text:
Talk:Screenshot

spelling: Screen Shot
OS X names them "Screen Shot [date...].png", so clearly screen shot should be an accepted spelling? 180.222.70.25 (talk) 01:28, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Debe ser muy buena pues las capturas de imágenes tienen que reflejarse en un mayor ángulo Daniela marcela daza (talk) 06:13, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

 * ejk6cjT4U-f 188.113.235.96 (talk) 19:46, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

how-tos on screenshots be moved to wikibooks?
Should the how-tos on screenshots be moved to wikibooks? --Faradn
 * I think so yes, i rewrote the intro to something a lot better, i also wrote alot of new tutorials about how to capture screens such as in xwd(1), however wikipedia articles should be aimed at someone willing to familiarice themselves with the subject, it is not a how-to, which this page has become. So yes, i agree with you that it should be moved, however i dont know where yet, perhaps in some yet-to-be-written book about common computer concepts and hot to apply them Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 15:15, 2004 May 6 (UTC)

Windows video screenshots
The simplest way to achieve this is to use a DirectShow video mode with overlay rendering turned off within the media player. For example, using Media Player Classic this can be done by selecting VMR9 (windowed). This method is far more straightforward, and produces smoother video than turning off hardware acceleration within Windows display properties.

Another way these images can be captured is to turn off the hardware overlay. Because many computers have no hardware overlay, most programs are built to work without it, just a little slower. In Windows XP, this is disabled by opening the Display Properties menu, then clicking, "Advanced", "Troubleshoot", and moving the Hardware Acceleration Slider to "None." However, this should only be done if the turning off overlay rendering within the media player cannot be achieved.

Reverting by Patrick
Patrick, you reverted my edits here citing "rv some unexpl deletions", however i fail to understand how i did not make it clear what i was doing here by saying "Almost a complete rewrite [...]".

You see, there is a big difference between deleting something and rewriting it, let's take a simple example to further explain this, i'll make up a sample text thats similar to the text on Screenshot but has different content:

Original text

 * Mary has:
 * A little lamb
 * a flute

Rewritten text
Now, if i were to rewrite it it would be somewhat like this:

 * Mary has a little lamb and a flute.

What you would write
However, if you were to see that you would probably change that to:

 * Mary has a little lamb and a flute.
 * Mary has:
 * A little lamb
 * a flute

You see once a rewrite has been made it is utterly pointless to insert the old text as well as the new text, which is precisely what you did, after your rewert those particular paragraphs you had an issue with the page looked like this: ( bold text inserted by me )

 * Screenshots, screen dumps or screen captures can be used to demonstrate a program, a particular problem a user might be having or generally when computer output needs to be shown to others or archived, the most common of the three is a screenshot which commonly means outputting the entire screen in a common format such as PNG or JPEG.

 * Applications:
 * demonstrating a program
 * making an image file of an image shown by a program, in the case that that program does not have this feature itself; the screenshot can then be cropped to the image itself; a limitation is that for large images that do not fit on the screen one can not store the whole image; however, one can store it in pieces and then paste these together with a graphics editing program. This is rather cumbersome. To reduce this problem one can temporarily set a higher screen resolution.

 * Sometimes a screenshot does not work on a movie still presented by a movie viewer.

 * If the system seems frozen one may be looking at a full-screen screenshot image.

 * A screen dump is when the display system dumps what it is using internally upon request, such as XWD X Window Dump image data in the case of X11 or PDF in the case of Mac OS X. Finally a screen capture commonly means to capture the screen over an extended period of time to form a Video file.

Here is the current text:

 * Screenshots, screen dumps or screen captures can be used to demonstrate a program, a particular problem a user might be having or generally when computer output needs to be shown to others or archived, the most common of the three is a screenshot which commonly means outputting the entire screen in a common format such as PNG or JPEG, a screen dump is when the display system dumps what it is using internally upon request, such as XWD X Window Dump image data in the case of X11 or PDF in the case of Mac OS X. Finally a screen capture commonly means to capture the screen over an extended period of time to form a Video file.

Questions

 * 1) Why did you insert the same statement about demonstrating a program in again, it was already in the above paragraph.
 * 2) In what way were my deletions of redundant content unexpl ( probably unexplained in proper english, elaborate if it is some as of yet unknown word ).

Granted, i deleted some things which i thought were totally pointless to put there, such as "If the system seems frozen one may be looking at a full-screen screenshot image". I dont know about you, but that just doesnt sound like something that should be in an article about screenshots. Why do you feel the need to explain to people that if they open a screenshot on their computer, then try to click on items on the screen their computer is in fact not unresponsive, they are just clicking at an image of their previous screen.

Sound redundant to me anyway. Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 16:48, 2004 May 12 (UTC)

Response
Yes, demonstrating a program need not be put twice, I made a crude repair last week.

The frozen screen remark seems useful to me.

The other deletions you still have not explained at all, they are also useful content and no duplication. Part of it falls in the category "when computer output needs to be archived", but expands on that. If you want to change the formulation we can see whether it is an improvement. If there is something you do not understand, you can ask.

--Patrick 21:56, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Okey, i'll expain it all the way through then:

Applications:
 * demonstrating a program
 * Applications merged, demonstrating a program merged.

 * making an image file of an image shown by a program, in the case that that program does not have this feature itself; the screenshot can then be cropped to the image itself; a limitation is that for large images that do not fit on the screen one can not store the whole image; however, one can store it in pieces and then paste these together with a graphics editing program. This is rather cumbersome. To reduce this problem one can temporarily set a higher screen resolution.
 * This is just wrong in so may ways, it's completely getting outside the whole subject, take an image of a image, crop image, puzzle images togather blablalba
 * It is on-topic (application of screenshot) and you do not mention any error in it. And it does not say image of an image, but image file of an image.--Patrick 10:12, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Thats not the point, it's badly written
 * That seems to be a confirmation that your "it's completely getting outside the whole subject" is nonsense. Further you state that is is "wrong in so may ways", but you can not point out any error. Therefore you change to "badly written". If that is the case you should  edit it.--Patrick 20:56, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Sometimes a screenshot does not work on a movie still presented by a movie viewer.
 * If you really need to add this merge it below like in ===windows limitations or something

 * If the system seems frozen one may be looking at a full-screen screenshot image.
 * re-ha-illy? ;) maybe we should put some text on Art telling people that if landscapes move too little they may be looking at a landscape painting, in any case these one-liners are redundant and really make the article look unprofessional, if you can put them nicely in a paragraph so they make sense and convey some useful information ( which IMO this is not ) sure, but i think it's just redundant in it's current form
 * A painting looks different from the real view, so the comparison breaks down.--Patrick 10:12, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Yes, but it's still something thats so painfully obvious that it doesnt belong.

--Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 21:16, 2004 May 14 (UTC)

Cute
The illustrative screenshot of the Wikipedia screenshot article is cutely meta, but it's not the best illustration of a screenshot. It's a little confusing, actually. Maybe somebody could post a screenshot of a desktop?

 * Good point. There probably are some around. I'll check.  — Omegatron 18:25, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

 * There are tons:

 * Plus Category:Fair_use_screenshots. Take your pick.  We should probably have two or three.  Maybe one desktop in one OS, one closeup of a window from another OS, etc.  — Omegatron 18:39, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

 * It's cute, but it's also a self-reference, so should probably be removed. — AnemoneProj e ctors (talk) 22:26, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Pre-Mac OS X screenshots
I have a Mac running System 7 (7.1 to be specific) and I can confirm that you can take screenshots by hitting Cmd + Shift + 3. It saves them in PICT format on the root of the hard drive. If someone can confirm the behaviors of Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9, I'm sure it would be appreciated. ~ Oni Lukos c 18:30, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I've confirmed that Cmd + Shift + 3 works on OS 9.1 and saves in PICT format, but I forgot to try Cmd + Shift + 4 and have not had access to any earlier versions yet. ~ Oni Lukos c 22:32, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

⇧⌘3 works in all versions of Mac OS. Dread Lord C y b e r S k u l l ✎☠ 12:59, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

⇧⌘3 does NOT work in the latest OS/X (Mavericks) - it does nothing (or, makes a "bump" kind of invalid sound, depending on what application has focus when you press it). Control-⇧⌘3 does still work (saves to clipboard, not a file). 120.151.160.158 (talk) 12:20, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

videos
so "screen capture" allows you to record videos of the screen? what software is used for that? i can't find any. — Omegatron 18:28, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I know Lotus ScreenCam is very old but works fine in Windows 2000. --Mateusc 14:22, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Lotus Screencam is now better known as Camtasia Studio, I believe SmUX 00:15, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I've added a new section "Video screen captures", hope it helps. Peter S. 23:57, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I'm sure it *will* help when someone actually puts in some of the "multitude" of programs that "fill the void" as links so people like me (who came to wiki to find links) could use them :-P SmUX 00:03, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Small question...
For screenshots of XP, OSX, BeOS, Amiga, and so on and so forth one has to display them using the fair use header and have a good reason for them to be up, whereas for KDE, Gnome, etc one doesn't. I get that.

However...

