, Yang Fan, wrote in 2001 that lip service being given to the old socialist health care system and deliberately ignoring and failing to regulate the actual private health care system is a serious failing of the Chinese health care system. "The old argument that "health is a kind of welfare to save lives and assist the injured" is so far removed from reality that things are really more like its opposite. The welfare health system supported by public funds essentially exists in name only. People have to pay for most medical services on their own.  Considering health to be still a "welfare activity" has for some time been a major obstacle to the development of proper physician - patient relationship and to the law applicable to that relationship."

Despite the decline of the public health care system during the first decade of the reform era, Chinese health improved sharply as a result of greatly improved nutrition, especially in rural areas, and the recovery of the epidemic control system, which had been neglected during the Cultural Revolution.

2003 - present
From late 2002 to early 2003 the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak began in China and spread across the world. In the early stages of disease spread, the Chinese government withheld information and may have contributed to the further spreading of the disease. In addition, China's health care system was still fairly decentralized, with a noticeable lack of oversight and little potential for rapid coordination. Thus, the SARS epidemic highlighted the need for the Chinese government to begin restructuring its health care distribution. One big issue many have pointed out, including Blumenthal (2005) and Yip et al. (2008), is that much of China's population does not have access to affordable health insurance. As a solution, the Chinese government planned to provide universal health insurance to all citizens by 2020. To get closer to this goal, the Chinese government began a health insurance program known as the New Cooperative Health Scheme, which gave mainly rural Chinese residents limited insurance coverage for emergencies. Alongside the insurance measures, the Chinese government returned to the successful public health endeavors of the Cultural Revolution by instituting community health centers in urban neighborhoods with the goal of providing affordable options to hospital care. Dong (2008) also mentions that China has been working to reinstate the cooperative medical systems in rural areas by pushing for state-funded health centers to be established. That being said, some studies, such as Dib (2008) have shown that the quality of health care in rural areas still varies widely depending on wealth of the region. Despite debates surrounding the effectiveness of China's revamped health system, the COVID-19 outbreak of 2019-2020 has shown that things have changed since the SARS outbreak of 2003. Specifically, the Chinese government notified their citizens and the rest of the world of the first cases of the outbreak much sooner than SARS in 2003. While it took around four to five months for a public statement on SARS after the first case, it only took about one month for the COVID-19. Because their response escalated more quickly, the food market thought to be at the center of the outbreak was also shut down sooner than the one that had been the source of the 2003 SARS outbreak. In addition to a more rapid response, the Chinese government quickly established committees and consortia made up of both Chinese and international experts to begin exploring methods to combat the outbreak.

Health indicators
Some measures used to indicate health include Total Fertility Rate, Infant Mortality Rate, Life Expectancy, Crude Birth and Death Rate. As of 2017, China has a Total Fertility Rate of 1.6 children born per woman, an Infant Mortality rate of 10 deaths per 1000 live births, Crude Birth Rate of 13 births per 1000 people and a Death Rate of 7 deaths per 1000 people  . Since 1949, China had a huge improvement in population's health. There are health related parameters:
 * data from www.gapminder.org.

In general, all indices showed improvement except the drop around 1960 due to the failure of the Great Leap Forward, which led to the starvation of tens of millions of people. From 1950 to 2012, life expectancy nearly doubled (41.6-75.1). Total Fertility Rate changed from 5.3 to 1.7 which mainly caused by One-child policy. Infant Mortality rate and Under-5 mortality rate went down sharply. Though there is no data from 1963 to 1967, we can see the trend. The gap between IMR and U5MR became smaller and smaller, which indicates health in children has been promoted. Maternal Mortality Ratio is not shown in the graph due to having insufficient data, but it did go down from 164.5(1980) to 26.5(2011).

As of at least 2023, China's life expectancy exceeds 78 years and is slightly higher than life expectancy in the United States.

One-Child Policy
Created in 1979, under Deng Xiaoping, the One-Child Policy incentivized families to have children later and to only have one child or risk penalization. The One-Child Policy was a program created by the Chinese government as a reaction to the increasing population during the 1970s, that was thought to have negatively impacted China's economic growth. Implementation of the program included rewarding families who followed the program, fining families who resisted the policy, offering birth control/ contraceptives, and in some cases forced abortions. The policy was unevenly implemented throughout China and was easier established in urban areas rather than rural, because of ideals about family size and gender preferences. Prior to the One-Child Policy, the Chinese government had encouraged families to have more children in order to increase the future workforce, however, this promotion made the population of China in the 1970s increase at an alarming rate. Additionally, voluntary programs, involving family planning and contraceptive use, were proposed before the One-Child Policy was fully enforced.