My laptop's screen looks nearly identical to OSX Tiger with a modified wallpaper. There's a dock at the bottom, no recycle bin, it's using Mac-looking icons in the systray, and the windows themselves look like Aqua windows except that the max/min/close buttons are on the righthand side of the window. It's even set up to windowshade things.

I'm running XP Professional (with a few tweaks).

If I took a screenshot of my desktop, would it be considered a shot of software copyrighted by Microsoft, even though I've gone to every effort for the appearance to not be that nasty Chiclets interface XP defaults to?

Or would it be considered to be copyrighted by OSX's Aqua default? But it's NOT a Mac at all, so how could it be? Perhaps as a derived work from Apple's desktop?

I actually have a reason. I was considering some sort of article about desktop customisation, and thought that a screenshot of an XP laptop screen that looks just like OSX would be a good illustration of the concept (especially as mac-faking is one of the most popular applications of desktop customisation, shortly after filling it with bad holiday theme stuff and making it as black as possible).

Aside form all this, I have a raised eyebrow about whether or not Microsoft or Apple can copyright a desktop. Maybe they can copyright a particular screenshot they took themselves, but the desktop is not a creative work and thus not protected by copyright. It's a utilitarian work, no matter how pretty, and, realistically, any claim to have copyright on a desktop is just as absurd as a claim to have copyright on a real physical desktop. Don't get me wrong, I understand that Wikipedia errs on the side of caution, even if it does seem a bit silly sometimes and underscores the idea that all our IP laws need to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch with a mandatory refusal to accept input from Microsoft or Disney.

 * They can copyright the artwork used within the OS; they can copyright their source code; they might patent some methods, but they can't copyright any specific screenshot you might take because it is not an "original work of authorship" because a human has to author it for it to be subject to copyright protection. What you are looking at when you take a screenshot was "authored" by their code.  They might have some possible rights in derivative works if they have copyrights in images on your screen at the time you take the screen shot (perhaps some of the icons); but it's not likely they would pursue them.  In any event, it'd probably easily pass fair use if it ever became an issue, but like I said, they more than likely do not have any copyright in any particular screen you might see.  Peyna 14:00, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Copyright section
Has there been any court cases over screenshots and/or videos of programs? The article says 'some companies believe...' so that makes me think no, but if so it'd be a good thing to cite. 151.201.218.248 03:59, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

If you take screenshots in an "all rights reserved" page, then you most probably are breaking copyright laws!!!--WOLfan112 (talk) 17:10, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Bad advice?
From section 1.3.1 (A Step by Step Guide):

 * Click the "Save as type" drop-down and select "JPEG (*.JPG;*.JPEG;*.JPE*;.JFIF)".

This is bad advice, in my opinion: it will probably result in some loss of image quality which could likely be conserved in PNG.
 * I agree - but then the whole "how to" aspect of the article needs to be moved somewhere else. Cpc464 10:56, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

WinDVD doesn't use Overlays?
In the article it says that certain players don't require hardware overlays to be on, and WinDVD is listed as one of those programs. However, when I turn overlays off, it says that it can't compile the overlay (Obviously), and that the file won't run. It suggest lowering the screen resolution and color compression, which didn't make any difference when I'd done them. Are you sure that the article is accurate in its statement? If it is, what am I doing wrong? JBK405 05:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Format NPOV
I take issue with the statement "("GIF" and the other three bitmap types are often not suitable for full-color screenshots because they discard color information; "JPEG" is never suitable for screenshots because it blurs borders.)" for two reasons. Not all users run at bit depths above 8bpp, so a GIF file may be more than suitable for certain environments. Other bitmap types can contain full 24bpp data, so the statement is doubly false. Additionally, a screen may not contain GUI elements or other high-contrast, line-art elements that are poorly handled by JPEG wavelet compression. Any objections to removing this line? Alvis 04:59, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Consoles?
This article doesn't make a single mention of anything about consoles (phones, TVs, Playstations, Gamecubes, Xboxes, etc.), and yet I see screenshots off Atari 5700's all over the place! I think someone should add a section about consoles. I see screenshots of them everywhere (try taking a look at IGN or GameSpy). --[[User:Red Pooka|Red[[User talk:Red Pooka|Pooka]]]] 15:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I would also like to see something on how to screen capture from consoles. I would also like to see how to screen capture from a Nintendo DS.

Pixelmetric website
This article was strewed with external links in the text leading to tutorials on the website of Pixelmetrics, a commercial package to make screenshots. I removed all the references. Husky (talk page) 19:50, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Screen capture digital
I see no comment on capture of digital display images. I used GrabClipSave analog but it won't capture digital. My system is digital graphics card and digital LCD.

A third way to turn off the overlay in Microsoft Windows ...
... is to first start another application which will hog the overlay (e.g. Show a movie on Windows media Player), then start the application from which you want to capture the screenshot (e.g a video on Win DVD). This technique is especially useful for sports action as the captured image is de-interlaced. My thanks to Chiew Heng Wah http://www.codeproject.com/audio/capvidscrn.asp Clive Harris 17:58, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Agreed; this is a very simple technique that I have been using for years. Personally, whenever I need to temporarily disable the overlay, I just run Karsten Sperling’s little app Alpha (which also has the nice benefit of giving Windows a transparent command line). Also, when a TV app like the one in ATI’s MMC is running (usually in the corner of the screen), the overlay is occupied, so getting screencaps of videos becomes trivial. Synetech (talk) 01:35, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Article is now misleading.
Section 2.3 (which, until 19 Jan 2007, described how to capture a screenshot in Windows using the Print Screen key) was removed by AbsolutDan, on the grounds that Wikipedia is not an instruction manual. Fine, except that now the whole article is generally misleading. Someone who didn't know better would think that the only way to get a screenshot was to download software from the External Links section. --63.25.237.21 20:07, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

 * Note I did indicate in the edit summary that it was a rough cleanup. Please feel free to fix it. --AbsolutDan (talk) 00:37, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Taking Screenshots from Video Games
How do people take screenshots from video games, so that there's nothing outside the screen in the whole shot taken? --PJ Pete

 * just the question I was looking for (specifically to put this in). There's a program called FRAPS which *very* effectively records the audio and video in DirectX games as you play it (even giving information overlaid as it's doing so *in-game* for you).  It records it in a high quality format which of course results in huge files, but if you want to give it out it doesn't take long to compress the video to a better format/filesize with VirtualDub :-)  FRAPS is available at http://www.fraps.com/ and I recommend it, it's a fun little program :-) SmUX 00:02, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Isn't taking screen shots in video games, breaking copyright laws.--WOLfan112 (talk) 17:11, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

could someone
i think this page was vandalized —The preceding unsigned comment was added by A380 Fan (talk • contribs) 23:02, 10 March 2007 (UTC).

Screenshot from Photoshop?
A question was posted on the Computing Reference Desk (here) regarding the portion of this article that indicates that Photoshop (among others) can be configured to capture a screenshot. I have found references indicating how this can be done using the GIMP and IrfanView, but nothing regarding Photoshop. Can anybody confirm that the capability exists? Thanks. --LarryMac 01:32, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, Photoshop has no built in screenshot functionality. The program itself does not make such an option obvious, and google searches for the most obvious keywords return no results. As far as I'm aware, GIMP, PSP, and IrfanView are some of the apps that definately include such functionality --daranzt 13:58, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I've taken the liberty of editing that section of this article, and will also further respond on the Computing Ref Desk. --LarryMac 14:38, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Historical information needed
This article really leans heavily towards modern use of screenshots and has almost no historical information or perspective. The use of screenshots for programs such as games goes all the way back to the Atari 2600 (maybe earlier?). And there is most likely some interesting information that could be included in this article such as how many people have been mislead over the years by screenshots for games that were from an alternate platform. Eventually game makers had to put a caption like "Screenshot from Amiga" on game boxes or "Actual IBM PC screenshot". Plus there is the whole thing of using screenshots from pre-rendered in game videos to try to make a game look better. I don't have any references to this stuff that I could use, but I'll try to add a bit to the article that is generally accepted. -- Suso 23:06, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

 * This was a good start, but we really need those references. Also, if the history portion is going to be mostly about controversies, it might be good to adjust the section title accordingly. Thmazing (talk) 23:47, 13 May 2008 (UTC)Thmazing

A question has been bugging me...
I think that there should be a section in this article that talks about taking screenshots from video games onto a computer, from machines like Xbox and things along those lines. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.163.21.195 (talk) 06:02, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

DVD's with CSS and Screen Capture - Inacurate Statement?
"DVDs are often encrypted using a patented algorithm called Content-scrambling system or CSS, making it much more difficult to take screenshots of them." Is this accurate? Primary reason you can't capture is probably due to the fact that an overlay is being used and not because of CSS.