Effects of the One-Child Policy
In 2015, the one-child policy of Deng Xiaoping was replaced by a two-child policy, which increased the number of "allowed" children to two. With this, scholars began evaluating the effects of the one-child policy. The One-Child Policy was successful in halting China's increasing population and decreased both the birth rate and population, however, the harsh enforcement of the policy created long-term changes to some of China's health indicators. For instance, favoring males over female children lead to many forced abortions, infanticide and abandoned female children which led to an imbalance of men to women in China. Additionally, birth rates and rate of natural increase decreased as a result of the One-Child Policy. Other consequences of the One-Child Policy include difficulties accessing education and employment as a result of being an undocumented birth.

In terms of positive outcomes, as Zeng and Hesketh (2016) explain, the Chinese government cites the decreased fertility rate resulting from the one-child policy as a determining factor in China's rapidly increasing GDP. However, Zeng and Hesketh (2016) as well as Zhang (2017) also mention that other scholars argue China's fertility rate would have decreased as the country became more and more developed, regardless of whether the one-child policy had been in place or not. Zhang (2017) notes that one predicted positive outcome of having less children was that families would invest more money and other resources in the children they did have, leading to a healthier and more successful population. However, follow-up studies on this claim have examined child education outcomes and found that the effects of the one-child policy on education rates was "not statistically significant".

Dependency ratio
China's dependency ratio is unfavorable because of the policy and its elderly population (65+) will outgrow the working aged people. The elderly population in China is highly reliant on the working aged people for support and the number of dependents (children 0–14, adults 65+) are increasing compared to the number of working aged people. China's population is aging and the number of children born is less than the replacement rate.

Smoking
Smoking is very prevalent in China. In fact, China has the largest smoking population in the world. One of the most direct results of the popularity of smoking in China is lung cancer, and lung cancer is the single biggest contributor to the frequency of cancer in China. Parascandola and Xiao (2015) refer to the prevalence of lung cancer in China as an epidemic. Collecting data on the topic is complicated by the fact that lung cancer can also stem from China's air pollution. Regardless, smoking related illnesses killed 1.2 million in the People's Republic of China; however, the state tobacco monopoly, the China National Tobacco Corporation, supplies 7 to 10% of government revenues, as of 2011, 600 billion yuan, about 100 billion US dollars. As a result, although movements for tobacco smoking cessation exist and have been gaining popularity, the financial benefit of the smoking industry stands in the way of more effective cessation programming. In addition, the practice of smoking is intertwined with Chinese culture which further complicates the relationship between China and smoking. Smoking is central to socialization in many public spaces, although mainly men participate in the practice. With these complicating factors, it has been difficult to effectively reduce tobacco use and smoking. For example, a Chinese official in 2007 mentioned that if smoking were banned, it would result in social upheaval. Still, interestingly, tobacco use and smoking has decreased from about 30% prevalence to 25% percent prevalence in 2016, a sign that the tide may be changing.

Betel chewing
Chewing betel nut, an addictive group 1 carcinogen, is popular in China. According to research predictions, by 2030, the number of betel nut related oral cancer cases in China will exceed 1 million. The medical burden caused by betel nut related oral cancer in China will exceed 200 billion yuan.

Sex education, contraception, and women's health
Sex education lags in China due to cultural conservatism. From ancient China to the first half of the 20th century, formal sex education was not taught. Instead, a woman's parents were mostly responsible for her sex education after she is wed. Many Chinese feel that sex education should be limited to biological science. Combined with migration of young unmarried women to the cities, lack of knowledge of contraception has resulted in increasing numbers of abortions by young women.

The Basic Health Services Project piloted strategies to ensure equitable access to China's rural health system; health outcomes for women improved significantly, with substantial declines in maternal mortality due to increased coverage of maternal health services.

SARS
Although not identified until later, China's first case of a new, highly contagious disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), occurred in Guangdong in November 2002, and within three months the Ministry of Health reported 300 SARS cases and five deaths in the province. Dr. Jiang Yanyong exposed the level of danger the SARS outbreak posed to China. By May 2003, some 8,000 cases of SARS had been reported worldwide; about 66 percent of the cases and 349 deaths occurred in China alone. By early summer 2003, the SARS epidemic had ceased. A vaccine was developed and first-round testing on human volunteers completed in 2004.

The 2002 SARS in China demonstrated at once the decline of the PRC epidemic reporting system, the deadly consequences of secrecy on health matters and, on the positive side, the ability of the Chinese central government to command a massive mobilization of resources once its attention is focused on one particular issue. Despite the suppression of news regarding the outbreak during the early stages of the epidemic, the outbreak was soon contained and cases of SARS failed to emerge. Obsessive secrecy seriously delayed the isolation of SARS by Chinese scientists. On 18 May 2004, the World Health Organization announced the PRC free of further cases of SARS.

COVID-19 pandemic
A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, started in December 2019. It was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, China. Its severity has surpassed of the 2003 SARS outbreak. On 30 January, the outbreak was declared to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO). Wider concerns about consequences of the outbreak include political and economic instability. Political fallout has included the firing of several local leaders of the Chinese Communist Party for their poor response to the outbreak. Outbreak-related incidents of xenophobia and racism against people of Chinese and East Asian descent have been reported in several countries. The spread of misinformation and disinformation about the virus, primarily online, has been described as an "infodemic" by the WHO.

Hepatitis B
Work with the CDC has created goals of decelerating the spread of Hepatitis B through immunization efforts. However, Hepatitis B is still widespread in China and has been determined by Wang et al. (2019) to have "higher intermediate prevalence (5-7.99%)". In fact, no country has a higher prevalence of Hepatitis B than China and one third of the world's Hepatitis B-afflicted individuals are thought to reside in China. Hepatitis B in China was even described as an "epidemic" in Chen et al. (2018). Some socioeconomic factors that contribute to the continued prevalence of Hepatitis B in China are first the high medical cost related to treatment. Second, the stigma that surrounds the disease causes the importance of Hepatitis B testing to go undiscussed in that people who disclose their Hepatitis B positive status may be discriminated against. These combine to cause a situation where many people in China do not even realize that they are infected with the disease and thus unknowingly may succumb to the disease or pass it on to others.

HIV and AIDS
The AIDS disaster of Henan in the mid-1990s is estimated to be the largest man-made health catastrophe, affecting five-hundred thousand to one million persons. It was also in Hebei, Anhui, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hubei and Guizhou. HIV was transmitted via blood sale. Blood plasma mixture from several persons was returned so that same person could give blood up to 11 times a day. The disaster was only recognized in 2000 and found out abroad in 2001. Pensioner Gao Yaojie sold her house to deliver data leaflets of HIV to people, while officials tried to prevent her. Some local officials and politicians were involved in the blood sale. In 2003 only 2.6% of Chinese knew that a condom could protect from AIDS.

Authorities blocked protests over ineffective drug treatments, cancelled meetings on HIV groups, and detained or put under house arrest prominent activists including the 2005 Reebok Human Rights Award winner Li Dan, eighty-year-old AIDS activist Dr. Gao Yaojie, and the husband-and-wife HIV activist team of Hu Jia (activist) and Zeng Jinyan.

China, similar to other nations with migrant and socially mobile populations, has experienced increased incidences of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). By the mid-1980s, some Chinese physicians recognized HIV and AIDS as a serious health threat but considered it to be a "foreign problem". As of mid-1987 only two Chinese citizens had died from AIDS and monitoring of foreigners had begun. Following a 1987 regional World Health Organization meeting, the Chinese government announced it would join the global fight against AIDS, which would involve quarantine inspection of people entering China from abroad, medical supervision of people vulnerable to AIDS, and establishment of AIDS laboratories in coastal cities. Within China, the rapid increase in venereal disease, prostitution and drug addiction, internal migration since the 1980s and poorly supervised plasma collection practices, especially by the Henan provincial authorities, created conditions for a serious outbreak of HIV in the early 1990s.

As of 2005 about 1 million Chinese have been infected with HIV, leading to about 150,000 AIDS deaths. Projections are for about 10 million cases by 2010 if nothing is done. Effective preventive measures have become a priority at the highest levels of the government, but progress is slow. A promising pilot program exists in Gejiu partially funded by international donors.

Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a major public health problem in China, which has the world's second largest tuberculosis epidemic (after India). Progress in tuberculosis control was slow during the 1990s. Detection of tuberculosis had stagnated at around 30% of the estimated total of new cases, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was a major problem. These signs of inadequate tuberculosis control can be linked to a malfunctioning health system. Prevalent smoking aggravates its spread.

Leprosy
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, was officially eliminated at the national level in China by 1982, meaning prevalence is lower than 1 in 100,000. There are 3,510 active cases today. Though leprosy has been brought under control in general, the situation in some areas is worsening, according to China's Ministry of Health.

Malaria

Plasmodium vivax malaria is the most common malaria in China, followed by P. falciparum malaria, while Plasmodium vivax malaria and Plasmodium ovale malaria are less common. P. falciparum malaria occurs mainly in the southwest and Hainan, while P. vivax malaria occurs in the northeast, north and northwest of China.

Since the 1950s, Chinese health authorities have worked to detect and prevent the spread of malaria by providing prophylactic anti-malarial drugs to people at risk of malaria and treating patients, and in 1967 the Chinese government launched the research "Project 523". This work resulted in the antimalarial artemisinin-based combination therapies. One of the team members, Tu Youyou, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work.

In the 1980s, began to experiment on a large scale with the use of drugs to prevent malaria. By 1988, the use of nets greatly reduced the incidence of malaria. By the end of 1990, the number of malaria cases in China had fallen to 117,000, and deaths had been reduced by 95 per cent. China was free of malaria cases for four consecutive years starting in 2017. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that malaria had been eliminated in China in 2021.

Mental health
100 million Chinese people have mental illnesses that are varying degrees of intensity. Currently, dilemmas such as human rights versus political control, community integration versus community control, diversity versus centrally, huge demand but inadequate services seem to challenge the further development of the mental health service in the PRC. China has 17,000 certified psychologists, which is ten percent of that of other developed countries per capita.