Can anybody care to comment on this? 124.168.216.45 (talk) 11:11, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

iPhone
Do we really need an iPhone section? There are dozens of other devices that have a screenshot capability. Either way, I'm pretty sure there should be a Ubuntu section before the iPhone. Eugeniu B (talk) 05:10, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Split: Screenshot software
The section about screenshot software would be more appropriately split off into a new article called Screenshot software allowing it to be expanded. It would also allow for the list of screenshot software to be expanded. --Hm2k (talk) 15:26, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I decided it would be best to keep information about what screenshot software is within the article, however I think the "List of screenshot software" should be split instead. No response will form consensus. --Hm2k (talk) 11:02, 18 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree with this idea. Splitting the Screenshot Software from the general article will improve the flow and function of the page. -- SeedAI  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.149.113.165 (talk) 20:18, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Oppose I disagree with splitting. Let the list grow before splitting it. Since it is half year that this topic is not followed up, I consider this issue as concluded. I'm going ahead and deleting the split tag. Fleet Command (talk) 17:26, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

"excluding the mouse pointer"
Why is this given as a feature of screenshot software? It's the hard-coded behaviour of the Windows (and I think also Mac OS X) built-in screen capture facility. Surely the section should concentrate on how these programs improve on such built-in facilities? -- Smjg (talk) 10:06, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Actually, it is not the behavior of the screen capture function. In most modern systems, the mouse cursor is automatically excluded from screencaps because video cards have hardware cursors. That is, the cursor is rendered by the video card directly to the screen, rather than being drawn to the frame-buffer by software. Therefore, when you capture the screen, the pixels of the cursor are not actually present. (You can also see this demonstrated by for example using software turn the gamma/etc. of the display down; the cursor will remain unaffected and bright.)
 * One solution to capturing the cursor is to configure the video card/OS to use a software cursor—if possible. Another solution is to manually draw the cursor on the screencap at the mouse pointer’s current position as screencasting software does.
 * Synetech (talk) 01:57, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Capturing Images from Overlay Surface
The article has the following line under the Windows section
 * However, some third-party applications can capture overlay images.

I’m not sure if that is correct or at least clear enough. VLC can “capture an overlay video” by writing the frame buffer to a file, but that only works because VLC is the video player; it is the one generating the display. VLC cannot use its screen-capture function to capture an overlay video from another source (eg WMP), and other apps cannot capture VLC’s video when played on the overlay surface.

So if the above sentence is indeed correct and complete, someone will need to elaborate with an example or two. Synetech (talk) 01:46, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

 * This line was written by me. As an example take a look at CapTrue website Strop4 (talk) 05:28, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

 * Nope; I just tested it and it that cannot capture overlays or the cursor. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Synetech (talk • contribs) 02:33, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Screenshots are not just for computers
Various articles on Wikipedia itself use the term to refer to screen captures of Television programs, yet the opener seems to think they only come from computers. Later sections mentions TV screenshots, but since those are not described at any earlier point, it seems to come out of nowhere. I'll tweak the intro slightly, but we need a section on TV screenshots. — trlkly 00:42, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Mac OS X
There is currently a sentence in this section that reads (emphasis added): "This utility might only be available when the Mac OS X developer tools are installed." Does anyone have a source for confirming or denying whether the developer tools need to be installed? An uncertain statement like this has no place here. --danhash (talk) 19:33, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Illegal
Can you please tell me whether taking screen shots on "all rights reserved" games, such as war of legends Legal or not!!!!!!!!!--WOLfan112 (talk) 19:31, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Please see [Fair Use] ... 'reproduction of part of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.' ... four factors should be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes. 2. The nature of the copyrighted work. 3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. 4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work. The distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear or easily defined. You should consider avoiding the use of copyrighted material unless you are confident that the doctrine of fair use would apply to the situation. For Wikipedia purposes, review a more practical description to fit your needs: [Fair Wiki Use] --Wikidity (talk) 02:32, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

Broken link
Another article links to the subheading "Game screenshots" in this article, but the subheading doesn't exist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.139.81.0 (talk) 01:33, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
 * It would be helpful if you could point out which article it was. — daranz [ t ] 02:05, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Photographic Techniques
The 'photographic techniques' section is fascinating but lacks any sourcing and I could not turn up any proof of Polaroid releasing screenshot film in 1988 after about 30 minutes of digging - I'll remove that factoid but the rest might be worth revising. TEENS4BLOOMBERG (talk) 17:59, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Add in gallery
Good result 2001:16A4:262:3702:C8DF:63C4:BE3E:BD14 (talk) 08:42, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Screenshot


text:
Mennonite Central Committee

The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a relief service, and peace agency representing fifteen Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Amish bodies in North America. The U.S. headquarters are located in Akron, Pennsylvania; the Canadian headquarters is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

History

Founded in Chicago, Illinois, MCC held its first meeting on September 27, 1920. Its original goal was to provide food for Mennonites starving in Ukraine. MCC soon realized that it could not help only their Mennonite brothers and sisters and began to help anyone in need. MCC (Canada) was founded in 1963.

The initial work of MCC focused on:
 * 1920–1925: famine relief work in Ukraine.
 * 1925–1930: inactive
 * 1930–1937: colonization of Russian Mennonite and Bruderhof refugees in Paraguay and Brazil.
 * 1939–present: relief work; initially in Poland, then (1940) England and France.
 * 1941–1947: administration of Civilian Public Service (CPS) as part of National Service Board for Religious Objectors.
 * 1950s: administration of 1-W service, the replacement of CPS, for draftees classified as conscientious objectors.

Famine in Ukraine
The Mennonites of Molotschna sent a committee to North America in the summer of 1920 to alert American Mennonites of the dire conditions in war-torn Ukraine. Their plight succeeded in uniting various branches of Mennonites to form Mennonite Central Committee in an effort to aid these Russian Mennonites. P. C. Hiebert of the Mennonite Brethren Church initially chaired the organization, with secretary Levi Mumaw of the (Old) Mennonite Church and attorney Maxwell Kratz of the General Conference Mennonite Church. Other Mennonite conferences joined later.

The new organization planned to provide aid to Ukraine via existing Mennonite relief work in Istanbul. The Istanbul group, mainly Goshen College graduates, produced three volunteers, who at great risk entered Ukraine during the ongoing Russian Civil War. They arrived in the Mennonite village of Halbstadt just as General Wrangel of the White Army was retreating. Two of the volunteers withdrew with the Wrangel army, while Clayton Kratz, who remained in Halbstadt (Molotschna) as the Red Army overran the village, was never heard from again.

A year passed before official permission was received from the Soviet government to do relief work among the villages of Ukraine. Kitchens provided 25,000 people a day with rations over a period of three years beginning in 1922, with a peak of 40,000 servings during August of that year. Fifty Fordson tractor and plow combinations were sent to Mennonite villages to replace horses that had been stolen and confiscated during the war. This relief effort cost $1.2 million.

Voluntary service
Lois Gunden volunteered for the Mennonite Central Committee in 1941 and established an orphanage for refuge children of the Spanish Civil War and Jewish children from Rivesaltes internment camp. The children that she rescued were malnourished, in poor health, and had lice. She was awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for her efforts to care for and protect children.

As Civilian Public Service started to wind down in 1946, MCC began exploring a peacetime service program that would continue the types of projects performed by CPS. The new program, Voluntary Service, had several aims. It would provide young people with a way to voluntarily perform Christian service for up to a year as a means of testifying more widely to the gospel and its way of love and nonresistance. Projects were to help alleviate human need in a culturally sensitive manner. The program would operate as an internship in Christian service, developing the workers' service motivation, witness and religious conviction. It would provide Mennonite young people with an opportunity to express appreciation for the material blessings, religious and other national liberties and to contribute to the well-being of the nation. Finally, it was hoped that some individuals would decide to devote their careers to full-time ministry or missionary service.

The first Voluntary Service unit started during the summer of 1946 in association with the CPS unit at Gulfport, Mississippi.

Activities

MCC was an early proponent of fair trade through its Ten Thousand Villages program.

Funds for MCC's worldwide relief and service projects are raised through independent Mennonite relief sales. Around 45 sales are held throughout the United States and Canada, raising US$5 million annually. Many of these sales feature quilts handmade by Mennonite and Amish volunteers, auctions, artwork, crafted woodwork, homemade foods, antiques, crafts, plants, children's activities, and musical programs. Most of the goods and labor are donated, and 78.2% of the funds raised go directly into the field.

MCC focuses its development efforts in areas such as food security and livelihoods, health, education, peace and justice, and fair trade. It responds to disaster situations, as well as focusing its efforts on the longer-term issues of economic and social policy.

MCC maintains offices in both Washington, D.C., and Ottawa to advocate to the American and Canadian federal governments, respectively. MCC also has an international advocacy office at the United Nations in New York City. As of 2015, Ewuare Osayande served as the group's Anti-Oppression Coordinator.

Peacemaking
MCC also takes an active role in advocating for peace both in North America and around the world, seeking "to be a witness against forces that contribute to poverty, injustice and violence." In North America, MCC established the Mennonite Conciliation Service (MCS) in 1979 to encourage Mennonites and others to actively pursue peaceful resolution of conflicts. MCS was a pioneer in the burgeoning field of conflict resolution in the 1980s and director Ronald S. Kraybill led early mediation workshops in Northern Ireland which eventually led to the establishment of the Northern Ireland Mediation Network. John Paul Lederach took over MCS in 1989 when Kraybill moved on to South Africa, and in the years following, MCC moved active peace building into the forefront of its work abroad.

Responding in part to the establishment of active Mennonite-led peace centers that had emerged in the 80s and 90s, such as the Conflict Transformation Program at Eastern Mennonite University, the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center in Lombard, Illinois, a group of peace builders at Fresno Pacific University, the Peace and Justice Network of the Mennonite Church and other activities, MCS was discontinued in 2004. But the Peace Office of MCC continues to advocate peace interests broadly in the US and in MCC programming abroad. Internationally, MCC partners with local organizations to reduce violence in the aftermath of conflict or war.

MCC advocates for exemption from military service. Alternative service for conscientious objectors is promoted as their witness to New Testament Scriptures. MCC keeps a "conscientious objector registry" in Canada, taking statements from Canadians in the hope that they will be recognized by the Canadian government should the government restart drafting citizens into the military.

Affiliated organizations

 * Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches
 * Brethren in Christ Church
 * Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches
 * Mennonite Church Canada
 * Mennonite Church USA
 * Mennonite Disaster Service
 * U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches
 * Rosedale Network of Churches

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

title: Mennonite Central Committee


text:
Alvin Curling

Alvin Curling (born November 15, 1939) is a Jamaican-born Canadian politician. He was Canada's envoy to the Dominican Republic from 2005 to 2006. A former politician in Ontario, Canada, he was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario until he resigned on August 19, 2005 to accept his diplomatic appointment. He had been a Liberal MPP for twenty years, from 1985 to 2005.

Background
Curling was educated at Seneca College and at York University in Toronto. He began working as an educator in 1972, and served as President of the World Literacy of Canada organization from 1981 to 1984, as well as working in the Jamaican Canadian Association.

In government
He was elected to the Ontario legislature in the provincial election of 1985 as a Liberal in the suburban Toronto riding of Scarborough North. Curling defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Carole Noble by about 8,000 votes. His personal total of 30,504 votes was a provincial record at the time.

The Liberals formed a minority government after this election, and Curling was appointed Minister of Housing on June 26, 1985. He was the first Black Canadian to hold a cabinet-level position in Ontario. During his time as minister of Housing, he expanded the parameters of Ontario's rent control program, and announced a $500 million initiative for new urban housing. Curling was easily re-elected in the provincial election of 1987, and was appointed Minister of Skills Development on September 29, 1987. He served in this capacity until August 2, 1989, when he was dropped from cabinet.

In opposition
The Liberals were defeated by the NDP in the 1990 election, although Curling managed to retain his riding by about 4,000 votes. He was also re-elected without much difficulty in the face of Progressive Conservative majority governments of 1995 and 1999 in the redistributed riding of Scarborough—Rouge River. From 1996 to 1999, he served as Deputy House Leader for the Liberals.

In December 1995, he gained notoriety for his 18-hour filibuster-like protest against the Mike Harris government's Omnibus Bill 26. When Curling was ordered expelled from the legislature for refusing to vote, he was ordered by the speaker to leave the chamber. He refused to leave his seat, and a knot of fellow Liberal and NDP opposition members formed a cordon around him to prevent his physical removal. The standoff lasted throughout the night and into the next morning when the house was adjourned. Reports stated that when legislature staff saw Frances Lankin, NDP MPP and a former prison guard, among the cordon, they backed off. Curling claimed his protest was meant to highlight a lack of public consultation in the Harris government's bill. The incident led to a discussion amongst the party house leaders and an agreement was reached to review the bill clause by clause.

Curling supported Joseph Cordiano for the Ontario Liberal Party leadership in 1996 (Ottawa Citizen, November 21, 1996).

Speaker of the Legislature
The Liberals returned to power following the provincial election of 2003, and Curling was elected Speaker of the Legislature without opposition on November 19, 2003.

Curling soon faced criticism over as charges of partisanship and how objectively he was performing his duties as Speaker. Opposition MPPs, including New Democrat Peter Kormos and Conservative John Baird, noted that Curling favoured his Liberal colleagues, sanctioning Conservative and NDP members for behaviour he would more often let slide from Liberals. Curling had also been criticized for attending Liberal Party fundraiser while Speaker, as previous Speakers had avoided attending such events which was seen as compromising the impartiality of the office. In late March 2005, Kormos announced plans to introduce a resolution calling on Curling to resign from the post, and it was rumoured Conservatives were considering a similar call.

After politics
Curling resigned his seat in the Legislative Assembly on August 19, 2005, to accept a diplomatic posting as Canada's ambassador to the Dominican Republic. He was recalled from this position in 2006 following the defeat of the federal Liberal government.

Curling held a position as Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario, from June 2007 until May 2010. He also served as Co-Chair of the Premier's Task Force on the Review of the Roots of Youth Violence. In the mid-2000s, Curling was honoured by the government of Jamaica with the Order of Distinction; he holds the rank of Commander. In 2014, he was made a Member of the Order of Ontario for having "played an important role in shaping government policy addressing youth violence".

title: Alvin Curling


text:
Point Break

Point Break is a 1991 American action film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by W. Peter Iliff.

It stars Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty and Gary Busey. The film's title refers to the surfing term "point break", where a wave breaks as it hits a point of land jutting out from the coastline. The film features Reeves as an undercover FBI agent who is tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers while he develops a complex relationship with the group's leader (Swayze).

Development of Point Break began in 1986, when Iliff wrote an initial treatment for the film. Bigelow soon developed the script with husband James Cameron, and filming took place four years later. It was shot across the western coast of the continental United States and was officially budgeted at $24 million, before being released on July 12, 1991.

Point Break opened to generally positive reviews, with critics praising the chemistry between Reeves and Swayze. During its theatrical run, the film grossed over $83.5 million, and has since gained a cult following. Following the film's success, it spawned a remake that was released in 2015.

Plot
Former Ohio State quarterback and rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah assists Agent Angelo Pappas in investigating a string of bank robberies by the "Ex-Presidents": robbers who wear rubber masks of former presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rather than robbing the vault, they only demand the cash the tellers have in their drawers and are gone within ninety seconds.

Pursuing Pappas's theory that the criminals are surfers, Utah infiltrates the surfing community. He fabricates a family tragedy to persuade orphaned surfer and restaurant waitress Tyler to teach him to surf, after she saves him from drowning during his first attempt. Through her, he meets Bodhi, the leader of a gang of surfers consisting of Roach, Grommet, and Nathaniel. The group is wary of Utah, but they accept him when Bodhi recognizes him as a former college football star who quit due to a knee injury. As he masters surfing, Utah finds himself drawn to the surfers' adrenaline-charged lifestyle, Bodhi's philosophies, and Tyler. Following a clue retrieved by analyzing toxins found in the hair of one of the bank robbers, Utah and Pappas lead an FBI raid on another gang of surfers, resulting in the deaths of two of them. The raid inadvertently ruins a DEA undercover operation, as those surfers were wanted for separate charges regarding drug dealing, and they are determined not to be the Ex-Presidents.

Watching Bodhi's group surfing, Utah begins to suspect that they are the Ex-Presidents, noting how close a group they are and the way one of them moons other surfers in the same manner one of the robbers does. Utah and Pappas stake out a bank, and the Ex-Presidents appear. While wearing a Reagan mask, Bodhi leads Utah on a foot chase through the neighborhood, which ends when Utah's old knee injury flares up after jumping into a flood control channel. Despite having a clear shot, the injured Utah allows Bodhi to escape.

At a campfire that night, it is confirmed that Bodhi and his gang are the Ex-Presidents. Tyler discovers Utah's FBI badge and angrily terminates their relationship. Shortly afterward, Bodhi coerces Utah into skydiving with the group. After the jump, Bodhi reveals that he knows Utah is an FBI agent and has arranged for his friend Rosie, a non-surfing thug, to hold Tyler hostage. Utah is blackmailed into participating in the Ex-Presidents' last bank robbery of the summer. Grommet is killed, along with an off-duty police officer, and a bank security guard who attempt to foil the robbery. Outraged by Grommet's death, Bodhi knocks out Utah and leaves the scene.

Defying their superior Ben Harp, who arrests Utah, Pappas and Utah head to the airport where Bodhi, Roach, and Nathaniel are about to leave for Mexico. During a shootout, Pappas and Nathaniel are killed, and Roach is seriously wounded. With Roach aboard, Bodhi forces Utah onto the plane at gunpoint. Once airborne and over their intended drop zone, Bodhi and Roach put on their parachutes and jump from the plane, leaving Utah to take the blame. With no other parachutes available, Utah jumps from the plane with Bodhi's gun and intercepts him. After landing safely, Utah's knee gives out again, allowing Bodhi to escape Utah's grasp. Bodhi meets with Rosie and releases Tyler. Roach dies of his wounds, and Bodhi and Rosie leave with the money.

Nine months later, Utah tracks Bodhi to Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, where a record-breaking storm is producing lethal waves. This is an event Bodhi had talked about experiencing, calling it the "50-Year Storm". Utah attempts to bring Bodhi into custody, but Bodhi refuses. During a brawl in the surf, Utah handcuffs himself to Bodhi, who begs Utah to release him so he can ride the once-in-a-lifetime wave. Knowing Bodhi will not come back alive, Utah releases him and bids him farewell. While the authorities watch Bodhi surf to his death, Utah walks away, throwing his FBI badge into the ocean.

Production
The film came close to production in 1986, with Matthew Broderick, Johnny Depp, Val Kilmer, and Charlie Sheen all being considered to play the Johnny Utah character, with Ridley Scott directing. However production fell through.