Nutrition
In the 2000–2002 period, China had one of the highest per capita caloric intakes in Asia, second only to South Korea and higher than countries such as Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In 2003, daily per capita caloric intake was 2,940 (vegetable products 78%, animal products 22%); 125% of FAO recommended minimum requirement.

Malnutrition among rural children
China has been developing rapidly for the past 30 years. Though it has uplifted a huge number of people out of poverty, many social issues still remain unsolved. One of them is malnutrition among rural children in China. The problem has diminished but still remains a pertinent national issue. In a survey done in 1998, the stunting rate among children in China was 22 percent and was as high as 46 percent in poor provinces. This shows the huge disparity between urban and rural areas. In 2002, Svedberg found that stunting rate in rural areas of China was 15 percent, reflecting that a substantial number of children still suffer from malnutrition. Another study by Chen shows that malnutrition has dropped from 1990 to 1995 but regional differences are still huge, particularly in rural areas.

In a recent report by The Rural Education Action Project on children in rural China, many were found to be suffering from basic health problems. 34% have iron deficiency anaemia and 40 percent are infected with intestinal worms. Many of these children do not have proper or sufficient nutrition. Often, this causes them not being able to fully reap the benefits of education, which can be a ticket out of poverty.

One possible reason for poor nutrition in rural areas is that agricultural produce can fetch a decent price, and thus is often sold rather than kept for personal consumption. Rural families would not consume eggs that their hen lay but will sell it in the market for about 20 yuan per kilogram. The money will then be spent on books or food like instant noodles which lack nutrition value compared to an egg. A girl named Wang Jing in China has a bowl of pork only once every five to six weeks, compared to urban children who have a vast array of food chains to choose from.

A survey conducted by China's Ministry of Health showed the kind of food consumed by rural households. 30 percent consume meat less than once a month. 23 percent consume rice or egg less than once a month.

In a 2008 Report on Chinese Children Nutrition and Health Conditions, West China still has 7.6 million poor children who were shorter and weigh lesser than urban children. These rural children were also shorter by 4 centimetres and 0.6 kilograms lighter than World Health Organization standards. It can be concluded that children in West China still lack quality nutrition.

Epidemiological studies
The most comprehensive epidemiological study of nutrition ever conducted was the China-Oxford-Cornell Study on Dietary, Lifestyle and Disease Mortality Characteristics in 65 Rural Chinese Counties, known as the "China Project", which began in 1983. Its findings are discussed in The China Study by T. Colin Campbell.

Environment and health
China's rapid development has led to numerous environmental problems which all have a direct impact on health. According to Kan (2009) the environmental issues include "outdoor and indoor air pollution, water shortages and pollution, desertification, and soil pollution". Of these, Kan (2009) states that the most detrimental one is the outdoor air pollution for which China has become known. In Liu et al.'s research (2018) on this issue specifically, the major health effects are listed as "including adverse cardiovascular, respiratory, pulmonary, and other health-related outcomes". The air pollution is not limited to industrial cities. In fact, due to the fact that rural Chinese people still use fuels such as coal for cooking, the World Health Organization attributes more premature deaths to that sort of air pollution than to China's ambient air pollution. In addition, many factories are located in the countryside, which exacerbates rural air pollution. Despite China's notoriously poor air quality, Matus et al. (2011) have found that the severity of China's air pollution has been declining over the years.

Finally, as described by Kan (2018) and Wu, et al. (1999) another major contributor to adverse health effects related to environmental issues is water pollution. In rural areas, this is once again due to factories located nearby. In urban areas on the other hand, China's water sanitation systems have not yet caught up with the needs of the population. As a result, the water is often contaminated with human waste and is not considered potable. Ingestion of contaminated water has caused diseases such as cholera.

Iodine deficiency
China has problems in certain western provinces in iodine deficiency.

Infection from animals
The first known human contraction of Avian Influenza (bird flu), after contact with live poultry in February 2018, was diagnosed to a woman living in the Jiangsu Province of China.

Pig-human transmission of the Streptococcus suis bacteria was reported in 2005, which led to 38 deaths in and around Sichuan province, an unusually high number. Although the bacteria exists in other pig rearing countries, the pig-human transmission has only been reported in China.

Hygiene and sanitation
Many of China's water sources, including underground sources and rivers, have been heavily polluted because of industry and economic growth. Increased exposure to polluted water and air has created "cancer villages" and further health and environmental problems. A majority of groundwater and shallow wells surveyed in China showed signs of heavy pollution, by measuring nitrate levels which indicate water contamination By 2002, 92 percent of the urban population and 8 percent of the rural population had access to an improved water supply, and 69 percent of the urban population and 32 percent of the rural population had access to improved sanitation facilities.

Although China has made great efforts of making sanitary facilities and safe water more accessible, there are water and sanitation disparities all over China. As of 2012, sanitary facilities were available to 69% of the Chinese people and 71% of water in China is piped, yet it is still difficult preserving drinking water that is affordable and efficient at a communal level. Additionally, water in both urban and rural areas of China are still vulnerable to disease, pollution, and contamination, with rural areas at higher risk of sewage contamination.

The lack of sanitation in multiple areas of China has affected many student for decades. An absence of modern-day toilets and hand washing areas have directly affected students nationwide. The lack of reliable drinking water and sanitation areas, along with many others health issues, has directly led to 1/3 of young students in China having intestinal parasites.

The Patriotic Health Campaign, first started in the 1950s, are campaigns aimed to improve sanitation and hygiene in China. UNICEF also plans to incorporate government programs and policies in order to improve normal health standards in China. The programs and policies are used to teach students about basic hygiene and form campaigns encouraging people to wash their hands with soap instead of water only.

Measure
China has made significant progress in improving public health over the past few decades, with life expectancy increasing from 67.8 years in 1981 to 76.7 years in 2019. The Chinese government has implemented a range of health policies and initiatives, including the Healthy China 2030 program, which aims to improve public health outcomes by addressing major health challenges such as chronic diseases, infectious diseases, and environmental health hazards.

The healthcare system in China is a mix of public and private providers, with the government responsible for providing basic healthcare services to the population. However, there are significant disparities in access to healthcare between urban and rural areas, as well as between different socioeconomic groups.

In recent years, China has made efforts to improve its healthcare infrastructure, including investing in the development of primary healthcare facilities and expanding health insurance coverage. Additionally, the government has implemented a number of public health campaigns, such as anti-smoking and anti-obesity initiatives.

Despite these efforts, there is still much work to be done to improve health outcomes in China. Ongoing efforts are needed to address the root causes of health disparities and to promote healthy lifestyles and behaviors among the population.

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that China is fulfilling 98.4% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income. When looking at the right to health with respect to children, China achieves 98.6% of what is expected based on its current income. In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves 97% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income. When considering the right to reproductive health, the nation is fulfilling 99.6% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available. Overall, China falls into the "good" category when evaluating the right to health.

WHO in China
The World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948, and China has been a Member since the beginning.

The WHO China office has increased its scope of activities significantly in recent years, especially following the major SARS outbreak of 2003. The role of WHO China is to provide support for the government's health programs, working closely with the Ministry of Health and other partners within the government, as well as with UN agencies and other organizations.

China's government with WHO assistance and support has strengthened public health in the nation. The current Five Year Plan incorporates public health in a significant way. The government has acknowledged that even as millions upon millions of citizens are prospering amid the country's economic boom, millions of others are lagging behind, with healthcare many cannot afford. The challenge for China is to strengthen its health care system across the spectrum, to reduce the disparities and create a more equitable situation regarding access to health care services for the population at large.

At the same time, in an ever-interconnected world, China has embraced its responsibility to global public health, including the strengthening of surveillance systems aimed at swiftly identifying and tackling the threat of infectious diseases such as SARS and avian influenza. Another major challenge is the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, a key priority for China.

The staff of the WHO Office in China are working with their national counterparts in the following areas:
 * Healthcare systems development
 * Immunization
 * Tuberculosis control
 * HIV/AIDS control
 * Maternal health and child health
 * Injury prevention
 * Avian influenza control
 * Food safety
 * Tobacco control
 * Non-communicable diseases control
 * Environment and health
 * Communicable diseases surveillance and response

In addition, WHO technical experts in specialty areas can be made available on a short-term basis, when requested by the Chinese government. China is an active, contributing member of WHO, and has made valuable contributions to global and regional health policy. Technical experts from China have contributed to WHO through their membership on various WHO technical expert advisory committees and groups.

Resources

 * "Critical health literacy: a case study from China in schistosomiasis control"
 * Children's Healthcare in China
 * Health Information for Travelers to China U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
 * China's Healthcare System: Improving Quality of Insurance, Service, and Personnel Reforming China's Healthcare System Roundtable series held by the Brookings-Tsinghua Center at Tsinghua University
 * The Current State of Public Health in China Annual Review of Public Health Vol. 25: 327-339 (Volume publication date April 2004)
 * A Critical Review of Public Health in China August 2004 paper

title: Health in China


text:
Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet

Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet FRS (c. 1653 – 9 April 1709) of Sprotbrough House, near Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, was an English landowner, art-collector and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1679 and 1709.

Early life
Copley was the son of Sir Godfrey Copley (1623–1677), who was created baronet by King Charles II in 1661, and his first wife Eleanor Walmesley, daughter of Sir Thomas Walmesley, MP, of Dunkenhalgh, Lancashire. He was admitted at Lincoln's Inn on 18 November 1674. He succeeded to his father's baronetcy and estates in February 1678 and continued his father's term in office as High Sheriff of Yorkshire from February to November 1678. He became a major landowner in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire, holding lands in Sprotbrough, Newton, Cusworth, Cadeby, Wildthorpe, Loversall, Doncaster, Bentley and Warmsworth, among other places.