Four years later, after acquiring the screenplay, the producers of Point Break began looking for a director. At the time, executive producer James Cameron was married to director Kathryn Bigelow, who had just completed Blue Steel and was looking for her next project. Only W. Peter Iliff is credited for the screenplay, but Cameron has said that he did a considerable amount of writing with Bigelow for the final film, helping to establish a better plot flow. Cameron was also instrumental in the creation of the iconic Ex-Presidents.

Point Break was originally called Johnny Utah when Keanu Reeves was cast in the title role. The studio felt that this title said very little about surfing and by the time Patrick Swayze was cast, the film had been renamed Riders on the Storm after the famous song by The Doors. However, Jim Morrison's lyrics had nothing to do with the film and so that title was also rejected. It was not until halfway through filming that Point Break became the film's title because of its relevance to surfing.

Reeves liked the name of his character, as it reminded him of star athletes like Johnny Unitas and Joe Montana. He described his character as "a total control freak and the ocean beats him up and challenges him. After a while everything becomes a game. He becomes as amoral as any criminal. He loses the difference between right and wrong." Swayze felt that Bodhi was a lot like him and that they both shared "that wild-man edge."

Two months before filming, Lori Petty, Reeves and Swayze trained with former world-class professional surfer Dennis Jarvis on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Jarvis remembers, "Patrick said he'd been on a board a couple of times, Keanu definitely had not surfed before, and Lori had never been in the ocean in her life." Shooting the surfing sequences proved to be challenging for all three actors, with Swayze cracking four of his ribs. For many of the surfing scenes, he refused to use a stunt double as he never had one for fight scenes or car chases. He also did the skydiving scenes himself and the film's aerial jump instructor Jim Wallace found that he was a natural and took to it right away. Swayze ended up making 55 jumps for the film. Swayze admitted that he almost died six or ten times while shooting the film. Swayze actually based aspects of his character after one of his stunt doubles, Darrick Doerner, a top big wave surfer. After learning to surf for the film, Reeves took a liking to it and took it up as a hobby.

Parts of the film were shot at Lake Powell in Utah, Wheeler and Ecola State Park in Oregon, and Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica, Venice, and Fox Hills Mall in California. Although the final scene of the film is set at Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia, the scene was filmed at Indian Beach in Ecola State Park, located in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Soundtrack

 * Ratt – "Nobody Rides for Free"
 * Concrete Blonde – "I Want You"
 * Jimmy Buffett – "Volcano"
 * The Jimi Hendrix Experience – "If 6 Was 9"
 * School of Fish – "Rose Colored Glasses"
 * Public Image Ltd. – "Criminal"
 * Shark Island – "My City"
 * Love – "7 and 7 Is"
 * Loudhouse – "Smoke on the Water"
 * Westworld – "So Long Cowboy"
 * Little Caesar – "Down to the Wire"
 * L.A. Guns – "Over the Edge"
 * Liquid Jesus– "7 and 7 Is"
 * Wire Train – "I Will Not Fall"
 * Ice-T – "O.G. Original Gangster"
 * Mark Isham – "Foot Chase"
 * Sheryl Crow – "Hundreds of Tears"

On February 7, 2008, a score release for Point Break was released by La-La Land Records, featuring composer Mark Isham's score. This edition was limited to 2,000 units and features 65 minutes of score with liner notes by Dan Goldwasser that incorporate comments from both Bigelow and Isham. It is now out of print.
 * Score album

Box office
Point Break was released on July 12, 1991, in 1,615 theaters, grossing $8.5 million on its opening weekend, behind Terminator 2: Judgment Day's (directed by Bigelow's then husband, James Cameron) second weekend and the openings of the re-issue of 101 Dalmatians and Boyz n the Hood. With a budget of $24 million, the film went on to make $43.2 million in North America and $40.3 million internationally for a worldwide total of $83.5 million.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 69% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Absurd, over-the-top, and often wildly entertaining, Point Break is here to show you that the human spirit is still alive." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote "Bigelow is an interesting director for this material. She is interested in the ways her characters live dangerously for philosophical reasons. They aren't men of action, but men of thought who choose action as a way of expressing their beliefs." In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised Reeves's performance: "A lot of the snap comes, surprisingly, from Mr. Reeves, who displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanor that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles." Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C+" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote "Point Break makes those of us who don't spend our lives searching for the ultimate physical rush feel like second-class citizens. The film turns reckless athletic valor into a new form of aristocracy."

In his review for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson wrote "A lot of what Bigelow puts up on the screen bypasses the brain altogether, plugging directly into our viscera, our gut. The surfing scenes in particular are majestically powerful, even awe-inspiring. Bigelow's picture is a feast for the eyes, but we watch movies with more than our eyes. She seduces us, then asks us to be bimbos." Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers wrote, "Bigelow can't keep the film from drowning in a sea of surf-speak. But without her, Point Break would be no more than an excuse to ogle pretty boys in wet suits."

USA Today gave the film two out of four stars and Mike Clark wrote "Its purely visceral material (surf sounds, skydiving stunt work, a tough indoor shootout midway through) are first-rate. As for the tangibles that matter even more (script, acting, directorial control, credible relationships between characters), Break defies belief. Dramatically, it rivals the lowest surf yet this year." Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "So how do you rate a stunningly made film whose plot buys so blithely into macho mysticism that it threatens to turn into an endless bummer? Looks 10, Brains 3."

Critics have commented on the central 'buddy' relationship of Bodhi and Johnny, and on the unusually equal dynamic in the romantic relationship of Tyler and Johnny (which Bigelow changed Peter Iliff's original script to create); Tyler is a "muscled, brash waitress with an androgynous name (Tyler) and physical features", and Johnny's "feminine edges nudge in nicely to her masculine ones. In nearly every scene they share, they are portrayed by the camera as equals."

In 2006, a special edition was released on DVD (In DVD was released on May 22, 2001). Entertainment Weekly gave it a "B" rating and wrote, "The making-of docs (at their best discussing Swayze's extracurricular skydiving—that really is him doing the Adios, amigo fall) will leave you hanging."

In 2021 Keith Duggan, reflecting on Point Break 30 years later, wrote in the Irish Times :

Legacy
The Daily Telegraph wrote that the film "certainly qualified as a cult favourite." Furthermore, Rolling Stone called Point Break "the greatest female-gaze action movie ever," citing the bodily condition of Reeves and Swayze, calling it a "wet Western."

The 2001 film The Fast and the Furious was developed by Rob Cohen and Neal H. Moritz as a re-imagined version of Point Break following Paul Walker as an undercover cop tasked with infiltrating the world of underground street racers instead of surfers, officially inspired by the 1998 Vibe magazine article "Racer X" by Ken Li.

Point Break was listed in the VH1 series I Love the 90s on the episode "1991". Many celebrities, including Dominic Monaghan, Mo Rocca, Michael Ian Black, Hal Sparks, and Chris Pontius, commented about the film and why it deserved to be included in the episode. Entertainment Weekly ranked Point Break as having one of the "10 Best Surfing Scenes" in cinema.

The film inspired a piece of cult theater, Point Break Live!, in which the role of Johnny Utah is played by an audience member chosen by popular acclamation after a brief audition. The new "Keanu" reads all of his lines from cue-cards for the duration of the show, "to capture the rawness of a Keanu Reeves performance even from those who generally think themselves incapable of acting."

Point Break was referenced in Hot Fuzz, where the scene of Utah emptying his magazine into the sky in frustration is watched by the lead characters and later re-enacted by Nick Frost's character.

Seattle-based Georgetown Brewing Company brews a "Bodhizafa" IPA, a "Johnny Utah" pale ale, and a "War Child" IPA.

Between 2016 and 2020, indie musician JAWNY went by the stage name "Johnny Utah" in reference to the Point Break character.

In The Avengers, Tony Stark dismissively calls Thor "Point Break," presumably a comparison of Thor's hair to Swayze's in that film. In Thor: Ragnarok, after several attempts Thor correctly guesses that "Point Break" is the activation code that Stark had set up for him in the Quinjet.

Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. released a remake of the film in 2015 titled Point Break, which received mostly negative reviews. James LeGros and BoJesse Christopher, two of the actors who played Ex-Presidents in the 1991 film, were cast as FBI directors.

title: Point Break


text:
Service Employees International Union

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members work in the healthcare field), including hospital, home care and nursing home workers; public services (government employees, including law enforcement); and property services (including janitors, security guards and food service workers).

SEIU has over 150 local branches. It is affiliated with the Strategic Organizing Center and the Canadian Labour Congress. SEIU's international headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., and it is one of the largest unions in the country.

The union is known for its strong support for Democratic candidates. It spent $28 million supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. In 2012, SEIU was the top outside spender on Democratic campaigns, reporting almost $70 million of campaign donations, television ads and get-out-the-vote efforts in support of President Obama and other Democrats. SEIU is a major supporter of the Affordable Care Act and of increased minimum wage laws, including wage increases for fast food workers. The union is the primary backer of the Fight for $15.