Career
Copley was returned as Member of Parliament for Aldborough in 1679 and sat to 1685. He was admitted at Inner Temple in 1681. He married Catherine, daughter of John Purcell of Nantcribba, Montgomeryshire by licence dated 15 October 1681. He was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1691. and regularly met with literary and political figures in London taverns, developing a wide range of interests in political matters. Following Catherine's death, he married again with a settlement dated 31 May 1700, Gertrude Carew, daughter of Sir John Carew, 3rd Baronet of Anthony, Cornwall.

Copley was returned as MP for Thirsk at the 1695 English general election and took an interest in matters of money and coinage. He was appointed Commissioner for taking subscriptions to the land bank in 1696. He opposed the attainer against Sir John Fenwick. He turned his attention to local matters and was given leave to bring in a bill for making the River Don navigable on 30 December 1697, but the bill was disrupted and thrown out. He was returned again as MP for Thirsk at the 1698 English general election and was immediately involved in issues relating to the army and the disbanding of soldiers. He was appointed a Commissioner for the Aire and Calder navigation in 1699.

Copley was returned to Parliament again at the two general elections of 1701 and was among those who supported the motion of 26 February 1702 which vindicated the proceedings of the Commons on the impeachments of the King's ministers in the previous Parliament. His long term interest in public finance came to fruition when he was elected as commissioner of public accounts in 1702. He was returned again at the 1702 English general election and was appointed controller of the accounts of the army from April 1704. At the 1705 English general election, he was returned for Thirsk again and voted for the Court candidate for Speaker on 25 October 1705. He was returned again for Thirsk at the 1708 British general election and was appointed to draft the bill to standardize the treason laws within the Union in January 1709, and to prohibit the importation of French wine and other goods more effectively in March 1709.

Death and legacy
Copley died at his house in Westminster on 9 April 1709 after a few days' sickness, and was buried at Sprotbrough. He had one surviving daughter Catherine by his first wife, but with no male heir the baronetcy became extinct. The estates were left to a distant cousin Lionel Copley after whom they passed in 1766 to Copley's grandson Joseph Moyle, son of his daughter Catherine and her husband Joseph Moyle of Beke, Cornwall. Moyle junior, who was Clerk of the Signet, changed his surname to Copley by Act of Parliament on inheriting the Sprotbrough estate and was created a baronet in 1778.

Copley is noted for making a bequest of £100 to the Royal Society in London in 1709, which provided the funding for an annual award, the Copley Medal, the Society's premier award for scientific achievement. It is Britain's oldest scientific honour, a prestigious forerunner of the Nobel Prize, "in trust for the Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge."

title: Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet


text:
User talk:Goedelman

Hi Gödelman :) I hope you like the place and choose to stay.

Some links that may be of use:
 * Welcome, newcomers
 * How to edit a page
 * Village pump - ask questions you may have here, or leave a message on my talk page

Here's some stuff you can do, if you want:

Just a tip re formatting, it's nice to bold the title in the text. See Gödel machine for what I mean.

Anyway, keep contributing! Dysprosia 12:05, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

authors: Template namespace initialisation script

title: User talk:Goedelman


text:
Longboat

A longboat is a type of ship's boat that was in use from circa 1500 or before. Though the Royal Navy replaced longboats with launches from 1780, examples can be found in merchant ships after that date. The longboat was usually the largest boat carried. In the early period of use, a ship's longboat was often so large that it could not be carried on board, and was instead towed. For instance, a survey of 1618 of Royal Navy ship's boats listed a 52 ft longboat used by the First Rate Prince, a ship whose length of keel was 115 ft. This could lead to the longboat being lost in adverse weather. By the middle of the 17th century it became increasingly more common to carry the longboat on board, though not universally. In 1697 some British ships in chase of a French squadron cut adrift the longboats they were towing in an attempt to increase their speed and engage with the enemy.

The longboat was used for transporting heavy weights. The two most important of these were casks of drinking water, and an anchor and its cable. The supply of water to (particularly) sailing ships was so vital that all the boats of a ship would have some capability to carry water, but the longboat had the greatest capacity. The casks carried by a large boat would be "leaguers", which held 150 impgal. These would be laid in the bilges between the thwarts, filling most of the bottom of the boat and making a load of several tonnes. Anchor handling was of special importance before tugs became widely available. A boat would be used to carry either a stream anchor or a kedge into position so that the ship may be pulled out of harbour or away from a hazard. As well as dropping the anchor in position, the longboat would often be used for weighing (raising) the anchor after use. To do this, a windlass was usually fitted amidships and a davit in the stern (or sometimes the bow) to provide a fair lead from the buoy rope or cable to the windlass. A substantial degree of buoyancy was needed in the stern (or bow) to lift a heavy anchor.

Other heavy weights carried by a longboat included guns - either as armament for the boat or simply to transport to or from the ship. Special slides were developed for armed boats, so that the gun could be traversed. These would also allow the gun to be slid down into a lower position when not in use, to improve the stability of the boat. Boats were regularly armed, even if only for defensive purposes. Swivel guns may be needed to protect the boat when collecting drinking water. Ship's boats were often used offensively, either on their own or when their parent ships were in action.

The longboat usually had the largest passenger carrying capacity out of a ship's boats. Longboats were used by both warships and merchant ships.

A longboat was fitted so that it could be propelled either by oars or by sail. The oars were double-banked - with two oarsmen on each thwart, each using an oar on their own side. The usual sailing rig was single masted, with a gaff mainsail and two headsails - the jib was set on a bowsprit and the staysail to the stemhead. This is a cutter rig, not to be confused with the ship's boat termed a cutter.

A ship would usually carry the largest longboat it could store on deck. Consequently their size varied depending on the size of the parent ship. However, too large a boat could interfere with the handling of a ship or her guns, and the weight of a longboat could put excessive strain on the masts and yards which were used for hoisting the boat in and out of the water. Smaller ships might carry a yawl instead of a longboat. The sizes of longboats in the Royal Navy in circa 1705 were recorded in a shipwright's notebook as follows.

The Royal Navy started to replace longboats with launches from November 1780. This instruction was implemented for all ships of 20 guns and above being built or coming in for repair. There are earlier instances of individual warships requesting a launch instead of a longboat, with several examples in the 1740s. The advantages of a launch were ease of use in carrying water and stores and a greater number of passengers being accommodated. However a longboat was considered to be more seaworthy. Longboats could be found in merchant service after the Royal Navy had ceased to use them.

title: Longboat


text:
Kogal

In Japanese culture, Kogal (コギャル) refers to the members of the Gyaru subculture who are still in high school and who incorporate their school uniforms into their dress style. These high school girls are characterized by the typical bleached hair, make-up, shortened skirts, and wearing of loose socks. The word kogal is anglicized from kogyaru, a contraction of kōkōsei gyaru ("high school gal").

Aside from the miniskirt or microskirt, and the loose socks, kogals favor platform boots, makeup, and Burberry check scarves, and accessories considered kawaii or cute on bags and phones. They may also dye their hair brown and get artificial suntans. They have a distinctive slang peppered with English words. They are often, but not necessarily, enrolled students. Centers of kogal culture include the Harajuku and Shibuya districts of Tokyo, in particular Shibuya's 109 Building. Pop singer Namie Amuro promoted the style. Kogals are avid users of photo booths, with most visiting at least once a week, according to non-scientific polls.

Etymology
The word kogal is a contraction of "high school gal" (高校生ギャル). It originated as a code used by disco bouncers to distinguish adults from minors. The term is not used by the girls it refers to. They call themselves gyaru (ギャル), a Japanese pronunciation of the English word "gal". The term gyaru was first popularized in 1972 by a television ad for a brand of jeans. In the 1980s, a gyaru was a fashionably dressed woman. When written 子, ko means "young woman," so kogyaru is sometimes understood in the sense of "young gal".

Character
Kogals have been accused of conspicuous consumption, living off their parents and enjo-kosai (amateur prostitution/dating service). It is unclear how many girls were actually involved in prostitution. Critics decry their materialism as reflecting a larger psychological or spiritual emptiness in modern Japanese life. Some kogals support their lifestyle with allowances from wealthy parents, living a "parasite single" existence that grates against traditional principles of duty and industry. Though brand-name accessories are part of the kogal look, many kogal may buy these cheaply as knock-off versions of a high-brand item from stalls in back-alley markets like ura Harajuku. Some feminists "saw the young women as cleverly negotiating their own position in a male patriarchal world."

Others have charged that the kogal phenomenon is less about the girls and their fashions than a media practice to fetishize school uniforms and blame those required to wear them. "I wish that I were in high school at a different time," said one schoolgirl. "Now, with kogal being such an issue in Japan, nobody can see me for me. They only see me as kogal, like the ones they see on TV." Others state the kogal look was used alongside the enjo kōsai panic of the 1990s. A former editor of egg magazine, a gyaru fashion magazine, said "enjo kōsai began as a mischievous but relatively innocent way of playing pranks on middle-aged men." This included exchanged small amounts of money for dates that lasted a few minutes. It was reported that the media coverage was framed as if all high school girls "were rushing to Shibuya and having sex with men in karaoke boxes just to buy luxury goods." Years later, it was debunked as a stereotype.

The kogal phenomenon has never represented a majority of teenage girls. Rather, it largely symbolizes the evolution of the role of women in capitalist Japan. As such, the kogal style rejects not only tradition which Japan is known for but the spirit of nationalism, seeking to embody stateless consumerism. This consumerism is communicated through knock-off designer goods, trips to photo booths, singing karaoke, partying, the use of love hotels, and incorporating new loanwords into everyday speech. Kogals also take a transactional approach to sexual activity, employing more risque language or referring openly to sex. Kogal hedonism and impolite language serve to assert self-hood of young Japanese women. Kogals' expertise in criticizing men, particularly older men, demonstrates their revolt against traditional gender norms. Kogal publications like Egg's artwork gallery of male anatomy show that kogal culture can also empower young women to express displeasure and value their own pleasure. Overall, kogal language, behavior, and images reflect an urge to usurp an orderly society.