History
The SEIU was founded on April 23, 1921 in Chicago as the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU); its first members were janitors, elevator operators, and window washers. The union's membership increased significantly with a 1934 strike in New York City's Garment District. In order to reflect its increasingly diversified membership, in 1968 the union renamed itself Service Employees International Union. In 1980 through 1984, most of the SEIU's growth came from mergers with four other unions, including the International Jewelry Workers' Union and the Drug, Hospital, and Health Care Employees Union.

In 1995, SEIU President John Sweeney was elected president of the AFL–CIO, the main confederation of labor unions in the United States. After Sweeney's departure, former social worker Andrew Stern was elected president of SEIU. In the first ten years of Stern's administration, the union's membership grew rapidly and the SEIU became the largest union in the AFL–CIO.

In 2003, SEIU was a founding member of the New Unity Partnership, an organization of unions that pushed for a greater commitment to organizing unorganized workers into unions. In 2005, SEIU was a founding member of the Change to Win Coalition, which furthered the reformist agenda, criticizing the AFL–CIO for focusing its attention on electoral politics, instead of encouraging organizing in the face of decreasing union membership. These differences boiled over on the eve of the 2005 AFL–CIO convention, as the SEIU and Teamsters announced that they were disaffiliating from the AFL–CIO. The Change to Win Federation held its founding convention in September 2005, where SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger was announced as the organization's chair.

In the following decade, several Change to Win members disaffiliated and re-joined the AFL–CIO, leaving SEIU, the Teamsters, and the United Farm Workers as the remaining members. The SEIU's decision to break away from the AFL–CIO is considered controversial by some labor experts. After the disaffiliation, the SEIU continued to experience significant growth in membership. Stern stepped down as president of SEIU in 2010, and was replaced by Mary Kay Henry, a long-time organizer and staff member at the union, and its first female president.

April Verrett was elected the union's first Black president in May 2024.

Presidents of SEIU

 * William Quesse (1921–1927)
 * Oscar Nelson (1927)
 * Jerry Horan (1927–1937)
 * George Scalise (1937–1940)
 * William McFetridge (1940–1960)
 * David Sullivan (1960–1971)
 * George Hardy (1971–1980)
 * John Sweeney (1980–1995; subsequently president of the AFL–CIO)
 * Richard Cordtz (1995–1996)
 * Andy Stern (1996–2010)
 * Mary Kay Henry (2010–2024)
 * April Verrett (2024—present) https://www.seiu.org/april-verrett

Organizing and political activities
Under the Stern and Henry presidencies, SEIU has organized workers in a number of industries. In some cases, these organizing drives have been built around nationwide campaigns, like the earlier Justice for Janitors campaign. SEIU has organized large numbers of home care attendants in Oregon, Missouri, and Wisconsin, among other states, in some cases working together with other unions.

Since 2004, the union has seen success organizing workers in Texas, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona in particular. Over 5,000 janitors organized with SEIU in Houston, Texas in 2005, which was especially significant due to the size of the campaign and its location in an area with low union density. In Florida, a high-profile strike at the University of Miami which lasted nine weeks and included a hunger strike, ended with the union winning representation of 425 janitors on campus. This victory was shortly followed by another 600 workers at North Shore Medical Center, also in Miami, voting to join the SEIU in early 2006.

One of the major potential areas of union growth in the United States is organizing workers usually hitherto considered "unorganizable," especially low-wage service sector workers, in what is often called "social movement organizing." SEIU has played a major role in the fast food worker strikes from 2012–2014 and has contributed more than $15 million to workers' centers and community organizations to organize them. The motto for the campaign is "$15 and a union," reflecting the call to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour and the unionization of fast food workers. SEIU has recently begun supporting lawsuits filed by fast food workers to the National Labor Relations Board, calling for McDonald's to be named a joint employer of the restaurants run by its franchisees, a move which would make it substantially easier to unionize McDonald's employees. Adjunct faculty at colleges and universities have been part of a similar campaign.

In June 2004, SEIU launched a non-union-member affiliate group called Purple Ocean as a mechanism to mobilize non-SEIU members in support of the union's agenda. Purple Ocean members do not have voting rights within the SEIU.

In November 2009, the SEIU and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) competed for the right to represent 10,000 home health-care workers in Fresno, California. After the SEIU won the right to represent the workers, the NUHW charged the SEIU with changing ballots and threatening to report a worker to immigration officials. The NUHW asked that the election be invalidated and a new one ordered due to what it said was evidence of intimidation.

In 2012, SEIU, the American Federation of Teachers and AFSCME agreed on a politics-only alliance for the 2012 national election campaign. In 2016, AFSCME and SEIU announced an extension of that agreement, leading to speculation about a possible future merger.

In July 2020, three SEIU members, Felix Thomson, Julia Wallace, and Mark Ostapiak, published an article in the media and organizing forum Labor Notes describing their participation in a campaign to disaffiliate police unions from the SEIU.

The Service Employees International Union challenged California's Proposition 22. The proposition was initially overturned in the lower courts before the decision was reversed in the Court of Appeal.

On November 15, 2023, President Joe Biden nominated Nicole Berner, the general counsel of the SEIU, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Sodexo
In 2009, the union launched a nationwide campaign against Sodexo, criticizing the company's labor standards. The union's strategy, which was ultimately unsuccessful, involved organizing student groups to pressure administrators at universities to kick Sodexo out of school cafeterias unless the company permitted unionization. Sodexo USA filed a civil lawsuit against SEIU under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act on March 17, 2011. In the complaint, Sodexo alleged that SEIU engaged in blackmail, vandalism, trespassing, harassment, and lobbying law violations, referring to the "Clean Up Sodexo" campaign as "old-fashioned, strongarm tactics" and SEIU behavior as "egregious" and "illegal."

During the trial, it was revealed that in 1988, the SEIU had co-written a manual detailing how "outside pressure can involve jeopardizing relationships between the employer and lenders, investors, stockholders, customers, clients, patients, tenants, politicians, or others on whom the employer depends for funds." Tactics recommended include references to blackmail and extortion, accusations of racism and sexism, targeting the homes and neighborhoods of business leaders for demonstrations, and also explicitly stated that at times it is necessary to "disobey the law." Following the court discovery of this document, a settlement was reached where Sodexo withdrew the lawsuit and SEIU terminated its public campaign focused on Sodexo.

Political donations
According to OpenSecrets, since 1990 the SEIU has been the nation's top organization contributing to federal campaigns, donating $232,694,670, 99 percent of which went to Democrats. Over that same period, the National Education Association was the second highest organizational political donor, contributing $96,992,506, 97 percent of which went to Democrats. Since 1998, the SEIU has spent $19,676,660 in additional money on lobbying.

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
SEIU's largest local union is 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. With a membership of roughly 300,000, it claims to be the largest local union in the world. It represents workers in various parts of New York state, chiefly in New York City, Syracuse, and Buffalo, with additional members located in and around the Canton-Potsdam and Plattsburgh areas of northern New York, as well as Maryland, Washington, DC, Florida, and Massachusetts.

United Healthcare Workers West
SEIU Local 2005 United Healthcare Workers West (UHW West) is a large (150,000-member) local union based in Oakland, California. In August 2008, the international union announced plans for a hearing to consider trusteeing UHW West. On January 27, 2009, SEIU placed UHW West under trusteeship and dismissed 70 of the local's executives, including president Sal Rosselli. Rosselli and other ousted leaders reformed under the name National Union of Healthcare Workers and pushed for UHW West members at 60 facilities to vote to decertify SEIU. As of 2012, NUHW only represents 6 former SEIU-UHW facilities.

In early 2013, NUHW affiliated with the California Nurses Association. Also, in early 2013, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered that the results of the 2010 Kaiser Permanente union election (a vote by nearly 45,000 Kaiser-Permanente employees choosing between NUHW and SEIU-UHW) be overturned based on evidence of collusion between SEIU-UHW and the employer. The second election was won be SEIU-UHW, by a vote of 18,844 to 13,101.

Local 32BJ
SEIU 32BJ is a politically outspoken building services local based in New York. 32BJ represents over 170,000 property service workers, and is part of SEIU Justice for Janitors, Stand for Security and Multi Service Workers campaigns.

In 2010, SEIU 32BJ's Thomas Shortman Training Fund was awarded a $2.8 million grant by the Department of Labor, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act aiming to create jobs in expanding green industries over the following two years. The program (1,000 Green Supers) was intended to help train 2,200 New York City building superintendents in energy efficiency.

The National Conference of Firemen and Oilers is an affiliate of 32BJ.

Local 87
One of the first SEIU locals was Local 87, a local union that traces its origins back to the 1920s, when it was known as Local 9 of the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU). It was originally led by George Hardy. Around 700 janitorial members of the local launched a walk-off on March 24, 2021, striking in favor of workplace safety measures including "sexual harassment safeguards", of fair pay, and of seniority rights. The strike follows 8 months of contract negotiations, 27 deaths to COVID-19 among union members, and 3000 members laid off since the start of the pandemic.

Local 721
SEIU Local 721 is Los Angeles County's largest employee union, representing 57,000 county employees in nursing, social work, and clerical roles. https://www.seiu721.org/

Local 2015
SEIU Local 2015 represents 425,000 long-term care employees, making it the largest local union in California and the second largest in the United States. In November 2022, Local 2015 staff went on strike against the union in one of the largest union staff strikes in history.

Local 1000
SEIU Local 1000 (Union of California State Workers) is affiliated with the California State Employees Association (CSEA) with one other union, the California State University Employees Union, SEIU Local 2579, a non-union affiliate of managers, confidential and supervisory employees who are excluded from collective bargaining, and an affiliate of retired state employees. Yvonne Walker has been president since 2008. SEIU Local 1000 represents 95000 State Government Employees, many of whom are office and administrative workers, librarians, engineers and nurses. Local 1000 deals with issues of concern to current rank-and-file state employees, such as salaries, benefits, working conditions and contract negotiations. Local 1000 has nine bargaining units and represents a variety of state workers, including DMV employees, prison support staff (excluding uniformed guards), information technology workers, nurses and administrative staff.

In Knox v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, the US Supreme Court found Local 1000 had used illegal fundraising during the 2005 California Special Election.

Committee of Interns and Residents
Committee of Interns and Residents Local 1957 is the largest housestaff union in the United States.

National Association of Government Employees (NAGE)
The National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), SEIU Local 5000, represents tens of thousands of state, federal, and municipal government employees including nurses, EMS professionals, firefighters, police and correctional officers, and military air technicians.

Local 1 Canada
The largest local in Canada is SEIU Local 1 Canada. It represents over 50,000 health care and community services workers in Ontario and British Columbia. Its members work in hospitals, home care, nursing and retirement homes and community services.

Composition
Total membership (US records; ×1000)

According to SEIU's Department of Labor records since 2005 (when membership classifications were first reported) about two percent of the union's membership are considered retirees, with eligibility to vote in the union. SEIU contracts also cover some non-members, known as agency fee payers, which since 2005 have numbered comparatively about one tenth of the size of the union's membership. As of 2014 this accounts for about 35,000 retirees and about 180,000 non-members paying agency fees, compared to about 1.8 million regular members.

Archival and historical materials
The official repository of SEIU is the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit. The Reuther Library, the largest labor archives in North America, holds the most complete collection of primary source materials regarding SEIU with over 1,000 linear feet of the union's records covering 105 years of history (1905-2010). The SEIU Collections include a variety of organizational, executive, photographic, and publicity materials along with many other additional record types. The relationship between SEIU and the Reuther Library began officially in 1992 and the collections have since been maintained by a dedicated SEIU Archivist on staff at the archives. Notable collections include SEIU Executive Office: John Sweeney Records, the District 925 Records, and materials documenting the Justice for Janitors campaign from SEIU's numerous local affiliates.

Additional archival collections can be found at the Special Collections Library of the University of Washington (Building Service Employees' International Union, Local 6 Records and Service Employees International Union, Local 120 Records ). The records of SEIU's United Service Workers West, including the Justice for Janitors campaign are held by the UCLA Library Department of Special Collections.

title: Service Employees International Union


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Talk:AOR

--85.96.15.144 (talk) 09:55, 27 January 2011 (UTC) There is something wrong with that part. I'll take it out for now until someone can fix it. MikeCapone feb 22, 2004.

 * , and latterly the concept of "albums" has been seen as obsolete in the compact disc era.

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title: Talk:AOR


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Thomson Financial

Thomson Financial was an arm of the Thomson Corporation, an information provider. When the Thomson Corporation merged with Reuters to form Thomson Reuters in April 2008, Thomson Financial was merged with the business of Reuters to form the Markets Division of Thomson Reuters.

History
Thomson acquired magazine publisher Faulkner & Gray in 1992. Thomson Financial expanded significantly when it acquired Primark, another financial information provider, on June 6, 2000, for $842 million in an all-cash deal. Primark owned many brands in both the U.S. and UK/Europe such as Datastream, Baseline Financial, Intellivate Capital Ventures (ICV), and IBES. The acquisition consolidated and combined competing financial information provision, for example the FirstCall and IBES earnings estimate data, under the same company.

Thomson Financial sold its Thomson Media division in 2004.

On 17 April 2008 the Thomson Corporation merged with Reuters and created the new company Thomson Reuters. Thomson Financial and Reuters combined their businesses into the Markets Division: Sales & Trading, Enterprise, Investment & Advisory, and Media. The other Thomson operations were combined into the Professional Division: Legal, Healthcare & Science, and Tax & Accounting. Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk eventually became Refinitiv.

Major office locations
Thomson Financial had many offices across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions. The head office was based in Boston (1987-2008) and New York (joint with Boston), with significant presence in San Francisco, London, Frankfurt, Bangalore, Manila, and many satellite offices in locations such as Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Zurich, Geneva, just as some examples. The two major data centers, not including smaller points of presence, for Thomson Financial were located in NYC and New Jersey.

In June 2007, Thomson Financial agreed to buy seven Asia-Pacific news bureaus from Xinhua Finance. The bureaus purchased were in Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney and Seoul. Xinhua Finance stated they would retain their operations in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Products
The company had a wide variety of financial products. Thomson ONE is a core product, although legacy branded offerings such as Datastream Advance and Global Topic will probably remain for a few years. Thomson ONE was a competitor of Bloomberg L.P., Capital IQ and FactSet Research Systems. There were different packages of Thomson ONE, i.e., Thomson ONE for Investment Management, Thomson ONE for Investment Banking, etc. Due to the acquisition of Primark and buyout of ILX Systems, Thomson Financial had seen growth over the previous four years and had seen improvement in the core product Thomson ONE.

Thomson Financial electronic transaction processing systems included Thomson AutEx trade order indications and executions, Thomson PORTIA automated portfolio management system, Thomson TradeWeb on-line trading network for fixed-income securities, and Thomson BETA Systems for securities data and brokerage processing systems.

title: Thomson Financial


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Humming

A hum is a sound made by producing a wordless tone with the mouth closed, forcing the sound to emerge from the nose. To hum is to produce such a sound, often with a melody. It is also associated with thoughtful absorption, 'hmm'.

A hum has a particular timbre (or sound quality), usually a monotone or with slightly varying tones. There are other similar sounds not produced by human singing that are also called hums, as the sound produced by machinery in operation, such as a microwave, or by an insect in flight. The hummingbird was named for the sound that bird makes in flight which sounds like a hum.

Mechanics
A 'hum' or 'humming' by humans is created by the resonance of air in various parts of passages in the head and throat, in the act of breathing. The 'hum' that a hummingbird creates is also created by resonance: in this case by air resistance against wings in the actions of flying, especially of hovering.

Humming in human evolution
Joseph Jordania suggested that humming could have played an important role in the early human (hominid) evolution as contact calls. Many social animals produce seemingly haphazard and indistinct sounds (like chicken cluck) when they are going about their everyday business (foraging, feeding). These sounds let group members know that they are among kin and there is no danger. In the case of the appearance of any signs of danger (such as suspicious sounds or movements in a forest), the animal that notices danger first, stops moving, stops producing sounds, remains silent and looks in the direction of the danger sign. Other animals quickly follow suit and very soon all the group is silent and is scanning the environment for possible danger.

Charles Darwin was the first to notice this phenomenon on the example of the wild horses and the cattle. Joseph Jordania suggested that for humans, as for many social animals, silence can be a sign of danger, and that's why gentle humming and musical sounds relax humans (see the use of gentle music in music therapy, lullabies).

Humming in language
In Pirahã, the only surviving dialect of the Mura language, there is a special register of speech which uses solely humming, with no audible release.

Music
Humming is often used in music of genres, from classical (for example, the famous chorus at the end of Act 2 of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly) to jazz to R&B.

Another form of music derived from basic humming is the humwhistle. Folk art, also known as "whistle-hum," produces a high pitch and low pitch simultaneously. The two-tone sound is related to field holler, overtone singing, and yodeling the music.

title: Humming


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Petting zoo

A petting zoo (also called a children's zoo, children's farm, or petting farm) features a combination of domesticated animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, many general zoos contain a petting zoo.

Most petting zoos are designed to provide only relatively placid, herbivorous domesticated animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits or ponies, to feed and interact physically with safety. This is in contrast to the usual zoo experience, where normally wild animals are viewed from behind safe enclosures where no contact is possible. A few provide wild species (such as pythons or big cat cubs) to interact with, but these are rare and usually found outside Western nations.

History
In 1938, the London Zoo included the first children's zoo in Europe and the Philadelphia Zoo was the first in North America to open a special zoo just for children.

During the 1990s, Dutch cities began building petting zoos in many neighbourhoods, so that urban children could interact with animals.

Animals and food
Petting zoos feature a variety of domestic animals. Common animals include cattle, zebu, yaks, sheep, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, ponies, alpacas, llamas, pigs, miniature donkeys, miniature horses, ducks, geese, chickens, and turkeys. They occasionally contain a few exotic animals such as kangaroos, wallabies, emus, deer, zebras, parrots, porcupines, camels, ostriches, water buffaloes, peafowl, guineafowl, antelopes, capybaras, lemurs, tortoises and many others.

Petting zoos are popular with small children, who will often feed the animals. In order to ensure the animals' health, the food is supplied by the zoo, either from vending machines or a kiosk. Food often fed to animals includes grass and crackers and also in selected feeding areas hay is a common food. Such feeding is an exception to the usual rule about not feeding animals.