History
Japanese fashion began to divide by age in the 1970s with the appearance of gyaru magazines aimed at teens. Popteen, the most widely read of these magazines, has been publishing monthly since 1980. While mainstream fashion in the 1980s and early 1990s emphasized girlish and cute (kawaii), gyaru publications promoted a sexy aesthetic. Top gyaru magazines, including Popteen, Street Jam and Happie Nuts, were produced by editors previously involved in creating pornography for men.

Also in the 1980s, a male-and-female motorcycle-oriented slacker culture emerged in the form of the "Yankiis" (from the American word "Yankee") and Bosozoku Gals. The original kogals were dropouts from private school who, instead of lengthening their skirts like androgynous Yankii girls, created a new form of teen rebellion by shortening them. These middle school dropouts were thus taking their cues from high school students and attempting to justify their independence by looking and acting older. The gals added their own touches like loose socks and a cellular phone.

The 1993 television special Za kogyaru naito (The Kogal Night) introduced the kogal to a mass audience and provided a model for aspiring kogals to follow. Platform shoes were popularized by singer Namie Amuro in 1994. Egg, a fashion magazine for kogals, was established in 1995.

In the mid-1990s, the Japanese media gave a great deal of attention to the phenomenon of enjo kōsai ("paid dating") supposedly engaged in by bored housewives and high school students, thus linking kogals to prostitutes. The movie Baunsu ko gaurusu (Bounce Ko Gals) (1997) by Masato Harada depicts kogals prostituting themselves to buy trendy fashion accessories.

Kogal culture peaked in 1998. Kogals were then displaced by another style that gained popularity through Egg: ganguro, a gal culture that first appeared in the mid-1990s and used dark makeup combined with heavy amounts of tanning. Ganguro evolved into another extreme look (though less extreme than ganguro) called yamanba ("mountain hag"). As looks grew more extreme, fewer girls were attracted to gal culture. Although there are still female students who sexualize their uniforms, the kogal is no longer a focus of fashion or media attention.

Gal fashion later reemerged in the form of the skin-whitening Shiro Gyaru, associated with Popteen. One such example of this is the Onee Gal, who take their fashion cues from Hollywood. Clad in stilettos and jewels, these gals parade the streets of Shibuya. The women opting for this style are often gals of previous generations that are returning for this style, which is sexy yet more adult. Unlike their younger counterparts, there is less clubbing and more projecting an image of sky-high social status. Despite this, the Onee Gals are more serious about their lives than other gal groups, with their age placing them in college or the workforce. One of the driving forces behind this is Sifow, a singer and idol that subscribes to the Onee Gal style.

The Hime gyaru (literally "lady gal," also translated as "princess gal"), also part of the Shiro Gyaru style, first appeared in 2007. The girls in this subculture seem to want to live as princesses like out of fairy tales, complete with over-glamorous lifestyles and items. They wear princess-like dresses (usually in pink or other pastels), and sport large, curly brown hair, usually in bouffants. Popular brands for this subsection of Gal include Liz Lisa and Jesus Diamante.

The waves of changing female Japanese beauty culture such as the kogal represent a growing diversity in female beauty which contrasts with the focus on docility and cuteness perpetuated previously. Kogal and its predecessors visually chronicle the evolution of Japan into a consumer culture, visibly displaying the changing values and norms within Japanese culture as consumerism necessitates the displacement of the identity to surface features.

Language
Kogals are identified primarily by looks, but their speech, called kogyarugo (コギャル語), is also distinctive, including, but not restricted to the following: "Cool dude" (イケ面), "totally cute" (超かわいい), "do the gal thing" (ギャルやって), "gal clothes" (ギャル服), "gal-style shop" (ギャル系ショップ), "increasing her degree of galness" (ギャル度アップのために), "really super frustrating" (超マジでむかつく). As a way to celebrate their individuality, gals might say "long live the self" (ビバ自分).

Gals' words are often created by contracting Japanese phrases or by literal translation of an English phrase, i.e. without reordering to follow Japanese syntax. Gal words may also be created by adding the suffix -ingu (from English "-ing") to verbs, for example "getting" (ゲッティング). Roman script abbreviations are popular, for example "MM" stands for maji de mukatsuku ("really frustrating"). "MK5" stands for "on the verge of lit. 'five seconds away from' going ballistic" (マジでキレる５秒前). Another feature of gal speech is the suffix -ra, meaning "like" or "learned from," as in "like singer Namie Amuro" (アムラー).

The English used in kogal speech is often a combination of two or more English words which have taken on new meaning in Japan.

title: Kogal