Mobile petting zoos
Some petting zoos are also mobile and will travel to a home for a children's party or event. Many areas have a qualified mobile petting zoo. One of the first mobile petting zoos in Australia (begun in 1992), was Kindifarm. As a result of its popularity, many Australians use the term kindy farms to describe petting zoos. In Australia, mobile petting zoos are allowed in schools, child care centres and even shopping centres. For many children, a mobile petting zoo is their first opportunity to see and touch an animal. American mobile petting zoos have gained popularity in the southern states.

Health effects
Touching animals can result in the transmission of diseases between animals and humans (zoonosis) so it is recommended that people should thoroughly wash their hands before and after touching the animals. There have been several outbreaks of E. coli etc. Another threat is salmonella specifically from chicks handled by children. Petting zoo attendees under the age of 5 are at a higher risk of contracting these diseases and they are a major target audience of these petting zoos.

title: Petting zoo


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Emil Zátopek

Emil Zátopek (19 September 1922 – 21 November 2000) was a Czech long-distance runner best known for winning three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He won gold in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres runs, but his final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the first marathon of his life. He was nicknamed the "Czech Locomotive".

In 1954, Zátopek was the first runner to break the 29-minute barrier in the 10,000 metres. Three years earlier in 1951, he had broken the hour for running 20 km. He was considered one of the greatest runners of the 20th century and was also known for his brutally tough training methods. He popularised interval training after World War Two.

In February 2013, the editors at Runner's World Magazine selected him as the Greatest Runner of All Time. He is the only person to win the 5,000 metres (24 July 1952), 10,000 metres (20 July 1952) and Marathon (27 July 1952),  in the same Olympic Games.

Early years
Zátopek was born as the seventh child into a family of modest means. Aged 16, he began working at the Bata shoe factory in Zlín. Zátopek recalled that "One day, the factory sports coach, who was very strict, pointed at four boys, including me, and asked us to run in a race. I protested that I was weak and not fit to run, but the coach sent me for a physical examination, and the doctor said that I was perfectly well. So I had to run, and when I got started, I felt I wanted to win. But I only came in second. That was the way it started." Zátopek finished second in a field of 100. After that, he took up a serious interest in running. He joined a local athletic club where he developed his own training program modeled on what he had read about the great Finnish Olympian Paavo Nurmi.

A mere four years later, in 1944, Zátopek broke the Czechoslovak records for 2,000, 3,000 and 5,000 metres. At the end of the war he joined the Czechoslovak Army, where he was gradually given more time for his gruelling training regimen.

Competitions
Zátopek was selected for the Czechoslovak national team for the 1946 European Championships in Oslo and finished fifth in the 5,000 m in 14:25.8, breaking his own Czechoslovak record of 14:50.2. At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, Zátopek won the 10,000 m and finished second behind Gaston Reiff from Belgium during a driving rainstorm in the 5,000 m.

The following year, Zátopek broke the 10,000 m world record twice, and went on to better his own record three times over the next four seasons. He also set records in the 5,000 m (1954), 20,000 m (twice in 1951), one-hour run (twice in 1951), 25,000 m (1952 and 1955), and 30,000 m (1952). He won the 5,000 m and 10,000 m at the 1950 European Championships and the 10,000 m at the next European Championships, ahead of Jozsef Kovacs and Frank Sando.

At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Zátopek won gold in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m, and the marathon, breaking Olympic records in each event. Zátopek is the only person to win these three long-distance events in the same Olympic games. His victory in the 5,000 m came after a ferocious last lap in 57.5 seconds, during which he went from fourth place to first in the final turn, passing first Alain Mimoun of France, then Herbert Schade of West Germany, and finally Chris Chataway of Great Britain. Zátopek's final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the marathon for the first time in his life, and won. His strategy for the marathon was simple: he raced alongside Jim Peters, the British world-record holder. After a punishing first fifteen kilometres, in which Peters knew he had overtaxed himself, Zátopek asked the Englishman what he thought of the race thus far. The astonished Peters told the Czech that the pace was "too slow," in an attempt to slip up Zátopek, at which point Zátopek simply accelerated. Peters did not finish, while Zátopek won the race and set an Olympic record. Zátopek running in his first Marathon, beat second placed Reinaldo Gorno (Argentina) by 2:01 minutes.

Zátopek attempted to defend his marathon gold medal in 1956; however, he suffered a groin injury while training and was hospitalized for six weeks. He resumed training the day after leaving hospital, but never quite regained his form. He finished sixth in the marathon, which was won by his old rival and friend Alain Mimoun. Zátopek retired from competition in 1957.

Zátopek's running style was distinctive and very much at odds with what was considered to be an efficient style at the time. His head would often roll, face contorted with effort, while his torso swung from side to side. He often wheezed and panted audibly while running, which earned him the nicknames of "Emil the Terrible" or the "Czech Locomotive". When asked about his tortured facial expressions, Zátopek is said to have replied that "It isn't gymnastics or figure skating, you know." In addition he would train in any weather, including snow, and would often do so while wearing heavy work boots as opposed to special running shoes. He was always willing to give advice to other runners. One example he often gave was always to be relaxed and to help ensure that while running, gently touch the tip of your thumb with the tip of your index or middle finger. Just making that slight contact would ensure that arms and shoulders remained relaxed.

Personal life
His wife Dana Zátopková (born the same day and year as her husband) won a gold medal in the javelin throw at the 1952 Olympics, only a few moments after Emil's victory in the 5,000 m; she finished second at the 1960 Olympics. An example of the playful relationship between husband and wife came when Emil attempted to take some credit for his wife's Olympic victory at her press conference, claiming that it was his victory in the 5,000 m that had "inspired" her. Dana's indignant response was, "Really? Okay, go inspire some other girl and see if she throws a javelin fifty metres!".

Zátopek was known for his friendly and gregarious personality and for his ability to speak six languages. He was regularly visited at his home in Prague by international athletes he had befriended at competitions. His British rival Gordon Pirie described his as "the merriest and gayest home I've been in".

Emil and Dana were the witnesses at the wedding ceremony of Olympic gold medalists Olga Fikotová and Harold Connolly in Prague in 1957. Emil had spoken to the Czechoslovak president Antonín Zápotocký to request help in getting national heroine Olga a permit to marry the American Connolly, at the height of the Cold War. While it's not clear how much this helped, they unexpectedly received a permit a few days later.

In 1966, Zátopek hosted the Australian Ron Clarke when he visited Prague for a race. Zátopek knew the bad luck that Clarke had faced; he held many middle-distance track and field world records and had attempted to join his idol in the record books, but had fallen short in winning an Olympic gold medal (he was beaten by Billy Mills in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history). At the end of the visit, Zátopek gave one of his gold medals from the 1952 Olympics to Clarke.

Later years and death
A hero in his native country, Zátopek was an influential figure in the Communist Party. However, he supported the party's democratic wing and, after the 1968 Prague Spring, he was stripped of his rank and expelled from the army and the party, removed from all important positions and forced to work in a string of menial manual labour positions.

He gained employment in one of the few companies not discouraged from employing out-of-favour citizens. The company was "Stavební Geologie", and he was immediately put to work prospecting for natural resources around Bohemia, infrequently being able to visit his wife in Prague. His work in such a field gave rise to the rumour that he had been sent (as many before him were) to the uranium mine concentration camps; however, the camps and the last of the mines had closed many years before. It is also rumoured that Zátopek had a short stint at refuse collection, but was let go as he was unable to complete a round without a horde of citizens insisting on helping him, though no evidence exists of this ever happening.

In 1977, after 5 years of working and living away from his wife and friends, Zátopek's spirit was broken and the communist government, no longer deeming him a threat, allowed him back to Prague with the offer of a further humiliating and menial job in the ČSTV (Czechoslovak Union of Physical Education). As the only option to get back to Prague and his wife, Zátopek accepted the offer. Using his gift as a linguist, the ČSTV put him to work monitoring foreign publications for the latest developments in sports science and training techniques. It was a lowly job shuffling papers in a small office under Strahov stadium. He dutifully served until his retirement in the early 1980s.

On 9 March 1990, Zátopek was rehabilitated by Václav Havel.

Zátopek died in Prague on 21 November 2000 at the age of 78, from the complications of a stroke. His funeral at Prague's National Theatre was crowded with leading figures from the international sports world.

Zátopek was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal (the "True Spirit of Sportsmanship" medal) in 1975. In 2012, he was named among the first twelve athletes to be inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame. A life-size bronze statue of Zátopek was unveiled at the Stadium of Youth in Zlín in September 2014.

In popular culture
The 2021 film Zátopek focuses on his personal life and sports career.

The most prestigious track race in Australia is named after him.

A Bengali novel by Mati Nandi, Naran (নারান), mentioned him as the role model and motivation of the protagonist, a Bengali Hindu refugee from East Pakistan who relocated to Calcutta in 1947 in order to evade the religious onslaught and build up his life again from the scratch.

The song "Czech Locomotive" by Australian psychedelic rock band Pond off of their album 9 is about him.

British punk-rock band Zatopeks chose their name after Emil Zátopek.

title: Emil Zátopek